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Summary: Watch as an animal care specialist explains how to breed a pet rat in this free online video about exotic pets.
Laura Fitzgerald has been an animal lover her entire life. Having her first pet rat at the age of 5 (after rescuing it from the snake food chain). Growing up on a 200 acre horse farm...read more
"Hi, I'm Laura Fitzgerald and on behalf of Expert Village, I would like to talk to you about the care and maintenance of your pet rat. Now I would like to talk to you about breeding rats. This is my big male rat, Tar, as you can tell with his manly male parts, he is the boy rat. And this is my girl rat, Blondie, and as you can tell with her lack of male parts, she is a female rat. Now rats gestation, or time when they are pregnant, is about 21-23 days. Domestic rats have from 6 to a dozen babies. The younger the rat, the first litter of baby that she has may be less than that. Today I can show you that my little rat had four little babies, two black ones and two beige ones. It is always best to keep the momma rat secluded in her own home, away from daddy rat. So that she can have a hundred percent of her own alone time with the babies, because they drink milk for the entire time up to six weeks old. At six weeks old they will begin eating their own rat food. How they do that is they take the food away from momma, and they try it to see if they like it before they eat it, and they is how they learn which foods are good or not good to eat. And from that point on their eyes and ears will open, and they will basically be on their own. At that point mommy can then get pregnant again right away and start all over again having babies twenty one days later. Rats are very proferlific, and if you keep mommy and daddy together, they will constantly keep having babies. Which is not always a good thing because it shortens the life of momma and she kind of gets worn out. So it is always good if you do not want momma to have babies, to keep mommy and daddy in two separate cages. If you want multiple rats, get two girls or two boys, they have to grow up together and they will be just fine. If you have a boy and a girl, I will definitely guarantee you that you will definitely have babies. Rats live up to eighteen months to two years, so it is always good when you buy a rat to get your rat when they are young. So you will have a full life span from the age of six weeks to two years old. Rats are very intelligent and sweet, so even at this young age, if you pick them up and you play with them and if you pet them, they will get used to you and by the time their eyes open and they start running around, they will be your best friend. Look at this little one, already you can see her eyes start opening up, this little Blondie, at this age it is difficult to tell whether they are male or female, not until they are six weeks old where you can actually tell if they are a boy or girl. At that point when you can tell if it is a boy or a girl at six weeks old, you would want to separate them because at that point they can start breeding and making babies."
eHow Article: Breeding Pet Rats
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Comments
bhuk said
on 8/2/2008 I agree with madisonlee comments as accurate but I do feel these videos just need a tweak here or there to update information. I do not feel it is needed to go here and spam craigslist demanding people will kill their rats with the video information. I see nothing threatening a rats life in these videos. I apologize to the video maker for the rabid response from some rat forums and want you to know there are those that appreciate you showing rats can be good pets, that seed mix isnt the food of choice and that they are intelligent pets. I would suggest for a friendly forum that will update the information in these videos googling fancy-rats uk will get you to the uk rat forum that will give good and current information without attacking. I again agree that some updates are needed in these videos but do not agree with attacking the person who made them. If you feel these are so glaring in the inaccuracy please make your own videos and promote them as the "right way" instead of destroying these as all bad.
pmgrattery said
on 2/18/2009 I am not trying to bash anyone but this video is very INACCURATE! I own a rattery called PMG Rattery and I urge you to read the info on our site at www.pmgrattery.webs.com This lady says so much wrong info that it can really confuse beginners. First off, the female rat can get pregnant IMMEDIATELY AFTER SHE GIVES BIRTH SHE WILL GO INTO HEAT RIGHT AWAY! Second, BABIES START EATING SOLID FOOD WHEN THE OPEN THEIR EYES AT 13 to 14 days, NOT 6 weeks! They live an average of 3 years if you care for them properly NOT 18 months! She keeps these babies on WOOD SHAVINGS which is cruel and HORRIBLE for your rat! Alsom the cages are far too small and she did not know what the term "Rex" meant in her other vids.
jorats said
on 2/17/2009 Yikes! She is no expert... these videos are so false.
Please do not breed your rats... They are not toys, they are living beings.
madisonlee said
on 8/2/2008 This video is extremely incorrect! First off, while the average rat litter is 6-12 babies, they are also very capable of having 15 in a single litter. Any reputable rat breeder can tell the sex of their babies within at least the first week of life - it DOES NOT take 6 weeks to tell. You can difinitely tell a male from a female within a few days of birth one simple way - nipples. Females have them, males don't. Also, rats open their eyes at around 14 days of age, and very soon after opening their eyes they will start wandering around the cage on their own and (gasp!) will try solid foods all on their own as well....at just 2-3 weeks of age. Also, babies should be separated out by sex by the time they are 5 weeks old - any older and the males will more than likely impregnate the females, and then you'll have a real problem. Females can get pregnant IMMEDIATELY after giving birth and any time after that. Males and females should ALWAYS be kept separated unless you have them neutered and/or spayed. One last comment - a rats average lifespan is 2.5 years of age - NOT 18 months to 2 years. You must be thinking about mice, which would be a correct lifespan for them.
Expert Village, please please remove these videos. They are extremely incorrect and will most likely cause more harm than good.
grace4 said
on 1/23/2009 People - please, please, PLEASE do NOT breed your rats. She needs to be removed from this 'expert' site immediately. She obviously doesn't know what she's doing. Seriously, breeding is not sticking a male and a female rat in the same cage. It's not that simple. Read up on breeding stories here, and register on goosemoose while you're at it: http://www.goosemoose.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,118/forum,rat/topic,4218.0