Rats, Pups, and Kittens! Oh My?!
Rat breeding is a very rewarding hobby. It is also a very taxing hobby. Ask my fiancé how much time I spend with him vs the rats. Let’s just say, it’s not even close to the same amount of time, favoring the rats. In this section, I will be discussing ALL methods of breeding, the pros and cons and ALL reasons for breeding, including breeding for food. This is your only warning, I will be discussing culling/euthanizing in passing. I am not making any claims to which way is better, to which way is ethical, I am merely stating what is done and how to do it. Let’s go over a couple of terms that you may see around and what they mean. Gestation – The length of time from fertilization to parturition. In rats this time is 21-23 days.
Parturition – is giving birth. Often times when I use this word it’s in abbreviation form such as P22 which means 22 days old, 22 days post parturition. I.E. weaning takes place P28 to P42 depending on the breeder.
Heat – Female rats go into heat where they become fertile and willing to mate every 4-5 days for about 12 hours.
Cull – To cull simply means to remove from the breeding program. This can be done by neutering, selling, keeping as a pet only, or euthanizing. The method in which a breeder prefers to cull is up to that breeder and as long as it is done humanely, does not mark a good or bad breeder.
Pup – A baby rat
Kitten – A baby rat
Ritten – A baby rat
Failure to Thrive (FTT) – A failure to thrive is a term used to describe a pup that is nursing but is not deriving any nutrients from the milk
AFRMA – American Fancy Rat and Mouse Association is a southern Californian club. It is the club that I personally belong too.
AVMA – American Veterinary Medical Association.
Feeder breeder – a rat breeder that breeds rats for food to another animal
Sperm plug – A mucous barrier implanted into the vaginal canal of a female by the male.
Lordosis – The posture in which a female takes to be mated. This must occur in order for fertilization to happen. Females will often posture like this to other females as well when in heat.
Rearing – the act of raising young
Dystocia – long or complicated labor
Reasons for breeding rats Breeding for Show A rat breeder can want to breed for show. Rat shows are available is certain areas of the United States and each set carries its own set of standards and guidelines. I personally want to show but have not, being the closest show is in California. However, I do breed to AFRMA show standards. I do this because show standards help produce health stronger rats. I also do this by not just focus on color or ear type but by choosing the best of the litter to hold back in terms of ear placement, tail set, length and width of the head. Show rats will be some of the most handsome rats you will see. Because of the strict guidelines, show breeders tend to be heavy cullers. The rats need to look a certain way and must be temperamentally sound as shows can be stressful and they will have many strangers picking them up to examine them. Ways of breeding for show include hand breeding, timed breeding, and colony breeding.
Breeding for Pets
Although this can go hand in hand with the above type of breeder, breeders that breed specifically for pets might not be as strict about certain traits. Pet breeders will still want to breed for the best temperament as an aggressive rat is truly no pet at all. They will often chose the most interesting colors and patterns. Pet breeders will need to look at the market in the region and see if there is a need for pet placed rats. Some markets are heavily saturated and it will be hard to pet place all the rats from a litter. When pet placing a rat, it is up to the rat breeder to ensure that the home is suitable for a rat and because the rat will be a pet, the breeder will need to make sure that the rats will not be used as food for another animal. Many breeders, myself included, do this by having an adoption application as the first step and possibly a contract that outlines what is expected of the pet owner of said rat. Pricing rats will vary by region. It is a general consensus that 10$ and above will deter them from being used as food. Some breeders may give discounts when buying more than one to encourage rats to go in pairs. Pricing rats is a personal decision and can only be chosen by the breeder themselves. Ways of breeding for pets include hand breeding and timed breeding, rarely will a pet breeder chose to colony breed.
