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29-12-2007, 10:58 AM
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Are you getting these rats just to breed for food? I am not sure how many snakes you have, but rats can have about 19 babies (usually less) at a time, so you might want to keep the male and female rats seperately until you actually want to get some pups. They won't stop breeding unless you control it.
Wooden cages are generally not great for rats...when they pee...they pee. it gets everywhere, the wood might end up smelling awful and be hard to clean. I would recommend a freddy or a jenny cage. If you do keep the males and females apart, i would have 2.2 as rats really like company. For breeding, you could just stick a male and a female in a temporary cage and when she is pregnant, remove the male and lete her have her kits on her own. hth Anna
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29-12-2007, 04:12 PM
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Hi Tom,
As I said before I did have mine 2.2 in one RUB but as it got overcrowded I seperated the males and females. If left 'to it' they have the propensity to reproduce every 23-28 days. This is way too often unless you are going to take the pinks out when they are born. If the female has to rear each litter, even for just a couple of weeks, it takes too much out of them. One of mine was mated straight after giving birth. She subsequently lost the whole second litter even though I weaned the first one at 4 weeks. I've now decided to just mate them when I need some more food for the freezer. Mine are averaging 10-15 in a litter. They make excellent pets though so you have fun with them when they aren't breeding as well. Here's a pic of my RUB's I keep them in when breeding. It is a 64ltr and I keep two rats in each. I then tranport the babies into another 64ltr when they are weaned.  Also one of my 'playground' cage that I am waiting for shelves etc for. I intend to give each group of rats a couple of days in here each week. 
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Sax Got too many to mention!!!!!! I have nearly all my information on my site now. There are rat and hamster litters and pics of the ones I have. http://nimbusstud.weebly.com/our-hamsters.html Last edited by saxon; 29-12-2007 at 04:22 PM..
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29-12-2007, 06:11 PM
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So long as they are out and about a couple of times a day they could.
You have to think though that if there is a disagreement then there is nowhere for them to get out of the way of each other. It would be like you living 24/7 in a box bedroom otherwise.  Breeders tend to keep their rodents differently than pet keepers. I am trying to get a nice economical inbetween for my lot. I try to give them an 'adequate' living area with a 'playtime' so they have a run around. I know that some breeders keep their stock in cages that I personally don't think are big enough. Although the ones I've seen have been in good condition. I supose if they haven't known anything else they will be quite happy!!!!!
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Sax Got too many to mention!!!!!! I have nearly all my information on my site now. There are rat and hamster litters and pics of the ones I have. http://nimbusstud.weebly.com/our-hamsters.html
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29-12-2007, 06:41 PM
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they like to take care of one another tho. mine will clean each other as well as communicate, play wrestle and fight, take food to one another etc. through mesh they can't do any of that.
N as you've only got one snake i still think it might be a daft idea breeding for food, even tho u said you'd sell the babies on here etc. They can have huge litters, so be warned hun
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