Never buying rats again!! - Page 3

stephanbakir · 06-29-11, 07:53 PM

I was told that in rats its not overly important to separate the babies from the father because they dont cannibalize, that being said, I'm worried he will attempt to re-breed the female too soon so plan on separating them. The breeder told me that would be unwise because they stress when alone, any truth?

TeaNinja · 06-29-11, 07:59 PM

yea all of that is true. female rats go through what is called postpartum estrus which means they go into heat the same night that they give birth, so if you don't seperate mommy and daddy you will IMMEDIATELY have a knocked up rat, which isn't good because you want to give her a few months to nurse the litter she just had as well as recooperate and build some more nutrients before having another litter and making more milk.

and it's good to at least keep rats in pairs because they are very social and like friends to rough house

my friend has had a male rat for like a year or something that he bought for his RTB as a feeder then his snake died for some unknown reason. he's had it alone the whole time and its fat as hell. i aquait it to him being in a small cage with too little excersize and eating too much food and not having any other rats to play with.

stephanbakir · 06-29-11, 08:02 PM

So, should I keep the male alone with the weaned rats that are growing (males) and females in the giant thing? I've got an extra 80 gallon tank I'm not using so that should house the males till I can find a cage type environment for them aswel. Or I can try to build a divider in the giant thing?

TeaNinja · 06-29-11, 08:07 PM

i just house my mom rat, the black female from the first litter and babies together in the smaller breeding cage and i house the 2 males in the big cage. once the guy rats are big enough to not escape the big cage then they can live in there until they become f/t or i sell them to pet stores. then i repeat the process.

here's fatty mom the day before she popped.

if you have questions when you start breeding, just pm me or nenna or wayne. i got all my info from nenna and wayne when i first started breeding the rats.

stephanbakir · 06-29-11, 08:10 PM

My cage looks just like a larger version of yours with bigger doors and a metal base.
It also has no shelves.

TeaNinja · 06-29-11, 08:14 PM

if the bars are around the same space apart, you definetly need to have something different for when she gives birth. the moment those pups hit 2 weeks+ and open their eyes and start running around like crazy, they can Easily just walk through there.

rats are interesting because they can jump like 2+ feet straight in the air, they can squeeze through super small holes and they are surprisingly smart. whenever i come in my room and start eating stuff the rats start going crazy until i feed them some. i'll hold scraps outside the cage and they reach out with their little hands and grab stuff, it's halarious.

not to mention sometime's they brawl over food lol. it's funny to watch rats tug of war'ing a wheat thin. then i just give the loser his own lol.

stephanbakir · 06-29-11, 08:17 PM

I hope to god the cat can't find a way in, the doors have locks and springs that hold em shut.

TeaNinja · 06-29-11, 08:27 PM

my dog will lay in front of the rat cages for hours. she's sooooo interested in the rats. theres something about the squeaking and jumping around of rat babies that intrigues her lol. i came home one day and she had nudged the rat cage like 4 feet across the floor with her nose. she doesn't want to chomp them, i think she just wants to play. not to mention the rats are smart and know she can't get to her, so they climb up the walls of the cage and tease her lol.

sometimes i take the rats out and put them on the dogs back for a few seconds to walk around on her lol. the dog walks around and looks behind her like "O.O wtf is on me???" lol

stephanbakir · 06-29-11, 08:28 PM

Sounds like I'm going to enjoy this lol.
I used to breed gerbils, and degus but I was too young to remember much of it.

NennaMeerkat · 06-29-11, 10:20 PM

Stephan there is something so much fun about breeding rats and mice. That is why Tea (and myself back when I bred) have so much trouble killing the babies! You honestly fall in love with their personalities. Its even harder when you have a rat that just wants to be with you and loves attention.

marionsclan · 06-29-11, 11:20 PM

I used to own pet rats and my last one was a Dumbo girl. Such soft fur and so sweet. She would always give me kisses when I took her out. But now I am considering breeding my own food because it is so hard to get a hold of decent live rats around here.

TeaNinja mentioned selling them to pet stores. Is that easy to do or do big chains have their own suppliers?

NennaMeerkat · 06-29-11, 11:26 PM

Big chains ALWAYS have their own suppliers and usually will not even consider batting an eye at local people wanting to sell them their rats and such.

KD35WIN.AS.ONE · 06-29-11, 11:53 PM

I would try to breed Rats/Rabbits as feeders but i cant keep them inside they smell to bad if you dont constantly clean, and i dont like constantly cleaning lol thats why i love snakes.

TeaNinja · 06-30-11, 01:13 AM

i lucked out in that i have a local pet store willing to buy my pups for the same price they buy from their wholesaler.

as for the smell inside, i have my rats in my room. i change my rats bedding every 2 or 3 weeks. closer to every week or 2 for the small cage with all the babies and the mom and girl just because they are eating and drinking more and there are just more of them in general pissin' it up.

stephen another thing to think about, 2 rats don't eat ALL that much, but a pregnant rat that then turns 2 into 14 or 18 eats a lot. not to mention once they hit 2 weeks and open their eyes they will start munching on the solid food also. you start to go through a lot of rat food. for months i was buying bags of rat foor for likt 6-8$ a bag and it would only last a week or so and i always kept hearing nenna saying you can just feed them dog food so i just started giving them all my dogs food the last month lol. i still give them all random goodies of veggies and fruits and crackers and stuff every now and then.

KD35WIN.AS.ONE · 06-30-11, 01:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TeaNinja

i lucked out in that i have a local pet store willing to buy my pups for the same price they buy from their wholesaler.

as for the smell inside, i have my rats in my room. i change my rats bedding every 2 or 3 weeks. closer to every week or 2 for the small cage with all the babies and the mom and girl just because they are eating and drinking more and there are just more of them in general pissin' it up.

I must have been doing it wrong, cause those guys smelled like ****. hahah but i used newspaper, not real bedding must have been my mistake.