Breeding for food
Rats are a common food source for many species of snakes, lizards and other carnivores. If a breeder decides to breed for food there are many things to consider. How many rats will be needed to produce the numbers needed? If someone only has one snake who eats every week, breeding rats will not work as rats will breed faster than what is needed. Many feeder breeders have an abundance of other animals to feed and find it more economically sound to breed themselves than to continue purchasing through commercial means. Breeding the rats at home also means that the breeder can monitor health and conditions and ensure that the animals were raised humanely. When selling feeders, just like with pets, it is up to the breeder to ensure that the rats will be humanely euthanized and not suffer to be fed off. Many feeder breeders only sell frozen rats for this reason. However, selling live can be done is the breeder is vigilant about knowing where the rats are going. Ways of breeding for food include timed breeding and colony breeding, rarely will a feeder breeder hand breed.
How to Breed Rats
Now that I have discussed why someone wants to breed rats, the actually methods of breeding are not complicated though they can have complications.
Rats become sexually mature between 5-6 weeks of age. While many sources will cite as early as 4 weeks of age, there are no scientifically documented sources of a rat becoming pregnant or getting another rat pregnant at that age. At this age, rats should be weaned from their mother and placed in separate sexed housing if wanting to hand or time breed.
A rats true maturity will take place between 3-6 months. A general rule of thumb is that a female rat should weigh at least 250 grams and be four months of age before being bred. With the rare occasion of my bigger lines, this is the rule that I follow except with my dwarfs who I breed between 6-8 months of age. Once a rat has reach maturity there are a few methods of breeding that can be done. Hand Breeding
Hand breeding is when the breeder places the male and female together while the female is in heat for an hour to 12 hours and then put them back in their respective cages. What is great about this is that there is an exact date of when the pups should be born, between 21-23 days after witnessing mating. The hard part is being able to pick the exact time a female is in heat. Some females are not obvious about it. If the breeder has a large colony they may miss it unless they are checking every female every day. Not every mating is successful either, so the breeder may wait 21 days to find out the mating didn’t take. Breeders who use this method may need to plan for certain times, birthing on a weekend when they can be around etc and like the control. Breeders who hand breed most likely have smaller colonies.
Timed Breeding
Timed breeding is simply placing the male and female together for a certain time, typically ten days. Breeding/maternity cages are used for this purpose. The reason to leave them together for ten days is if she didn’t take on her first heat cycle, then the male will hopefully catch her second heat cycle. There is no true limit to how long they should be left together, however, if not practicing continuous breeding then the male should be removed by day 20. For unproven bucks, I will leave them together till I can visually confirm pregnancy and then remove the male. When calculating expected delivery, count 21 days from the first day together, and then count 23 days from the last day together and this will give a range in which the pups could be born.
Colony Breeding
The third style is the most controversial and often employed by feeder breeders. This does not make the method unethical or immoral, it is simply another way of breeding. Colony breeding and rearing is simply putting together one male with a number of females and letting them breeding and rear as they please. This method is one used when tracking lineage is not important and production is needed. The timing of this method is important. The colony either needs to be place directly after weaning or at true maturity. When placing the colony together after weaning, the colony most resembles what happens in the wild. Pregnancy and birth are seen around 4 months old. In this method, the male is not taken out. The male and female may mate after birth of the litter but if this does happen, she will often employ delayed implantation for up to a week, allowing her current litter to be raised to four weeks before weaning them. Being pregnant is not stressful or taxing on a rat. A female rat can easily handle both at the same time. They are designed for this. However, any breeder using this method, whether placing together at weaning or at true maturity, will need to watch their colonies. Some lines of rats have not been bred for health and condition and these lines will diminish in a set up such as this. While this method may require less work in placing breeders together, the breeder must be diligent in weaning, in keeping track of condition, and preventing over crowding. Rearing
No matter what method a breeder choses, at the end, there will be babies. On average a rat will birth around 10 pups. She can give birth to as little as one and as large as 20 plus. Each pup will weigh between 5-6 grams, they will be blind and bald but will be able to crawl. The doe will lay on the pups to nurse them often falling asleep. If she has chosen to, she will make a big nest. This is an instinct in order to keep the babies warm and safe from predators. As the babies grow they will develop color on their skin. New breeders will have a hard time distinguishing color on pups but it does get easier. Within a week, they will have hair and between 12-14 days they will start to open their eyes. At this age, they will start tasting moms food, playing and learning to be a rat. By three weeks testicles will have dropped, they will start nursing less, they will more steady on their feet. At four weeks, they can be considered weaning age. I, personally, find this to be young for my lines. I like waiting between 5-6 weeks P35 to P42) before I wean. At this time, the rats are placed into same sex cages with a nanny rat of the same sex. Often times, nanny rat is mom and dad. Then once they are thriving on their own about a week wait to be sure, if pet placing, they are ready to go home.
