Holy Moly Rat Babies!!! And Questions....

[BalloonzForU]

I built a breeder rack for rats to breed for feeders. I bought all of them as young rats and they are grouped in 1.3, 1.3, 1.4, and grouped according to color. I went to the rack to clean the tubs and heard squeaking which I thought at first were the mice I have in the bottom because I just got some very pregnant females and one had her litter the other day but I had fed them off already. So I looked in with the mice. hmmmm no pinkies, oh yay we have rattie babies, so now I start looking and find this whopper of a litter!!

13 live babies, one dead. 14 Rat Babies from ONE mom? Holy Cow!!

I'm 99% sure they all came from one mom, because she was the only one of the two that were pregnant looking that no longer looks prego and the only one that has teets that look like they have been nursed on.


Mama on the left, the one in the middle is the other prego girl. The male was just added a couple of weeks ago when the original male whom I believe is the daddy passed away.

Then we have this girl in another bin that looks like she could pop any min, she is moving pretty slow so I think she will go today/tonight.

Now here's my questions. I've bred rats before, but have never had any that produced this much in one litter usually only 5. Are there certian breeds of rats that will produce larger litters like this? Not AFS, but normal rats like these? This one as you can see looks like a siamese cat's markings and dumbo-ish.

 

[T&KBrouse]

We've had those types of rats and some of our more "well seasoned" females would produce sometimes 15 and 17 babies at once. She may only produce that many a few times before shes pretty well spent and should be... ah... retired.

 

[gixxer3420]

Fe I always look forward to your posts. You always have great pics and stories behind them. By the way how are your snakes doing, any more eggs or babies hatch out yet?

 

[BalloonzForU]

We've had those types of rats and some of our more "well seasoned" females would produce sometimes 15 and 17 babies at once. She may only produce that many a few times before shes pretty well spent and should be... ah... retired.

I guess I'm doing something better this time, or they do better in racks than tanks. We'll see how many the next female pops out.

Fe I always look forward to your posts. You always have great pics and stories behind them. By the way how are your snakes doing, any more eggs or babies hatch out yet?

Thank you. We have two more clutches, one ball I think it's mojos, and one of Ken's colubrids, no idea which kind. We didn't breed many snakes this season.

 

[gixxer3420]

Please keep us updated on what you have in the cooker

 

[BalloonzForU]

Please keep us updated on what you have in the cooker

I'm hoping to have gecko eggies in the cooker in a few months.

 

[gixxer3420]

I hope to have some gecko eggs in the cooker in a couple months as well. I just got back into leos. I sold all my equipment and geckos to Deb from sacredcreatures because I went though a divorce and all my attention was to get through that. Well I got through the divorce, now I've built my gecko groups back up to almost were I had them before. So I can't wait until the eggs start dropping. I'm thinking about getting in to ball pythons but Ive never bred snakes before so I'm still on the fence.

 

[BalloonzForU]

I hope to have some gecko eggs in the cooker in a couple months as well. I just got back into leos. I sold all my equipment and geckos to Deb from sacredcreatures because I went though a divorce and all my attention was to get through that. Well I got through the divorce, now I've built my gecko groups back up to almost were I had them before. So I can't wait until the eggs start dropping. I'm thinking about getting in to ball pythons but Ive never bred snakes before so I'm still on the fence.

Welcome back to the reptile world!! Well balls are a great start and fun as well. I'd be glad to share any knowledge I have.

 

[gixxer3420]

Thanks and I will take you up on soaking as much knowledge from you as I can about ball pythons, and thanks again Fe.