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Post by fuzzymom on Apr 1, 2010 13:00:34 GMT -5
Nutmeg's litter was 14. She was housed with Noel and I guess they fought over the babies because several of the babies have sustained bite wounds, some so severe I had to cull them. I'm going to give her one more go with a different male and if she injures that litter, I'm going to have to replace her.
On a good note. I have two females in with males and two girls that will be ready to breed by the end of June. My sister's rat just had a litter of 13 and I hope to take a few females from that litter.
I plan on putting together several tub enclosures to house my breeders. Every tub will house two females and a male will cycle between 2-4 tubs.
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Post by 1 on Apr 3, 2010 0:53:03 GMT -5
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Post by fuzzymom on Apr 5, 2010 16:10:34 GMT -5
At whatever age I need them. I breed feeders for both my snakes and my ferrets. Right now both my ferrets and my snakes eat rat weans, so I feed them off around 3-4 weeks of age, though on occasion I will feed them off sooner or later. With mice, I need them at full adult size (25g+) in order for them to be a meal for anyone.
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Post by fuzzymom on Apr 5, 2010 16:21:27 GMT -5
A few updated pictures of some of the rodents. Well mainly just rodent babies. This is part of Nutmeg's litter. Ignore the mess, it was cleaning day today. There are 3 babies in the other corner but this is the main pile. And this is one of the black hooded babies I have. I did not sex this one but I have many that have that blaze up the face. And this one I love! It is a little boy and I'm in love with his color. He came from an agouti berkshire and an amber self. Not sure what he is but I love him. I might keep him.
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Post by goingpostal on Apr 5, 2010 16:33:04 GMT -5
Fun colors! They really don't look much different than mice at that stage do they? I love the blazes, I hold back a lot of mice with that pattern.
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Post by fuzzymom on Apr 5, 2010 16:35:39 GMT -5
Thanks! But they are cute little suckers. I may hold back a few females from this litter and I am really thinking of holding back that silvery boy even though I don't need any males right now.
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Post by goingpostal on Apr 7, 2010 11:21:31 GMT -5
I've been switching out males like crazy trying to keep the really cute ones back, for some reason the ones I really like are never girls!
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Post by 1 on Apr 7, 2010 23:27:27 GMT -5
I've been switching out males like crazy trying to keep the really cute ones back, for some reason the ones I really like are never girls! They know theyed get feed off before their bourn so they try to be bourn cute.
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Post by fuzzymom on Apr 12, 2010 9:09:52 GMT -5
In my experience, the cute ones are almost always boys, except for this litter. I got some very cute little girls. I'm keeping 4-5 of them. The little silvery boy died last week. Some of the litter just failed to thrive, but the ones that did are pudgy and opened their eyes yesterday! More pictures to come in a few days. Maybe when they are weaned. I also have two pregnant rats.
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Post by 1 on Apr 15, 2010 0:03:47 GMT -5
To me this seems like a stupid qeashtoin but, do they ever actual try to escape? You know, like a male loses his capability of making a girl pregnant so he trys to run away the day before being feed off? After all, to figure out to do that is so easy, a college professor can do it!
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Post by fuzzymom on Apr 15, 2010 22:44:45 GMT -5
With this colony I have never had an escaped rat. With my previous colony I had 2-3 escapees but I was using glass tanks at the time and forgot to weigh down the lids once.
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Post by horse656 on Apr 19, 2010 8:32:09 GMT -5
do rats smell like mice?? because i might breed them if they don't smell, my parents are complaining about the smell the mice are.
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Post by fuzzymom on Apr 20, 2010 11:59:52 GMT -5
Rats do not smell as bad as mice. Normally a healthy rat will hardly smell at all (my dog smells worse than my rats) as long as the bedding is kept clean and you feed them a proper diet (dog food tends to make them greasy and smell bad in my experience.)
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Post by horse656 on Apr 20, 2010 12:33:23 GMT -5
ok. thanks
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Post by fuzzymom on Apr 21, 2010 9:16:39 GMT -5
Just as a little update on the rat colony. Nutmeg's litter is about to be weaned. Every one of the little girls has a home. I'm keeping 4, two are going to a friend of a friend and one is going to my sister.
Yoshi just dropped her first litter. 18 babies! The babies and momma look great too! I can't wait to see them all grown up. I might be keeping a few from that litter.
Noel is about to drop her next litter. She is very round and is nesting. So I have 3 females going right now, plus I have 2 girls that will be ready to breed in June. So by June I will have 5 breeding females. As of July 18th, I will have 9 breeding females.
Looks like I have a lot of work to do because I need to get all these girls into tubs. I'm making one tub this week for Luna and Leena to move into, then I'm making another tub for a 1.6 group of mice. After that I am making another 2 tubs for the four little girls I'm keeping from Nutmegs litter. 2 to a tub, so I will have tons of tubs soon....Now where to put them all. Hahaha.
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