Under construction =)
Here is an informative post by a blogger on Tumblr named frankenwats!
Do you want to breed your rats? I get a lot of inquiries from people wanting to have a go at breeding their rats whether they be pets, or purchased for the purpose. So I thought today Id write a piece on getting started if you feel you would like to breed your rats.
Before you decide to breed
There are a few things you should consider before you breed your rats, and they might seem obvious but often people don't really think about it.
As a breeder you have to consider what to do with the babies once you have them. Some breeders are happy to do culls of sick animals and sell the rest as pets, others aren't. Some area’s lots of people want rats and you will have little trouble selling them or re-homing them, but in other area’s there is a saturation of breeders and re-homing animals can be much harder. So do some research on your area. Of course you might be more than happy to keep all your babies! (which can be anything from 1 to 15 or so! but generally the average is around 8)
The older your females are, the higher the risk of having complications with the pregnancy. Time and time again I see breeders having their first litters when their girls are around 12 months old. I disagree with this because the females body doesn't handle the pregnancy as well and she will recover a lot more slowly. So you really need to consider breeding your girls when they are young and healthy, and will bounce back right away. This also goes through to the babies. the younger and healthier a female is, the healthier her babies are going to be.
What age can I breed my girl?
Rats reach sexual maturity at 4 weeks of age however you will find they wont breed until they are at least somewhere between 6 and 12 weeks (more often around the 9 week mark from my experience) Not all females should be bred so young and so you need to take into account the overall size and health of your female. A smaller framed female you would be inclined to not breed until she is around maybe 14 weeks, but under 6 months. Doing this will reduce even further the risk of complications.
How do I know what I'm going to get?
For Australians Sunshine rattery has an absolutely wonderful litter predictor. You can find it at www.sunshinerats.com
With experience you will get better at understanding genetics and what your rat carries. Sometimes you can make assumptions about what a given rat carries genetically eg: moult caps, face markings, eye dilutes. Other times if you have bred the rat yourself then you are going to know what they carry with a reasonable amount of certainty.
To cull or not to cull
Culling can be a real sore point with many breeders, but its something that should be considered with all seriousness. This is a moral question with absolutely no right or wrong answer, so its entirely up to you whether you feel that it would be a good thing for your colony or a needless one.
The most important part is culling the right way. There are methods of culling that are humane and cause the animal little to no stress. For more info on proper culling methods you can have a look through the ‘feeder’ section on the RatNation forums (www.theratnation.com)
Basically at the end of the day I can give you my opinion and experience with this. Its important to remember that I absolutely love my rats to bits, but at the end of the day I'm a scientist, I grew up on a farm, and I understand that suffering animals should be dealt with in a humane way, and everything has to eat!
If you decide that you would like to provide some of your sick or surplus animals as reptile food then that's great! reptiles are beautiful animals too and they have to eat (its unfortunate that they like to eat other animals we consider cute fuzzy pets!) absolutely never under ANY circumstances allow live feeding! It is inhumane to both the reptile and the rat. IF you decide to use some of your rats for feeding then make sure they are been culled in a safe and humane way. I have some rats who are in my freezer waiting to be buried with other family pets because they are very precious, but as a general rule i don't like waste and my loss can mean that another lovely animal can benefit from the nutrients of another.
I sell a large amount of rats to pet homes and the last thing in the world I would want to do is sell sick or low quality animals to someone. Its heartbreaking when your pet struggles with infection its entire life and Id never do that to someone. If its not good enough for me to want to keep and breed then its not good enough for someones pet. Personally I 100% condone the culling of sick animals, because the alternative is selling someone a sick animal that will break their hearts when they die and or suffer over a period of time which is in my personal opinion, cruel.
There is of course a way to avoid this situation completely and that's to pick from your healthiest animals for breeding!
So they are in together…what now?
Despite popular opinion rats can be a little hard to breed. They aren't energizer bunnies and Ive known boys to be in with girls for a month and still nothing! under normal circumstances if you leave your pair in together for 10 days you can be reasonably sure she will be pregnant. rats come into heat about once a week.You will be able to tell when your female is in heat because she will arch her back and ‘duck’ when you touch her back and maybe if you're lucky you will see her vibrate her ears which to a male rat is just the sexiest thing in the world!
Sometimes (which is my personal method) you can leave the female in with the male until she begins to show signs of being pregnant. usually it will become obvious around the end of two weeks. Gestation period is around three weeks. To be exact it is around the 21 day mark.
