Raising Rats For Breeding
If you are thinking about raising rats, then you want to know the best way to go about this. You also want to learn the basics of caring for a number of rats and everything else you should know in order to get started at breeding them successfully. The information here will help you to get started.
Getting started
You can put all the rats together, as long as you have a large enough cage for them to have enough room to live comfortably. A cage with a wire bottom is a good choice because it is easier for you to clean. It will have a pan in the bottom you can pull out to clean. You want to give them plenty of shavings and have large food bowls so all the rats can get at the food at the same time. Use water bottles or the shavings will get in the water bowl and the rats will end up going without water.
When it comes to breeding rats, you'll find that the most important part is getting the right set up going. After that, you will purchase a few rats and they will pretty much take care of the rest on their own. You can start with one male and one female. From here, the numbers will increase quickly. If you want larger numbers right away, then you can start with a few females and one or two males. Colors won't be important, since domesticated rats can produce many colors, regardless of the coloring of each parent.
Breeding the rats
Rats can be ready to breed by the time they are six weeks old. Also, rats can breed with their litter mates without any problems with the litter. A rat will give birth after a little over a three week pregnancy, so you really need to check on your females daily to see if they look like they are expecting.
Once you put the rats in the cage, you want to keep an eye on the females. Once you notice them getting big around the belly area, move them into a separate cage. Each female rat should have her own cage to give birth in. Otherwise, one female rat can eat the babies of another.
It's best if you move them into a cage with a flat bottom, such as a glass tank with a well-secured wire lid. This way, the babies won't fall through the wire bottom once they are born. You don't want the tanks kept in a hot room, or the rats can get too hot.
It's best to leave a new mother and her babies alone. Touching them too soon or scaring the mother can cause her to eat them when they are newborn. Don't bother cleaning the bedding nearest to her nesting area until the babies have fur.
Rats don't require much in the way of veterinarian care from a veterinary clinic and deliver their babies unassisted. However, when breeding rats you should know that they can develop tumors in some cases. If you have a rat that you care for and you notice it starts to develop a lump then you should take it in to be looked at. In some instances, the tumor may be able to be successfully removed.