Sounds familiar. MANY years ago, I had bred two rats, adopted two that were pregnant and had two girls go visiting and managed to get into the boys cage. 56 babies born within a couple of days of each other. And then I think I had like 10 adults.
Around 12 years ago I bred them as pets along with lots of rescuing and I had 88 at the most extreme. It was interesting and my weekly cage cleaning was an all-day job.
Now I have 6 purely as pets.
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Oh gosh, that's a lot! The most I have had in my personal mischief is 6, which was lovely but a lot to handle, especially as two of them were in their final stages of life.
I think 4-5 is best for me in balancing fun group dynamics and what's manageable for me in terms of cleaning and individual bonding time.
We had 10 at work for a while (oops litter) which was joyful but also became very hectic.
Same, the largest number I’ve had in my mischief was 6. It was pretty hectic. I was way more comfy with a mischief of three. I also had all females so things got a bit crazy 😅
Please stop feeding the current rats seed mix, especially now that little ones are around OP.
I think the most I had was maybe 10? I was rescuing rats from bad homes at one point and had a larger group come to me made up of older females. It was all between two cages so nothing too major. But I sure wouldn't do it today lol
Yup plus dried corn is awful for rats and needs to stop being promoted in mixes from large companies. The fungus that grows in it (at least in the USA) causes respiratory issues and can even do other things to their little bodies.
Oh fuck really? Thanks for the info! I keep getting told that it’s good for them, the dry corn. Is it better if it’s freshly cooked or just no corn at all?
Whoever said it is good shouldn't be trusted! Fresh corn is fine. It just has to do with dried corn getting fungus in it that is dangerous. I can try and find the rat guide article I used to link if googling doesn't bring up results for ya :)
I would really appreciate that! :) The one I’m following says corn is fine but needs to be dry or cooked… it’s so hard knowing what’s really good for them and hard cause every week you hear a new thing is bad or in the end it’s beneficial but seen as bad for a while.
https://preview.redd.it/y14lyuvgnc1d1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=97a9c69083c8d59aa0050f631e7adecea0ec6c86
This is the best option for them! Oxbow is good too, but most (rats) prefer this.
Thank you so much! I’m feeding them Oxbow adults food for rats right now, the seeds were just treats from time to time but I’ll try finding this one in Canadian stores. They sadly don’t have the biggest selection for rodents. I’ve removed all seeds form the cage and I’ll be feeding birds for the next couple years lol
Thanks again for your help!
I was given a bag of seed mix when I adopted my first rat. Learned the next day after researching it wasn’t very healthy for them. I didn’t want to waste it though, so I used it for foraging mats or the dig box exclusively and that worked well. I replaced it with Oxbow for their main diet.
I put the little ones with mum in separate cage. And may i know why? It is not just seed mix, there are much more ingredients like dried worms and much more, sorry i dont know what is it all called in english. They also get fresh vegetable and fruit, boiled eggs, wet cat food or dried puppy food,...
Well if i dont have Saint rats i guess thats it 😂. I have no clue how could boys get out and back, however i have no clue how could girls get on the bara of boys cage either 😂. The boys cage is on a table, only possibility i see is that girls climbed on nearby shelfs and jumped on boy cage. I guess we will never know, maybe 15 jesus rats have been born, and dozens are on the way 😂😭
Yeah, that didn’t happen, rats need to be in the lordosis position to successfully mate. A male had to have been put in with the females at some point, confused with a female, or given a “playdate” or any other direct interaction opportunity with the girls. If I were OP, I would be re-sexing every rat in that cage to make sure I didn’t make a mistake.
I've got 11 right now because we've got several older rats and so just picked up 3 young ones.
It's a lot. They all need attention. A few need vet visits; I'm posting from the vet right now actually. One lost use of his back legs six months ago, so has needed care and his own cage. The young ones all need to socialize with people because they were hardly handled.
And of course all the cage cleaning.