Birthing
The majority of the time giving birth happens reasonably quickly and probably at around 3 in the morning! More often than not my girls end up giving birth during the wee hours of the morning. You can tell when a female is getting very close because she will start ‘nesting’ this behavior becomes very obvious with experience. You will notice your girl building a nice big nest and sitting in it. This is why its important to give your female nesting materials like tissues and shredded paper. If you like the more natural approach some meadow grass is great! It should generally take your girl about half an hour to give birth, but nesting and bleeding for prolonged periods with still no sign of babies can be a sure sign that something is up. A trip the the vet in these situations is probably necessary. Its important to note that birthing complications in females bred at the right age are very rare, but increase the older your female gets and also depending on how many litters she has had previously. A female having her first litter at 12 months of age is quite rankly a recipe for disaster and could result in you losing a very much loved pet.
What do I do with dad?
I don't see this answered or approached very often, and its the question as to whether dad should stay in with mum and the bubs. For first timers Id say that your girl should probably be in a nice cosy tub on her own with her bubs. Sometimes the nicest male pet can be paternally aggressive and could injure the babies. Personally my males are all fantastic companions and the Velours in particular stay in with the girls. My velours are just great I can put them in with a litter from any female or male and they couldn't care less!
It can be super cute seeing the pair in together caring for the babies but there are risks if you do not know your males or your line well. here have a cute picture of my velour boy Cathode nesting on some babies for mum!
*see below for image =) *
After the babies are safely born everything is fun and watching them grow. Its a popular opinion that rats are lactose intolerant. This is not true. And animal that is ‘lactose intolerant’ lacks the enzyme lactase which is responsible for breaking down lactose. mammals are born with the ability to digest lactose however if they are not exposed to lactose for a long time as they get older it does become harder for their bodies to deal with it. Allowing your rats to ingest foods containing lactose in small amounts regularly is absolutely fine and will not harm them. When it comes to giving your baby rats something extra along side mums milk steer away from the popular soy products. They are not very nutritious and do not contain the fats and calories that a growing baby needs. rats are just like people, and some good quality infant formula designed for people will help them out greatly if watered down. If you do see your babies are having issues with getting the runs, then switching to a lactose free or reduced formula designed for humans is great!
Before you decide to breed
There are a few things you should consider before you breed your rats, and they might seem obvious but often people don't really think about it.
As a breeder you have to consider what to do with the babies once you have them. Some breeders are happy to do culls of sick animals and sell the rest as pets, others aren't. Some area’s lots of people want rats and you will have little trouble selling them or re-homing them, but in other area’s there is a saturation of breeders and re-homing animals can be much harder. So do some research on your area. Of course you might be more than happy to keep all your babies! (which can be anything from 1 to 15 or so! but generally the average is around 8)
The older your females are, the higher the risk of having complications with the pregnancy. Time and time again I see breeders having their first litters when their girls are around 12 months old. I disagree with this because the females body doesn't handle the pregnancy as well and she will recover a lot more slowly. So you really need to consider breeding your girls when they are young and healthy, and will bounce back right away. This also goes through to the babies. the younger and healthier a female is, the healthier her babies are going to be.
What age can I breed my girl?
Rats reach sexual maturity at 4 weeks of age however you will find they wont breed until they are at least somewhere between 6 and 12 weeks (more often around the 9 week mark from my experience) Not all females should be bred so young and so you need to take into account the overall size and health of your female. A smaller framed female you would be inclined to not breed until she is around maybe 14 weeks, but under 6 months. Doing this will reduce even further the risk of complications.
How do I know what I'm going to get?
For Australians Sunshine rattery has an absolutely wonderful litter predictor. You can find it at www.sunshinerats.com
With experience you will get better at understanding genetics and what your rat carries. Sometimes you can make assumptions about what a given rat carries genetically eg: moult caps, face markings, eye dilutes. Other times if you have bred the rat yourself then you are going to know what they carry with a reasonable amount of certainty.
To cull or not to cull
Culling can be a real sore point with many breeders, but its something that should be considered with all seriousness. This is a moral question with absolutely no right or wrong answer, so its entirely up to you whether you feel that it would be a good thing for your colony or a needless one.
The most important part is culling the right way. There are methods of culling that are humane and cause the animal little to no stress. For more info on proper culling methods you can have a look through the ‘feeder’ section on the RatNation forums (www.theratnation.com)
Basically at the end of the day I can give you my opinion and experience with this. Its important to remember that I absolutely love my rats to bits, but at the end of the day I'm a scientist, I grew up on a farm, and I understand that suffering animals should be dealt with in a humane way, and everything has to eat!
