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#2185866
Fire Fox
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OT: Breeder Rats 
I bought 3 rats (1 male, 2 females) at the last Reptile show to start breeding for my larger snakes. The male and 1 of the females is Albino, while the other female is a hooded. Both females have produced 2 large litters so far (8-10 each time) and while the hooded has all healthy babies, the Albino’s are mostly still born or seem premature. The Albino has only successfully raised 3 babies from her 1st litter. She ate the others and all of the second. I know she’s not just destroying her litter because she does nurse the hooded’s litter when given the chance. She even steals the babies if no one is watching. My question is: Is she having bad litters due to being bred with another Albino? My mice are all albino and I’ve never had any problems with still borns or under developed babies. Unfortunately, I don’t even know if the rats are related to each other or not. If so, could this be playing a factor in it? As of right now, I’m using the Albino rat as a surrogate mother for some baby mice. Their mother had a huge litter (14) and 4 of them were falling behind in size and energy. After the mice are weened, I’m going to try breeding her to a hooded male I recently got. I’m hoping the litter will be healthy but if not I’ve decided that I will just keep her as a pet. Any help on this matter will be greatly appreciated.
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11/05/10 03:00pm
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#2185867
Reflex
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Message To: Fire Fox In reference to Message Id: 2185866
OT: Breeder Rats
They are most likely related, brother and sister, or at least half. Larger scale feeder breeders may not pay enough attention to keep inbreeding from happening. Inbreeding too many times can cause problems like you’re describing. I wouldn’t breed that female anymore.
One female mouse can support 14 babies, and 8-10 for a rat is not a large litter. Just because there are some that are smaller does not mean they wouldn’t catch up as they get older.
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11/05/10 03:10pm
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#2185868
Reflex
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Message To: Reflex In reference to Message Id: 2185867
OT: Breeder Rats
For the future, I’d recommend buying from a responsible pet rat breeder for breeding rats. That way, you can get totally unrelated animals that are healthy and hardy.
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11/05/10 03:12pm
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#2185904
RichsBallPythons
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Message To: Reflex In reference to Message Id: 2185868
OT: Breeder Rats
Rodents can inbreed more than some ppl give them credit for. My mice are over 120+ generations deep now and my rats are approaching 30 generations now with no ill effects.
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11/05/10 05:52pm
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#2194698
Tefoe
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Message To: Fire Fox In reference to Message Id: 2185866
OT: Breeder Rats
Well if you really want to get into it, inbreeding has "no" ill effect..... It just pronounces the problems that are there... If there are no serious genetic problems its not going to add any...
Its a good way to get traits that you want to have in your animals, too....
But some rats just like other creatures, just aren’t good mothers........
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12/27/10 08:47pm
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