# Finally!... Rat Babies!... Now What?



## cbarnes1987 (Feb 2, 2010)

This is my first attempt at rat breeding so any advice is welcome. I bred mice before this but i lost loads to cannibalism despite attempting all nesessary motions to prevent this (like leaving the new mother alone for as long as possible and keeping her fully fed and watered). So after a donation from a snake mate i aquired 1:3 rats about 6 weeks of age. I keep them in a mesh lidded 64L rub, with a box to mutilate and live in. All very happy (not anthropomorphically correct i know). So this morn i noticed a squeeky rub and shazam! Long awaited rat babies! The plan is to keep my 4 as i dont own a snake big enough to need large rats but any babies are snake fodder.
Bit longwinded i know but...
Shud i remove the 1:2 remaining rats to leave her in peace? (i have a spare 64L rub)


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## eightball (Jan 1, 2011)

good mate, i remember i started off with 1:1 it was the worst idea in the world lol took about half a year to get a suitable amount of breeding females for me haha

you can always leave the others in as theyre not likely to be a harm to her (sometimes they can interrupt etc expecially the male),

ive noticed, some females will have their babies then the other female has their babies and theyll end up in the same nest, and because of that, only 1 of the does will feed the babies, obviously the doe can only provide for a certain amount of babies so the others die, 

so what i tend to do is, if i can ill seperate them so this doesnt happen, but if i dont have space then shell be left with another female or 2 and hope it doesnt happen, i never leave the male in as hes always moving from 1 tub to another

if you happen to find out that theres babies not being fed by the doe, you can take the ones thats not being fed out (you can see if theres milk in the belly) and you can put it with a female with litter about the same age and the other female will start feeding them ive never had a problem with this, i do this aswel when 1 mum has 5 babies prehaps and another has 14 babies for example, take a few out and put them with the mum with 5 babies so theyre all able to be fed with no problems :2thumb:

how many snakes are you breeding rats for?


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## eightball (Jan 1, 2011)

also i think its another good point to make, people say that the rats will kill their babies if you open the cage and look or are in the same room as them banging around, this is unlikely, ive never EVER had it happen, the odd few times the mum will pick her babies up and just move them which isnt a good thing but i wouldnt be too worried about not disturbing them :2thumb:


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## cbarnes1987 (Feb 2, 2010)

Cheers bud, very concise lol. My royals on rats, my corn and hog will take v small rats and my false water is growing so fast il be needing 2 rats a week for her soon. Iv just started uni at the same time as moving into a 3bed house in need of a full re-dec, so money for foods would be an issue if my collection was bigger, plus i only just have time for the snakes between studying and decorating. So with a free (ish) food source theres less to stop me getting new snakes (poss dwarf retic, bci or male fwc) lol


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## eightball (Jan 1, 2011)

haha good stuff,

whatever you do, make sure theyve got nothing to chew on is very good advice lol theyll be out before you know it, 

i had 5 escape the other day (plus another but i caught it straight away) there was a 2/3mm ridge at the bottom of the rub and they managed to chew it ever so slowly and managed to get out, spent about 4/5 hours trying to get them, they managed to get down the apex of the attic and couldnt get them out because of the way the roof was structured i cudnt just take the wood off, i found them nested in the insulation the next morning and caught them all


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## blobby (Nov 6, 2006)

*breeder fedder rats*

i have 50 breeders and keep them all in glass tanks in racks as its warmer in winter no drafts easy to clean,cost £10 a week to feed and breed all through winter i get about 50 too70 rats aweek i also have hairless and have made a fortune in the 18 i have been breeding them 
:no1:i am selling all my breeding stock ,and thier young HAIRED AND HAIRLESS ,due to unforseen ill health, there is 8 racks, with 2 tanks on each rack,with 2 female and a male in each tank,so one complete rack concists of,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 1 rack 2 tanks,4 female and 2 male rats=£50, two tanks are 5 foot they will be £65 the pair with rack, as they will be 3 fem one male in,each tank, IF YOU WANT A BARGAIN BUY THE LOT FOR £250 :no1: PS HAVE MADE A FORTUNE WITH THE HAIRLESS AND SPECIAL HAIRED ONES IN THE LAST 18 MONTHS:flrt:


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## Spiff (Dec 3, 2010)

i lost quite a load of babys in the first litter i had? i only had 2 females in with the babys but almost half of them had gone?

