How do you guys make sure you have enough rats every week?? I need about 80 to 100 smalls a week right now.. Should I space out when I let the females get preggo? I have 6 tubs of 4 females each with a male in every tub. Do you think I'll need more females to hit my mark of 100 smalls a week? If my season goes as planned I'm going to need double that or more a week. I guess what I'm askin is how many females do I need to make sure I have 200 to 300 rats a week to feed everyone with.. I just started breeding rats and I'm getting my first round of litters now.. But they are all preggo at the same time.. If anyone can lead me in the right direction I would appreciate it. I just want to make sure I have enough so I don't have to keep buyin rats.. I'm paying 150 a week right now and it's killing me.. LOL

Alan

Tama figured out a good system to cycle them, basically I am able to pull just about every size rat up to small that I need....that being said there is times where they just aren't producing and well you know that pain.

Wheres Tama!! I need a system I can use to make sure I produce enough.. I probably need more females.. I'll probably hold back some from these litters and get some more males from the pet shop I use..

Alan

My system is when in doubt add more females...lol

Good luck, Alan, looks like you'll have your hands full in more ways than one! :cheers:

I'd say you'd need more females to hit your mark. As for cycling them it took time. If you pull females before they give birth then they will have to wean babies then be re-introduced to the male...this takes longer. If you have the surprise litter and the male is still with that female well you can guarantee that if left for 24 hours she'll be prego once again while raising her new litter of babies, then she'll have her second round just as you can wean the babies from the first litter. This is not the best practice since the female has no time to recover, but accidents happen and it does help to stagger the babies.

I have maybe 16 breeding females and 3 males. On average a week I will have 100+ babies in various sizes. This by no means implies you'll have 100 smalls. I'd gather you would have to up the female count to almost double what you have now. We have limited space so once the smalls start becoming mediums they are euthanized and frozen.

Oh and a always mark the cage with the female who gave birth with the date the babies are born, this allows me to remember to pull them at 21-28 days. Size of the litter determines when they are pulled. Larger litters will stay longer since they grow slower.

Hope this helps.

Yeah that helps.. Thanks for going into detail for me.. I will double my females and build me another rack.. Thanks for the replies!

Alan

One breeder female rat per adult snake you keep should keep you up to speed. Until hatching time, then it seems you can never keep up. I used to shoot for extras no matter what but these days I never have enough..

Like Larry said is what I have heard as rule of thumb to keep you in rodents pretty good. I breed two ways here, one is 1.5 that stay together and raise the babies in the box and those are what I use for my weaners and smalls. THe second way I do it is 1.30 in a big tub and pull the preggos once a week. I put them in tubs with five together and that is where I am pulling the two to three hungred a week that I need for babies right now. I never want to be short and like Jeff said "when in doubt, add more girls"......

This is the way I do it.

Weekly number need x 6

Total of above divided x avg litter size

total of above minus 15% for losses

I.E.

200 feeders per week X 6 = 1200

1200 divided by 10 ( avg litter size example ) = 120 ( number of females needed )

15% from losses = 18 extra females needed

total = 138 females if your average litter size is 10 and going on a 6 week turn around for your females.

Larger litters = less females needed.

Its still early for me so my karate could be a tad weak on the math.

This is the way I do it.

Weekly number need x 6

Total of above divided x avg litter size

total of above minus 15% for losses

I.E.

200 feeders per week X 6 = 1200

1200 divided by 10 ( avg litter size example ) = 120 ( number of females needed )

15% from losses = 18 extra females needed

total = 138 females if your average litter size is 10 and going on a 6 week turn around for your females.

Larger litters = less females needed.

Its still early for me so my karate could be a tad weak on the math.

Numbers and math, I am impressed Bryon....

Numbers and math, I am impressed Bryon....

I do that every so often. Don't tell nobody tho , I have a rep to protect.

My math is way easier I think.......one for one! :)

Thanks for the replies guys!! I'll be upping my number of females, and building another rack.

Alan

I would think you could also setup yoour rats as follows, double the system below on the chart and where it says female 1,2,3,4.... make that tub 1,2,3,4.... and keep 5 females per tub and set up 24 tubs
keep a male in tub 1 and tub 2 for two weeks
Then on week 2 place another male in tub 3 and 4 for 2 weeks.
Week 3 take the males from tub 1 and 2 and place in tubs 5 and 6
With this system you are giving the females 4 weeks to breed and gestate and then 4 weeks to wean and 4 weeks for recovery.
This should give you 100 plus rats a week.
This is a 12 week cycle.
You can adjust this as needed or whatever works for you.

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j214/lordjackel_photos/RatBreedingCalendar.jpg

Wow.....:yourock:

Like Larry said is what I have heard as rule of thumb to keep you in rodents pretty good. I breed two ways here, one is 1.5 that stay together and raise the babies in the box and those are what I use for my weaners and smalls. THe second way I do it is 1.30 in a big tub and pull the preggos once a week. I put them in tubs with five together and that is where I am pulling the two to three hungred a week that I need for babies right now. I never want to be short and like Jeff said "when in doubt, add more girls"......

Post a pic of your rat set-up please? Just curious.

Pics of the different set ups would be great!

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j214/lordjackel_photos/RatBreedingCalendar.jpg
That's how I rotate my girls. (looks awfully familiar ;))

2 girls go in with the males every week, stay with male for 3 weeks, then get pulled to birth by themselves. (usually give birth wednesday, since I introduce on saturdays)

Raise pups for 3 more weekends, then I wean, gas and freeze, or raise up for the bigger snakes. Then the girls get 3-4 weeks off, depending on health and weight gain.

I printed out a calender and put it on a closet door in my rat room. Mark when girls have litters and wean, makes it million times easier to keep them straight. (But I also name all of my rats... lol 40 something breeders :P)

The chart above was created by little indian girl (Connie) and I added the color and a couple other things. Connie is the master when it comes to rats. When breeding the rats not only do you want the product you need to give the breeders a break to recoup.

Like Larry said is what I have heard as rule of thumb to keep you in rodents pretty good. I breed two ways here, one is 1.5 that stay together and raise the babies in the box and those are what I use for my weaners and smalls. THe second way I do it is 1.30 in a big tub and pull the preggos once a week. I put them in tubs with five together and that is where I am pulling the two to three hungred a week that I need for babies right now. I never want to be short and like Jeff said "when in doubt, add more girls"......

What are you keeping 31 rats in? How effective is the 1.30 ratio? I am interested to see your setup!