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so, now I have a rat...

R

rheenie

New member
Here's the story:
My s.o. was leaving for Europe in the morning and he was 'helping' me feed the snakes. This usually consists of him playing with the mice and rats until handing them over to me to kill. This time though, he looked at me with tears in his eyes and begged me not to kill his new pet. !!??!?!
My reply: WTF? yes, I can and will kill it, it's food.
his reply: He's my pet, his name is King Henry, and you can't kill him, I love him!!
and so on for a good ten minutes until I gave in and said I'd take care of his @&%* rat for him until he came back .

So now I have a pet rat. :headbang:
The plan is to get a female (in a few months. a friend's rat will be having pups and we'll get him a wife) We'll put her in her own cage and introduce them slowly, but the goal will be for me to be having enough babies to keep the girls full and happy. (as long as I can keep the s.o. from seeing the 'cute' babies)
Any tips or suggestions for a new breeding colony? any 'if i knew then what i know now' stories. anything will help. I'm new to the experience of having a pet rat. and soon I'll have plenty more to help me get used to the idea.
 
Let's see...
they are social animals and do best in pairs (same sex) so they can groom each other and play.
They need a large cage.
They are really smart and some will mourn the death of a cagemate.
They make INCREDIBLE pets, the more attention you give them, the better pets they are.

I don't (and refuse to) keep anything that eats them. Mice are better for food :)
 
Definitely need a decent sized 1/2" bar spaced cage, or a good sized tub. If you plan to raise the litters to adult or close to it you'll need even more space. I'd say 30x18 minimum. Extra levels are always a plus.

Aquariums are BAD for long term rat use, as ammonia levels build up quickly in the enclosed space and they have very sensitive respiratory systems.

Get a good lab block (NOT Kaytee) from a feed store or feeder breeder at a reptile show. Harlan 2018 is best, Mazuri 6F is good.

Rats make excellent pets.

For online purchase, Martinscages.com. look at the R680, R685, R695 or possibly the R690 but its a bit small. Anything smaller than a 30x18 base size is not really big enough to raise a lot of pups. Definitely get powdercoated wire, plain galvanized wire will absorb urine and stink permanently.

PetSmart sells a "Deluxe My First Home for Exotics" thats 30x18x30 and 1/2" bar spacing. The "My First Home for Rats" is actually too small.

Pet rat forums are an excellent source of info, but *NEVER* tell them you are breeding or using them for feeders, or even have snakes. Best to just lurk and use search functions on those sites if you have any pregnancy or breeding questions. Or ask here or at other feeder forums.

What color and markings does your rat have? Dumbo ears? Rat genetics can be as interesting as corn snake genetics, and the turn around is much quicker.

You will also need to get a CO2 setup for euthanizing the rats. Even if you feed live, which you probably shouldn't, you will end up with too many rats to feed off, and they will quickly grow too big for your corn snake. So humanely euthanizing and freezing them will be necessary.

Females should not be bred until at least 12 weeks, so he will be lonely for a long time. You might want to find him a healthy young adult female from a different source before that.
 
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Yeah, everyone keeps telling me how great they are as pets. I just didn't want to experience it for myself or I'd start to feel bad about killing them. And Henry is a cute little bugger.
okay then, check and check. I've got a good cage, and I did buy little salt and mineral blocks for him. also a wooden toy, a toy with a bell and a chube (with edible fluffy bedding). any other furniture he would need?
thanks for the advice about the forums. It'd be a good place to lurk around for info.
the co2 setup is in the works. (I do not feed live)
Do any of you have any suggestions about 'the plan'? I'm new to this rat breeding thing so any concrit is very welcome.
our plan was to have 3 cages set up. One for Henry(papa rat) one for mama rat, and one for the pups we would raise to adulthood. When a litter is born the plan was to let them grow to weanlings (is that the right word?) kill all of one sex for the smaller snake and then put the rest of the litter, all the other sex) into the last cage until they're the right size for the larger snake.

Oh, and Henry seems to just be a regular fancy rat. he's dark brown on his head and shoulders, narrowing to a 'racing stripe' of brown down his back to the base of his tail. his sides and legs are white. And as attatched to Henry (I keep wanting to call him Dinner) as the s.o. is I don't think I'll be able to switch up the males for any breeding project. darn softie he is.
 
Well, the one problem I see is that rats should not really be kept solo, so poor Henry is going to be pretty lonely if he's kept in his own cage. You can leave him with the female and the pups, and he will breed the female right away within 24 hours after she gives birth. This is okay if you are trying to get the most production, but some say it is hard on the females. If you don;t want to breed them that often, maybe remove him a couple days before she gives birth and leave him solo for a week or 2 before returning him to the family cage.

For cage furniture, they need some kind of igloo or hide box. Just a cardboard box with a hole cut in it is good enough, though it will have to be changed weekly or so as it gets soiled and chewed up. The 12-pack soda "fridge packs" are perfect, or a big enough store nough plastic igloo. I've also used overturned dollar-store large plastic bowls with a door hole cut in them.

Hammocks are also a favorite item, I don't buy expensive store bought ones but just get dollar-store fleece baby blankets and cut them up. Use safety pins in each corner to hang or cheap wire shower curtain rings.

3" or 4" diameter PVC Y or T connectors are good as well, either laying on the floor or shelf or wired under a shelf or ceiling so they can climb up to it. they go for $2-3 at Home Depot or Menards.

Oh, and rats don't need any kind of salt or mineral block, and don't use that fluffy bedding stuff, it gets wound around the pinkies and can kill or maim them.

Sounds like he's a brown (or agouti) hooded. If the female is hooded then all of the offspring will be hooded. If she is a berkshire (mostly solid with white belly and paws) then offspring will be hoodeds and berkshires.
 
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