Not sure what to do with this rat

[WingedWolf]

Yep, keep her for a later day. As has been said, put her in the back of the freezer, where she'll stay nice and cold, tightly packed. She'll be good for 2 years. Either your BP can take her, or you'll have something else that can, by then.

Heck you could even cut her up (somewhat gruesome) for a monitor lizard. If she was mine, that's what I would do.

[kam_herp_hut]

Just curious, as a breeder of rats (for both pets and food for my snakes), I have encountered only one biter.
But what I am wondering, do the rat breeders here harem breed? Or do they rotate and extend the breeding life of their rats? Just curious as a harem bred rat usually doesn't last long, and is usually always on the defence. I have seen rotated breeders last for a good 3+ years, alway throwing large litters.
Anyways, I was just curious what people here do.

~Tara

[Auskan]

I think most people here breed continuously. I don't have such a huge need of feeder rats so my rats actually get good breaks between litters. I also have both pets and feeder rats. My pets (2 females - a russian blue dumbo and a beige hooded top-eared) are kept separately most of the time. I just put them in with the other three this weekend as I am ready to get a litter out of each of them but it will be their first litter each and they will definitely not be bred continuously. The other 3 are really purely breeders, but two of them are just as sweet as my pet rats and I can do anything with them. The only problem is this one biter. I got her as an adult with a litter of 3 week olds with her, which I fed off. She was also pregnant and had another litter 4 days after I adopted her (they were given to me). She has basically been a biter from day one, which I'm sure is why she was given away However although the male is in with her continuously, she doesn't seem to breed continuously. I don't know if she is not very fertile or just old, but her most recent litter was born nine weeks after her last litter, even though they're together all the time.

[sapphire_moon]

I harem breed, but I haven't had my males in with the females for over 2 months as I don't need that many rats right now. Also I don't think to many feeder breeders are going to last long because alot of people allow them to have only so many litters then rotate to a new female from an existing litter.

[justinO]

LOL @ the responses...

We used to have 1.2 breeders, that we got from a pet store and we think that blood line is unusually vicious.... the one died in labour and was a nutricious meal for the monitor, the other did flying dives to bite us!

So the other we wanted to kill SO BADLY, but she's a great mother and even better wet nurse..... when we got 10 other females, a few of them wouldn't take care of their babies and the mean one took anything we gave her and nursed them.

IF you want to keep her as a breeder, like we did with ours, we are just very careful now and make sure never to give the opportunity to bite, always grabbing by the tail and take the babies out with hemostats!

But, if you don't have a cage or situation to avoid getting bit, "the law" (a big cement brick we use as a slaughter block) is calling her...... get whacking!

:hammer: :hammer: :hammer: :hammer: :hammer: :hammer: :hammer: :hammer: :hammer: :hammer:

heh

[sapphire_moon]

Oh I know the "want to kill her" feeling. Our beige rat took flying leaps to attack us as well. I want atleast 1-2 more litters from her, then it's the snake's belly!

[Lisa]

Some times you have a rat that you just can't work with (just like some people). With rats you have a couple choices, and offing them is one of them. I've had a rat that didn't get along with other rats or me, it's in the freezer right now.