What do I do after my rats hold babies?
I have been trying to breed african soft fur rats for food for my reptiles, ( sorry i posted it here, thought I would get the most info-reptiles call for to eat too) and after about a month now, one rat give birth to about a dozen babies. I seperated the female rat and pups from the rest of the colony. What should I do now? Do i merely let the pups grow into the size I want? If they become full grown, can I breed them with their brothers/sisters? Should I I put some of the females in other colonys when they are full grown?
Basically I want to know that of the ones I don't use, how do I set up these strange rats into colonys for breeding?
You can keep them if you want them but remember that's a LOT of responsibility! Or you can sell them practical a pet store. I rather not sell them, I would keep them! But whether you don't think you can handle it then I reason you can give them to the pet store (I don't know.) Near my place we can give them to the pet store! Or rat shelter. You can put them up for adoption at www.petfinder.com!
Good Luck!!
Yes, let them grow until they are the size you necessitate. You can inbreed them if you are using them JUST for feeders but note that they could become aggressive, which could be bad for the snake, they could start to attack respectively other, not sure if the nutritional value is duplicate in inbred rats after a few generations...
You just put them contained by different cages for breeding..
get rid of them
It is much more humane and safe for both the rat and the reptile whether you use frozen/thawed food. Rats have been known to injure and even put to death reptiles. If you feed your reptile an unhealthy rat your reptile will become ill as capably. I would really consider this. Rats can populate very fast and it can get to be comparatively a problem.
Ok first of all,
people should stop relating each other what is wrong and "gross"
like you said reptiles need to guzzle too.
I don't personally have experience breeding RATS, but with most animals, you largely don't want to breed siblings, It may be different because you are just looking for food... but in most cases after a clear in your mind amount of in-breeding it can cause physical disfigurement...
good luck
THAT IS SO GROSS
THROW THEM AWAY
GIVE THEM AWAY
KILL THEM
Answers: I don't know specifically about african soft furred rats however I do know that the normal 'pet rat' their offspring can be bred from something like 5 weeks (not advisable however- it can cause health issues in the mother).
You can breed the siblings together however after a while you may hold quite a few health issues start to crop up.
I'd recommend keeping them in same sex colonies and have a 'breeding cage' where you put the female and male you want to breed together together.
It is probably best to grasp the babies to an age that is suitable for you to feed and humanely cull some of them/ most of them leaving a few for breeding so that you don't receive overwhelmed.
Please don't live feed however- rodents can cause abscesses whether they bite your reptiles.
I don't agree with live feeding however, even as a rat owner, I understand that herps necessitate to eat too.
I hope this helps some.
thats callous
Thanksgiving feast.
ASF's are actually multimammate mice, not at all closely related to tangible rats.
They can breed at 4 weeks as compared to rats at 5. The are nasty in temperment to begin next to because multimammates are not domesticated like regular feeder mice and rats are. I doubt you'll be handling these guys enough to tame them at adjectives. You should feed the males first so you don't have to have a dozen cage to seperate all the males. Of course you're going to have to learn to let somebody know the difference by finding pictures of young mice and hoping you can sex them correctly. Go ahead and breed whatever ones together you want because deformities and inbreeding be set to nothing to you for feeders. You'll probably get more babies if you don't breed siblings together though. How you are going to coordinate this is beyond me. A certain cage for mice related to male A, another for pen B. I wouldn't mix the related females into different colonies because you'll never know who is related to who.
