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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Jan 28, 2009 22:53:31 GMT -5
I'm having an issue... If you had read my rodent breeding thread, you might remember that my first litter of baby rats arrived a little over two weeks ago. There are healthy beautiful babbies; 8 males and 1 female. The problem is... I love them and they are absolutely adorable. I was planning on keeping 1 female and 1 male for breeding, but now... I'm not sure. Right now there are 9 tiny ratties in my sweatshirt pocket.
I had hopes of socializing my original rats as pets and then breeding them, but I didn't spend enough time with them when I got them and now they are adult size and afraid of me. They all came from a feeder breeder friend who doesn't handle her rodents at all, so when they came to me at 6 weeks, they hadn't ever been touched. What if I raise these rats as breeding pets and handle them from the beginning? Any suggestions guys? Should I start over with baby rats?
BTW the rat babies look like this: Female Cream Male Cream (dumbo?) Male Cream with white spots Male Cream with white tummy and spots Rex Male Cream with white tummy and spots Rex (dumbo?) Male Cream Rex Male Grey and white with grey back and white blaze (dumbo?) Male Grey body with white blaze and tummy Male Brown with white tummy
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Post by Heather on Jan 29, 2009 0:01:08 GMT -5
What would happen if you raised these ones to sell as somebody's furfriends or even to trade off for breeding stock. Now you know you get attached, there's a reason why a lot of the people who breed to feed don't handle the kits to get familiar with them. I don't handle mine because I'm not fond of mice, but by only handling them minimally I can't possibly become attached to my furkids' dinner. There aren't many ways around how we feel, but sometimes by putting up barriers we can handle it better. Not handling them is a barrier. I wish you luck, I hope that you can come up with a working solution that you can deal with both emotionally and ethically, my heart goes out to you. ciao
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Jan 29, 2009 0:09:35 GMT -5
Thanks Heather. I wouldn't be able to find them homes as pets... for moral reasons, strangely enough... haha but I could probably feed some of them to the ferrets. I didn't mean to handle them, but I planned on keeping one male and one female, so I wanted to handle them so they are comfortable with me and I can choose the most tame male.
I was thinking of replacing some of my breeders with them, which would let me choose one female and 2 males. I will have to think about things! Ehg. I will definitely not be handling new litters as much from now on!
Now I want to breed... keep the best ones and feed the rest to the ferrets. I'm so bad. I have no issues with the mice, thank god!
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Post by harrisi on Jan 29, 2009 5:05:08 GMT -5
Me and Jamie were the same to start off with...but we soon realised it was life and the ferrets/hawks/owls needed to eat and I took piece in the fact the mice had a good life. I do think it is handy if the feeders and totally handleable though so I would keep 4-5 girls from that litter then get a male from elsewhere and keep them as pets for breeding feeders. We always pick up and handle our feeder litters nearly everyday if we get the chance, same as the holding/growing on bins. We put our hands into those bins and "wrestle" a few of the mice to keep them tame and I can asure you that NONE of the mice shy to the back, they are forever hopping up the sides of the tubs and jumping at us and whilst we do keep that emotional attachment (I wont deny it) I do realize its nature, and even after having to cull then kill over 1500 mice whilst I have been keeping them I still feel horrible after doing it...but I think, if I didnt then I would need SERIOUS mental health.
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Post by nwheather on Jan 29, 2009 6:35:55 GMT -5
I started off with mice & I thought I could add rats too. I realized I cannot do rats. I'm not saying that mice don't have personalities, but the rats are more personable (most of them) & it can be pretty easy to get attatched, even with minimal handling, so I am sticking to mice. It's not super easy for me, especially when I was cleaning a cage & one of my boys (mouse) hopped up on my hand & started climbing.....no, don't do that! I do not handle the mice babies very often. For one, I don't want the mothers freaking out, & two, I don't want to get too attatched. I am sorry you are in this position, I am sure it's not easy. =-(
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Post by mustelidmusk on Jan 29, 2009 9:20:04 GMT -5
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Post by Kerit on Jan 29, 2009 9:25:20 GMT -5
I couldn't do rats either -- had too many as pets. Mice, easy enough; hamsters, not a problem; gerbils, actually glad to see them go... but not rats. Especially rexes and dumbos like you have!
I don't think it's uncommon. When I did have rats, my mother grew to like them as well. She grew up on a dairy farm where mice and rats are nothing but pests, and she used to comment that if only my grandfather could see that we were treating a rodent as family...
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Jan 29, 2009 14:03:26 GMT -5
Thanks for the responses guys. I have had pet rats before as well. I would like to keep 6 females and buy new males like Harrisi suggested, but my dang mama rat had 8 males and only 1 female! How inconsiderate! Haha. I'd really love to keep ALL of the males AND the female, but I don't have the space or time for all of them, especially if only one of them can produce feeders for my ferrets. I might be having another litter of pups in a few weeks (fingers crossed) so maybe I will get more females from that, and I can raise 6 females total and acquire 3 males elsewhere.
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Post by bigsis7 on Jan 29, 2009 14:40:16 GMT -5
How about keeping the males and finding new females?? It seems a lot of time rats have more males than females, but maybe that's just the litters I know of? This is why I can't raise feeders. I would get to attatched especially with rats because they are so loving and sweet.
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Post by harrisi on Jan 29, 2009 14:54:56 GMT -5
and I can raise 6 females total and acquire 3 males elsewhere. Have I missed something? You will be getting 3 males for 6 females? Why not just keep 1 male and 6 females together? Less food bills, (generally) happier rats are less tubs to clean !
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Jan 29, 2009 19:24:09 GMT -5
Well right now I have a rack of cages.. wire cages, not a breeding rack system. The cages are barely large enough for 3 rats, so that would be 3 sets of 2:1 if I want the males and females to be together. I actually don't like the wire cages I bought, but I spend $40 on it and mice are small enough to fit through the bars. When I move, I might be able to use the wire cages for breeding ASF rats or hamsters, but for now, I only have so much room for rodents.
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Post by harrisi on Jan 30, 2009 5:34:18 GMT -5
Oooh I see. You may want to use glass tanks for ASF's . Generally a young (6-8 weeks) ASF can squeeze through a gap the size of a pencil, a younger rat even smaller lol.
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Jan 30, 2009 10:47:11 GMT -5
Thanks for letting me know!
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Feb 2, 2009 14:38:13 GMT -5
Okay, I have narrowed it down to 5 our of 9 babies that I want to keep: Cream female Cream/grey dumbo male Cream rex male Brown berkshire with white blaze (same blaze as dad!) Brown hooded with white blaze (same blaze as dad!) I won't be keeping any of the cream and white rats, which look like mom. Now... I don't have a use for 4 males, unless I wanted to increase my breeding colony for rats, which I DON'T, I've already had enough emotional trouble with only one litter! I've set up an extra cage on my desk in the ferret room, where I do my school work. Every time I come in to do my work, I am taking the 5 babies, now 3 weeks old, and letting them play in the cage. I leave the door open so they can come and visit me, which some have figured out Some of the males are already showing aggressive behavior toward each other, like wrestling, is this normal? I'm going to try to lower my "keeper" number down to the female and 2 males... but they are all so stinkin' cute! I love rats, I just wish their weren't so messy and stinky!
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