Couple questions on rat breeding.
[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ The Feeder Forum ]
Posted by nodaksnakelover on April 05, 2003 at 12:45:10:
Here's the situation,
I've bred mice before, always just picked out a trio of younsters and let them grow up together and breed and babies start coming in two months. Now my rats, were picked up from a gal I sold a couple corn snakes to. She had some pretty blue hooded rats so I picked out a trio and brought them home. All three were scared and nervous and only the male has settled down some. Anyhow, they had their first babies. The first female I never even knew was pregnant. She had two, as far as I know, and takes good care of them. The second female was a week behind and got huge but only found two babies from her, also being well taken care of. Questions, the older two babies are female, should I raise them up to a certain age before breeding them to a male at all? I plan to handle the babies a lot, at what age can I safely wean them and start this so they are tame rather than wild like their parents? I'm hoping the wild female's second litters are larger. I'm assuming the second female ate most of her litter keeping just the two, I'm chalking that up to her extereme nervousness. Sad to see rats so nervous! Though they too seem to be getting better. Thanks for any info given!
Russell Keys
Follow Ups:
