rats

[dogmandango]

is ther any web sites books or any thing i can see what type all my rats are i have so many diffrent veriations in colour and hair less semi haired ect

i produced some hair lell but dont know who mated with who lol and i have had some tail less rats come out but again do not know who mated with who

so any were i can see what i have would be great

thanksall the best dmd

[Horatio]

National Fancy Rat Society or Hawthorn Rat Varieties

[LisaLQ]

How can you not know who mated with who? Do you keep them all in together?

[Horatio]

Originally Posted by LisaLQ

How can you not know who mated with who? Do you keep them all in together?

Had kind of not properly read the post when I put the links up. jeez!

[dogmandango]

Originally Posted by LisaLQ

How can you not know who mated with who? Do you keep them all in together?

if its any of your business with its not i have started breeding rats and produceing 400 plus a month and yes i keep 8 does with one buck and as they get kleened out i put the pregnet does in the rearing tubs and then top up the breeding tub with does from other tubs so no i do not know who mated who i dont just have 2 or 3 rats i have at the moment around 80000

so keep you opinions to your self

[saxon]

Originally Posted by dogmandango

if its any of your business with its not i have started breeding rats and produceing 400 plus a month and yes i keep 8 does with one buck and as they get kleened out i put the pregnet does in the rearing tubs and then top up the breeding tub with does from other tubs so no i do not know who mated who i dont just have 2 or 3 rats i have at the moment around 80000

so keep you opinions to your self

I have a lot of rats that I breed, not to that extent though, but I keep records using 'kintraks' for each mating.

Even if I did have so many and keep 8.1, which I think is too many by the way, I'd have records of when each doe went in with which buck and when she was taken out and into which birthing box she went.

You must have a bloody warehouse full to have 80000

I dont' usually comment on this type of thread but damn it why ask for opinions if all you are doing is farm breeding???

I hae 25 breeding rats of which only 15 are does.

[Marcia]

Originally Posted by dogmandango

if its any of your business with its not i have started breeding rats and produceing 400 plus a month and yes i keep 8 does with one buck and as they get kleened out i put the pregnet does in the rearing tubs and then top up the breeding tub with does from other tubs so no i do not know who mated who i dont just have 2 or 3 rats i have at the moment around 80000

so keep you opinions to your self

Bloody hell!!!!
I have to agree with Saxon, that sounds like farm breeding to me.
Why breed so many? Are you supplying pet stores? Food for reptiles?

And before you say that it's none of my buisness, the mark of a good, responsible breeder is to answer these sorts of questions.

[Ssthisto]

Originally Posted by dogmandango

if its any of your business with its not i have started breeding rats and produceing 400 plus a month and yes i keep 8 does with one buck and as they get kleened out i put the pregnet does in the rearing tubs and then top up the breeding tub with does from other tubs so no i do not know who mated who i dont just have 2 or 3 rats i have at the moment around 80000

With that many rats, you may find it difficult to work out who's been bred to who unless you keep photographic cage cards referring to each female and note down what that female's produced, and what male cage she came out of when you moved her.

I'd do something like:

Photo - Text Description of colour - animal reference number
Male Cage Number - Date of littering - Number of babies, colours in litter
And do that for each time you swap her into a new male's cage.

So you might have:

(picture) - Agouti Hooded Doe BH001
Cage 26 - 11/11/09 - 8 babies - all agouti hooded, 1 hairless

That sort of records would tell you that the male in cage 26 is het for hairless, and the female hooded is also.

Of course, your other option with that many rats would be to always breed like to like - if you've got a blue dumbo male, put only blue dumbo females in with him - so that you have predictable results, and anything unusual that comes from a group that has predictable results can be noted down on the male's cage card (for example, if you had blue dumbos, and one of the blue dumbo females threw a white baby who later developed dark blue points, you know that your blue dumbo male is carrying Siamese and so is the female who had the baby)

[dogmandango]

the reson i asked is because i get a huge veriaty of rats comeing out and if i could sell a few cheap to people that would pay for some of the food bill

i breed my rats for my own use to feed my hawks witch i have a lot of my kookaburas my ferrets my myna birds love pinkys

i grow my rats on to 4 to 9 weeks depending on the size i need

the main breeding i would like to find out is the tail less i have a litter and 5 have no tails

[Ssthisto]

That could be a birth defect or a problem with "overgrooming" rather than the tailless trait - if you want to track it down, you'll definitely have to start keeping some hard-copy records that follow each rodent around.

Not that the tailless trait does the rats any favours, mind you - it can cause deformities in the spine, pelvis and lower intestine if it's too extreme.

Out of curiosity - and feel free to PM me if you prefer not to say on the open forum - what sort of cages do you use that can comfortably hold nine adult rats?