If you decide that you would like to provide some of your sick or surplus animals as reptile food then that's great! reptiles are beautiful animals too and they have to eat (its unfortunate that they like to eat other animals we consider cute fuzzy pets!) absolutely never under ANY circumstances allow live feeding! It is inhumane to both the reptile and the rat. IF you decide to use some of your rats for feeding then make sure they are been culled in a safe and humane way. I have some rats who are in my freezer waiting to be buried with other family pets because they are very precious, but as a general rule i don't like waste and my loss can mean that another lovely animal can benefit from the nutrients of another.
I sell a large amount of rats to pet homes and the last thing in the world I would want to do is sell sick or low quality animals to someone. Its heartbreaking when your pet struggles with infection its entire life and Id never do that to someone. If its not good enough for me to want to keep and breed then its not good enough for someones pet. Personally I 100% condone the culling of sick animals, because the alternative is selling someone a sick animal that will break their hearts when they die and or suffer over a period of time which is in my personal opinion, cruel.
There is of course a way to avoid this situation completely and that's to pick from your healthiest animals for breeding!
So they are in together…what now?
Despite popular opinion rats can be a little hard to breed. They aren't energizer bunnies and Ive known boys to be in with girls for a month and still nothing! under normal circumstances if you leave your pair in together for 10 days you can be reasonably sure she will be pregnant. rats come into heat about once a week.You will be able to tell when your female is in heat because she will arch her back and ‘duck’ when you touch her back and maybe if you're lucky you will see her vibrate her ears which to a male rat is just the sexiest thing in the world!
Sometimes (which is my personal method) you can leave the female in with the male until she begins to show signs of being pregnant. usually it will become obvious around the end of two weeks. Gestation period is around three weeks. To be exact it is around the 21 day mark.
Birthing
The majority of the time giving birth happens reasonably quickly and probably at around 3 in the morning! More often than not my girls end up giving birth during the wee hours of the morning. You can tell when a female is getting very close because she will start ‘nesting’ this behavior becomes very obvious with experience. You will notice your girl building a nice big nest and sitting in it. This is why its important to give your female nesting materials like tissues and shredded paper. If you like the more natural approach some meadow grass is great! It should generally take your girl about half an hour to give birth, but nesting and bleeding for prolonged periods with still no sign of babies can be a sure sign that something is up. A trip the the vet in these situations is probably necessary. Its important to note that birthing complications in females bred at the right age are very rare, but increase the older your female gets and also depending on how many litters she has had previously. A female having her first litter at 12 months of age is quite rankly a recipe for disaster and could result in you losing a very much loved pet.
What do I do with dad?
I don't see this answered or approached very often, and its the question as to whether dad should stay in with mum and the bubs. For first timers Id say that your girl should probably be in a nice cosy tub on her own with her bubs. Sometimes the nicest male pet can be paternally aggressive and could injure the babies. Personally my males are all fantastic companions and the Velours in particular stay in with the girls. My velours are just great I can put them in with a litter from any female or male and they couldn't care less!
It can be super cute seeing the pair in together caring for the babies but there are risks if you do not know your males or your line well. here have a cute picture of my velour boy Cathode nesting on some babies for mum!
*see below for image =) *
After the babies are safely born everything is fun and watching them grow. Its a popular opinion that rats are lactose intolerant. This is not true. And animal that is ‘lactose intolerant’ lacks the enzyme lactase which is responsible for breaking down lactose. mammals are born with the ability to digest lactose however if they are not exposed to lactose for a long time as they get older it does become harder for their bodies to deal with it. Allowing your rats to ingest foods containing lactose in small amounts regularly is absolutely fine and will not harm them. When it comes to giving your baby rats something extra along side mums milk steer away from the popular soy products. They are not very nutritious and do not contain the fats and calories that a growing baby needs. rats are just like people, and some good quality infant formula designed for people will help them out greatly if watered down. If you do see your babies are having issues with getting the runs, then switching to a lactose free or reduced formula designed for humans is great!
Want to predict your litters or learn just more in general about your rats?
http://sunshinerats.com/
Check out this site =)
Just keep in mind that this is an Australian based rattery and they do not necessarily have the same colors, or type of rats etc as the North American Rat Registry has listed or allows.
http://sunshinerats.com/
Check out this site =)
Just keep in mind that this is an Australian based rattery and they do not necessarily have the same colors, or type of rats etc as the North American Rat Registry has listed or allows.