When they give birth how to you manage with cleaning the tubs? i just changed the tubs as normal and picked the babys up and put them in another clean tub? do you think that this could have been a factor? if so how would i clean them out every week?


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## eightball (Jan 1, 2011)

Spiff said:


> i lost quite a load of babys in the first litter i had? i only had 2 females in with the babys but almost half of them had gone?
> 
> When they give birth how to you manage with cleaning the tubs? i just changed the tubs as normal and picked the babys up and put them in another clean tub? do you think that this could have been a factor? if so how would i clean them out every week?


i dont clean them when theyve got babies, big breeders dont clean their cages atall by the smell of things when you make an order :devil: its like theyre swimming in p*ss

the babies could have died due to one of the mums not feeding the babies, as with 2 mums in 1 rub, ive noticed they all get put into 1 nest and only 1 mum feeds, obviously 1 mum cant feed 2 mums babies as well as she would just her own, i guess its probably one of the mums being more dominant than the other?

i dont know, but if i see more than 10babies each mum anyway i usually tend to cull and freeze the pinkies who arent fed as well to save them going to waste :2thumb:


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## Spiff (Dec 3, 2010)

eightball said:


> i dont clean them when theyve got babies, big breeders dont clean their cages atall by the smell of things when you make an order :devil: its like theyre swimming in p*ss
> 
> the babies could have died due to one of the mums not feeding the babies, as with 2 mums in 1 rub, ive noticed they all get put into 1 nest and only 1 mum feeds, obviously 1 mum cant feed 2 mums babies as well as she would just her own, i guess its probably one of the mums being more dominant than the other?
> 
> i dont know, but if i see more than 10babies each mum anyway i usually tend to cull and freeze the pinkies who arent fed as well to save them going to waste :2thumb:


Thats good to know! do you leave them till they are weaned before cleaning then?


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## eightball (Jan 1, 2011)

Spiff said:


> Thats good to know! do you leave them till they are weaned before cleaning then?


i have snakes at all different sizes so the food sizes are different so when theyre removed etc depends, i only clean every 2 weeks or so anyway, the smells not bad really

when i do clean though, if theres babies in there ill just leave them and clean them 2 weeks later kind of thing, with first time mums theyre more likely to kill their babies if you disturb them, after theyre more used to you disturbing while theyve got babies they wont kill them or move them etc ive NEVER had babies purposly killed by the mother as far as im aware of because of disturbing but ive noticed the first time mums move the babies round more than the older mums for example :2thumb:


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## Spiff (Dec 3, 2010)

thats good to know! at the moment me and my friend are breeding for our snakes and we have to have a large variation of sizes also so it just planning now as he has a few snakes that will take small to meduim rats and i have one that will take small rats but the rest are on small-large weaners and some on mice pinkys and large mice so at the moment we have enought small-meduim rats to last a month and small to medium weaner rats we are growing at the moment so the next few litters will have to be grown on for a while i think?

also going to have to get a breeding pair of mice this month aswell i think!


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## eightball (Jan 1, 2011)

i got a pair of "breeding mice" a while ago and they wont bloody breed :bash: the fella was sure he gave me a male but i dont see any with any male parts :whistling2:


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## Spiff (Dec 3, 2010)

Been offered a breeding paid of multis so gona give them a go i think!


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## angie69 (Mar 20, 2011)

Spiff said:


> Been offered a breeding paid of multis so gona give them a go i think!


 multis breed like mad they r best in a trio 2 females to 1 male


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## Spiff (Dec 3, 2010)

angie69 said:


> multis breed like mad they r best in a trio 2 females to 1 male


Thats how ive got em at the moment! Been told they can breed every 16 days? Is that true?


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## angie69 (Mar 20, 2011)

no they breed every 21 to 26 days had my first lot on 12 nov and shes just had her 2nd lot today another 10 lol she had 10 last time but i know my 2nd female is due in about 2 days cos thats what happened last time lol do u have them in a glass tanks cos the babies can get throught wire and they r fully weaned by 3 wks


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## Spiff (Dec 3, 2010)

In a tub at the moment but getting a tank on the weekend!


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## angie69 (Mar 20, 2011)

u will need 1 as babies r tiny and before u know it they r running around they also jump and climb lol somepeople say they can b nippy but i dont have a prob with that even when i check new borns they r fine


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