OK I get that people who are business of breeding rats are in business to do just that,but I'm beginning to see a pattern forming here. I've been asking around (from breeders) to get female rats for my own breeders, but no one will sell me any or they want me to pay retail price. So, I guess finding females is like finding the coveted "golden egg"? :lmao: :lmao: I dunno just seemed to me there would be a better way than starting from scratch with just one or two females from the start. OK.....I'm done ranting :nono:. I'll go have a beer and relax now. :cheers:

Competition is my guess, get a bunch of smalls and start it going...just don't add any once you start so get a bunch to start :cheers:

I started with 6 females and 1 male that I got from a pet store at the start of the year.....I'm easily into the triple digits with the number of males and breeder females now and that's with selling some and feeding my own collection...It doesn't take long to get your numbers up at all :yessir:

if you were in ct id give you a couple there just rats lol:yes:

hahaha You're doing it waaay wrong....

I figured that out quick when I was looking for rats...
The guy I still buy from gives me a great deal and I don't really want him knowing I breed rats now, especially since I still buy twice a month from him (about 60 rats a month) Which is about how many I was getting from him anyway- so that's not changed, but now I have babies and things I've bought to feed on top of the stuff I already had....

He had tons of extra b/c he started a new group of females and I bought like 80 from him-- I needed to feed and get females... I got them home and separated them-- I fed off the males and kept the females to start my group....

He has overflow again now, and I'm going tomorrow to buy another huge batch and add some more girls to my mix.... I've lost 3 girls, fed off one male that got beat up by the other male, and fed off one female that was a biter so I'm down a few and want to add a few...

~Beth

Unless you absolutely have to have a ton of pink rats being born by month's end, do like John did and buy 1.4 or 2.6 from another breeder or a pet store. One tip...get them before they're sexually mature (about small rat size), and when you group them, they won't fight. Getting strange adult rats together in a group usually leads to in-fighting and possible death.

OK I get that people who are business of breeding rats are in business to do just that,but I'm beginning to see a pattern forming here. I've been asking around (from breeders) to get female rats for my own breeders, but no one will sell me any or they want me to pay retail price. So, I guess finding females is like finding the coveted "golden egg"? :lmao: :lmao: I dunno just seemed to me there would be a better way than starting from scratch with just one or two females from the start. OK.....I'm done ranting :nono:. I'll go have a beer and relax now. :cheers:

Competition is my guess, get a bunch of smalls and start it going...just don't add any once you start so get a bunch to start :cheers:

As Jeff stated get some smalls to start. Raise em up and start the process for your own collection.

To expand on the 'don't add any more' I did that using the same guy I got my original rats from. Never thought it would be a problem. But it was. Rats carry different strains of viruses and after having my rats going for two years I added in some 'additional' ones. The result is a major round of death. My rats caught a virus from the new ones and they died quickly.

The guy I got them from did nothing wrong -- he didn't have 'bad rats'. His rats were just a carrier for different strains of viruses from mine and mine couldn't adapt. It sucked, and I'll never do it again. I accept all responsibility in what happened since I'm the one who 'mixed' them.

I started with smalls as well...my thinking at that time was to get maxium use out of them...I never have added to my rats...but I did once on my mice even before I got the rats and the whole colony went nuts...started fighting and killing each other....eating one another...just a total blood bath....I won't do that again :nono:

As Jeff stated get some smalls to start. Raise em up and start the process for your own collection.

To expand on the 'don't add any more' I did that using the same guy I got my original rats from. Never thought it would be a problem. But it was. Rats carry different strains of viruses and after having my rats going for two years I added in some 'additional' ones. The result is a major round of death. My rats caught a virus from the new ones and they died quickly.

The guy I got them from did nothing wrong -- he didn't have 'bad rats'. His rats were just a carrier for different strains of viruses from mine and mine couldn't adapt. It sucked, and I'll never do it again. I accept all responsibility in what happened since I'm the one who 'mixed' them.

Sorry to hear that Tama. I've only added to my colony from an outside source once (to get a more diverse bloodline going) and had the new ones in a separate tub treated with Prevent-a-Mite (don't need any new fleas, lice, bugs, etc,). After a few weeks, I integrated them with my others (had all albinos and the new ones were black hooded rats). Now I'm getting brown and fawn colored hoodies as babies sometimes. I feel that I have enough diversity now that I don't have to add any more new ones for quite a long while.

I didn't know about not being able add new rats down the line.What about adding new females that are offspring of the ones I currently have? If anyone would like to take a minute or ten to explain a few of the details to me, I would appreciate it, just shoot me a PM and I can do chat or phone which ever is easier.

Competition is my guess, get a bunch of smalls and start it going...just don't add any once you start so get a bunch to start :cheers:

Yeah, get a bunch of smalls - raise em up. Don't add to your colony from the outside or you risk introducing problems like rodent mites. Which can be a huge pain to get rid of....

Smalls will become adults quick!

Yeah, get a bunch of smalls - raise em up. Don't add to your colony from the outside or you risk introducing problems like rodent mites. Which can be a huge pain to get rid of....

Smalls will become adults quick!

Yep, had to deal with those rodent mites once with a new batch of mice...nasty things! Which is why I put any new rodents in a separate tub with PAM treated pine...knocks those mites out right away.