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Rat pics

Hi there, here are a few pics of my rats. The pink one is hairless. The whitish one is a Himalayan, and the grey one is a well... grey! Also a pic of thier cage. Its on a Queen size bed to help with size reference.
 
Becky I want that red thing in your cage lol. just kidding. my cage is fine. My weanling tank how ever. I'm getting a rabbit cage for them. As for pic I'll have to do that later. I'm not on my computer at the moment.
 
Becky, thanks for posting that picture of your hairless. Hairless rats are so sweet and feel just like waterbottles! In other words: I'm a fan.

Have you had sucess with breeding them though? Two I've had (one past one recent) have never reproduced for me under the same conditions that my others have. :shrugs:
 
Jessica, thanks for the nice comments about my girl! She was one of my first pet rats and is already a year old. She is like a hot water bottle, especially when she snuggles up to my neck. You can really feel their warmth. As far as breeding goes, I would do it if you wanted them for pets, but not for feeders. She had 3 normal litters, of 13, 15, and 14. Then when her 4th litter came, it was only 4 pinkies. From that point on, she never had more than 7 babies in a litter. Her average is 5, sometimes it'll be 6 or 4, but usually she'll have 5. She is also a baby eater. If I don't take the pinks away, they will slowly disappear over time. She's very quick about it I guess. I've never seen her do it, or found any evidence, but I know its her doing it, because the other female never has any missing babies. Its kind of cool now though, I got that new girl, the grey one. Well after my hairless girl had her latest litter, the grey one adopted them and raised them herself. So this time, 4 actually have made it past pinky stage. One advantage of hairless is that she is not susceptible to mites. My male has mites, but she doesn't. They can't hide in any hair on her. I've tried all kinds of treatment to get rid of them, but its an ongoing battle.
 
I breed the hairless for food and have litters of 11-16 everytime. My profession deals with the husbandry of rats and mice and our "rules" for the successful breeding of rats state 4-2-4 to be sure of health and optimal breeding.
4 months= MAXIMUM age of a rat to BEGIN breeding. Any older than that and their hips get fused so their litters will begin tapering off until they stop reproducing all together.
2 months = the minimum time in between breedings if you want large litters. The average gestation period of a rat is 21 days.
4 years = The age when you should retire a female breeder if you do not want to risk her health in the process. Beyong this age females begin to have birthing problems as well as show more tendencies to be aggressive if breeding continues.
 
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