Complications
Dystocia
Rat labor and birthing process is a quick one. From start to finish, it will take one to two hours. A rat may spot a small amount of blood 48 hours before labor. This is normal and should not be any cause for concern if the amount of blood is small. When the first pup arrives, start timing, if she has not birthed all the babies, becomes lethargic, blood is flowing freely, is not nursing or cleaning the pups, it is time to intercede. It is always great to have a vet on hand but sometimes a rat will give birth at 2am and most emergency vets are not experienced with rats especially those experiencing dystocia.
The first thing to check is if there is a pup stuck. If mom is still contracting, wait till a contraction hits and gently with her contraction pull the pup out. Often times once the stuck pup is removed, labor will continue normally.
If mom is no longer having contraction, feed excess calcium to start contractions again. Do not give excess calcium if you are not sure if the birthing process has started. The easiest way to get a lot of calcium into a rat quickly is tums. They are sweet and a rat will normally eat them up. If the doe is not interested or to exhausted, you can mix it in water and syringe it to her. The calcium should start to induce contractions again.
It is important at this time to keep the doe hydrated and alert. Honey water both helps with hydration and boost her blood sugar.
If a doe is bleeding profusely, the only options are a vet or euthanize. There is nothing you can do at home.
Other methods for helping the doe is gentle yet firm stomach massages always moving downward, a warm bath may help as well but the doe must not be allowed to be chilled afterwards. Raw liver is great for replacing nutrients.
Cannibalism
Rarely but it can happen, a mom will eat her litter. Sometimes, she will eat everything and there won’t be any babies left but the worse scenario is she start eating some of them and leave pieces behind. This is hard to see and hard to clean up. The reasons for this are varied, sometimes a new mom may not know what to do and be frightened and this is her first reaction, other times, a rat is just not meant to be a mom. If a mom eats one or two babies, this is common and acceptable. She understands and knows things we cannot. She may cannibalize a baby that has a defect or if a baby dies she will clean up to avoid the smell of decay attracting predators.
Infertility
Sometimes a rat cannot produce a litter. Typically infertility is seen in males so if a female rat is not getting pregnant with any method, putting her with a different male may help the female. In rare cases it is the female and in such cases pet placement is often chosen. Maternal Aggression
Maternal aggression, often shortened to MA, happens when the does hormones go off and tell her that there may be threats to her offspring. This can be towards humans or other rats. A maternal aggressive doe may refuse to leave the nest, grab her babies and attempt to hide them, may bite or charge at a human or another rat, will charge the bars of the cage, may squeal, squeak or scream. The biggest thing to understand about MA is that it has a genetic component and can be passed down her female offspring. Often times, MA goes away once the offspring are old enough to move out of the nest and start exploring, around 2 weeks of age. Oftentimes, one can lure the mother off the nest with treats or gently coax her off the nest and put her in another area while the breeder checks on the babies. MA does may revert back to their normal selves once the hormones level out.
There are many many different ways and reasons to breed. My goal today was to educate on all methods and reasons. No matter what the reasoning is this should help all who decided to breed or accidentally end up with a pregnant female understand the process without judgement or holding back information.
