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Rat breeding

~slither~

~slither~

Mr Dan Mansell
A week yesterday I went and got myself a pair of rats. As soon as I put them together they were 'at-it'. My little brother asked what they were doing and I had to tell him they were playing tickle. Thats were their name comes from.
Anyway I've separated them
1. Because the male wont leave the female alone after 8 O'Clock, and I don't want her miscarrying
2. I want her to have as long a life as possible, while still being productive. I'll give her a month or so off LOL.
3. If I don't I'll be overrun with pups. I only need a litter every couple of months.

My question, is a week long enough for her to be pregnant? Surely the rate the males being going she should be? And when should I start noticing her 'bump'? lol I couldn't think of another way to put it.
 
gestation is about 3 weeks long. I don't know how long it takes for the female to "take" because I leave the males in with the females. He won't hurt her~ she has to be "in season" for him to have any interest in breeding her. If he is still trying to breed her I would guess she is still "in season" (I also see this sometimes with females about to give birth~ they must smell "in season" to the males) leave him with her at least until your sure she is pregnant.
 
Yes, gestation for rats is about 3 weeks. As said, the male should only be mating with her when she's in season, and rats (unlike other rodents such as hamsters) are very calm towards each other and he should not hurt her or the babies.

It's actually a good idea to keep them together as rats are very social creatures and tend to get depressed when they live alone.

Male rodents tend to mate with the female either immidietly (sp?) after she has given birth or even WHILE she is giving birth. She's giving off quite a lot of hormones at that time, and this also has her get pregnant as soon as possible so that there are more babies.

As for seeming her "bump" you probably won't. Most rodents don't get all that noticeably pregnant, like humans do. She will gain quite a bit of weight though, and you might notice her looking fatter than usual. A good way to tell if she's pregnant is by regulating her cycle (IE, knowing when she should be in season) and then if they aren't mating when she should be in season, she's pregnant!

One last thing, I think it would probably be good to tell your little brother what they're doing, let him learn about that stuff. Of course, I guess that just about your personal morals and all.
 
Right, OK I'll take the partition out. I'll just use it for when removing the pups as I hear they are very protective. Are you saying that the male will only be interested if she's not pregnant...period?
I read in another post that the male could be a little rough with the pregnant female and cause her to miscarry. I'll have a search for it in a minute.
And about the regulating her cycle, I thought that as soon as the female gave birth the male would 'kick-in' and he'd try to get her pregnant again asap. Is there a gap period between births and pregnancy where the female can not concieve?
I'm a little confused now, because you say the male could try to mate with the female during or shortly after birth to get her pregnant, but you say the female has to be in season. I thought the female was always in season.
This is probably really simple and I just aren't getting it, if it is I'm sorry, it's late. hehe.
 
Here's the post where it says remove the female.

Oh and about my brother, I would tell him, but how do you explain the birds and the bees to a 2 year old? You post what I say and I'll tell him lol. I could just imagine if I did try explaining sex, he'd go to mother and say, 'sex penis woman' or something along those lines. And I'd be in trouble for teaching him bad words....again. LOL, long story.
 
Meh, you shouldn't be the one to tell him about that stuff, his parents should do it. I mean, my mom told me about sex when I was that age. I just asked "where do babies come from?" and she told me.

As for the rats, sometimes it depends on the couple. The female rat is NOT always in season. Female rats go into season every four or five days and stay that way for about half the day. The female will go back into season very quickly after she's given birth, maybe even that same day, so she can get immidietly (sp?) pregnant again.

As for the health of the rat, it's best for a female rat to have a litter every two months. She'll be less stressed, less tired, and live longer. Because of this, I guess you would have to keep them seperated until you wanted to mate them again.

Sorry if what I'm saying is a little confusing, I think I might be getting my rodent information mixed up.

here's a good website to check out:

http://health.ratzrus.co.uk/breeding.htm
 
Thanks for the link. I think I've got my head around it now. Cheers, and wish me luck!
(BTW its spelt immediately)
 
As soon as I removed the partition, it only took the male about a minute to kick in again, if you know what I mean ;). So does that mean that the female still isn't preggers, or could it just be that she's not 100% 'sure' yet and her body could still be adjusting? I mean like she's still giving off those 'sex-appeal' hormones.
 
I leave my male and female rats and mice together all the time (even while there are babies in the colonies). I have rarely ever had a problem with leaving them together.
 
Homicidal Nymph said:
As for seeming her "bump" you probably won't. Most rodents don't get all that noticeably pregnant, like humans do.
Click to expand...

I can't agree. I breed my own mice and rats (just started) and you easily can see "bump", especially 3/4 days before birth. Female mice look like they swallowed golf ball, they are incredibly big. With rats you can see it too, but it is not as obvious as for mice.
 
I'm going to be checking for differences daily, so I will probably get used to seeing said bump. *touch wood* she's up the duff
 
I leave my females in with the male until I'm sure they are pregnant..and yes, depending on the female, I can see "bump" somewhere between 1 and 2 weeks into gestation, I've found it depends on how many pups she is carrying. I do also seperate my rats, as in the beginning I didn't want 10 thousand of them, and even now, I like to give them a break in between litters, plus as the pups grow, I only keep certain ones and do not want non-keepers pregnant.

Anyway, hope this helps somewhat...

terrysangel79
 
You should be able to see a "bump" in the female as she gets closer. I leave both my females in with the male. Don't "count your chickens before they hatch" so to speak with the pregnant female. I had 1 rat give birth to only 2 pups while the other one had 9, go figure, the one that had 2 pups looked huge. Rat pinks will freeze fine for up to 6 months. I would suggest it's better to have to many pinkies than not enough. Rats will slow down in reproduction threwout the year.
 
Ahh graffixcs you've got me wondering about something else now. My girl is on sub-adult mice @ the momment, how long will I have to keep the litter before until they are large enough to freeze? And just one more question, is the adult pair likely to attack me when I try to take the pups?
Thanks everyone for the advice up to now.
 
That's OK slither, us Aussies don't mind helping out the poms now and then (after all, we do spank your butt at cricket) For rats to get to about sub adult mouse size will take between one and two weeks, depending on how many the "mum" has to take care of. And yes, be prepared to be at least nipped at. One of my females is very hand tame except when she has pups. My advice for this is, be quick.
 
Mice generally don't bite, they run, so picking up pinkies is not a problem.
If your mice are half-wild (I mean you do not haldle them, they don;t know your smell) if you leave your smell in nest they can eat babies. I try to handle mine (currently I have 10 females and 3 males) feed them from hand, but if someone has more - it is impossible to do it.
Rats is other story. Female can be aggresive, at least I saw them behaving pretty aggresive. Owner of one of pet shops' in my city breeds rats - has ~150 females and when I saw them they weren't nice at all. :sidestep:
 
Ahhh but if only you were as good at everything as us brits, not just (lame, well I aren't much for it anyway) cricket. lol jk. And you wouldn't even be there if it wasn't for the ...er.... criminal parts of society. lol jk. I personally don't see how a nation of criminals has turned out to be one of the most popular countries in the world. I aren't trying to sl*g australia off I'm really singing its praises. I'd love to go on hol in aus, it's been highly recommended. And from what I've been told it's a much better all round than the UK. Your government know what to do when a boat load of asylum seekers turns up aswell.
Anyways, I've already got the divider I mentioned at the top of this thread, so I'll do my best to get mum and dad one side of the tank while I take the pups. Her nest is in a plantpot, so I should be able to get them all in 1 swoop by just grabbing that.
 
LOL, Now you have done it !!! I constantly question the "intelect" of the poms, they thought it as punishment to send the crims to Aus .... pfffft. But that was a damn long time ago. Just for the record though, I am in the U.S.A. now. (the aussie brit thing never dies)
If you want some real "fun", get a pet dwarf hampster, I swear I would rather get tagged by my ball pythons (again) than her, she is a pschyco lil' b#@* !
Seriously though, I like to have at least 2 months worth of feeders on hand, just to be sure I never run out.
 
LOL, nerve been hit?:sidestep: I wish someone would lock me up and send me to aus.
Even if I don't get as many pups as I'd like theres quite a few petshops round here, so getting feeders is not a problem. TBH I got rats because I wanted pet rats not to breed feeder rats. The free food just comes with having a new pet.
And there's no way I'm ever attempting to pick up a hampster, dwarf or otherwise. I hate the little sheets, my little sis' has got one.
 
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