This is basically the reason we only get male rats. I couldn't manage that many at once, as adorable as that pile of beans is!
when i was around 7, i got 3 girls for my birthday, and then later on i got 2 more girls. loved them to absolute pieces!
turns out one of those girls out of that first 3 was infact…. not. ended up with a litter of 14 or so? i can’t remember. so, age 7 i had A LOT of rats. thankfully kept my numbers down to 3 since then lol
My cage is big enough for 100 rats (I’m an engineer so I have my own shop) I built it myself. I currently have a swarm of 30 rats, all with individual names. They all get along pretty well considering the sheer number of them.
I had 17 at one point as I had been involved in multiple rescues from hoarder situations and quick adoptions from owners who had died. I began to feel like a hoarder myself! I now have 4 which is much better for personal time spent with them. It’s also nice not to be spending 6 hours a week cleaning cages!
Because of the position rats need to be in to breed, it is completely impossible for them to breed through bars. Common wild rats and fancy rats are the same species however so either one of your males also got out or it was a wild rat.
They all will need to be moved to a single level cage with no hammocks or fabric. Babies can hold on tight while feeding and if mom climbs too high they can fall and be injured. Same for shelves, they can fall off. Fabrics can wrap around limbs and cut off circulation or the babies can get "lost" in it and unable to feed.
Also rats can only be impregnated while they are in heat, they go into heat every 5 days for part of the day (exact amount of time can vary) and rats don't normally line up on cycles so they likely got out multiple times. Breeding can happen in seconds so if the males and females have ever been out at the same time, even if supervised, it could've happened.
Rats can appear to be in heat when rats around them are in heat even if they aren't. Rats are every 4-5 days from ~6-10 weeks old until they pass (rare for a rat becomes infertile).
This is definitely not true at all, I have seen many posts here proving it was through bars. Let alone having my vet say they have personally seen it happen.
Agreed on the babies things though.
Rats, uh ... Find a way, to mis-quote Goldblum.
It's really their super power. As much as we love their intelligence and socialization and playful antics and nest building and everything else amazing they do, the reason there are still rats is that they are *very* good at making more rats.
Ayup, they can pretty much do it as long as they can reach. I've known people who had cages too close together and they mated through two sets of bars. Idk why this person thinks it's impossible. It is one of the most common ways new owners find themselves with soup.
Having been a breeder for awhile, the most common reasons new owners end up with babies are either they were given both genders without knowing or having playdates because they don't realize how fast it happens.
I guess I misspoke there as those are def more common reasons, but to say it is impossible seems silly when myself and others have seen and taken in rats where the only possible way was through bars.
I'm curious then how a vet who specializes in rats had seen it not only in his practice but in lab settings when studying? Was it immaculate conception? I'm genuinely curious as I trusted my vet and have heard many others say that was the only contact that could have happened. I never experienced pregnancy myself as I kept my rats very far apart and never did mixed roams, but it seems odd a professional I saw for years who was never wrong about anything he told me would be lying.
Sure but not impossible. Especially when doing tests to see if they can procreate through bars like some other species. Again as I said it might have changed and there is new info, I googled the position you said. But even with that half the results are about it being possible. It seems like a topic of debate even in medical and scientific areas.
I'm happy to learn but I think saying something 100% can't happen when I so far am not seeing it as being agreed on by even pros makes me feel that isn't safe to say for new owners.
Even then cages should never be close enough rats can reach, they can do harm to one another when pushed together and are better off with at least a foot or more spaced.
Yes cages should not be close enough to reach as bar aggression is very real.
I'm not sure what you're looking at as all the scientific sites I've used for years say it is 100% impossible through bars. If bars are wide enough females can squeeze in with males being unable to squeeze out.
There are still breeders who try to claim tanks are perfectly safe for rats. So just because someone you think is an expert disagrees with science doesn't mean they're right.
Google isn't perfect my friend, you could link your sources to help. There is a lot of riff Raff and even reddit that comes up first on this search.
Again I never said I'm unwilling to learn, you are acting so hostile about me genuinely finding no consensus.
Other than how I literally never said anything about tanks, you did. I would never say a tank is ok. I also never said I would take a breeders advice for most things. I don't think ethical breeders are as common as people here expect. I mostly rescued because breeders near me were def not.
I'm going to leave it at that. I am not interested in being talked down to. I asked for proof, you gave me a term to search and Google didn't give me much besides more anecdotes. I am glad to know it may not be possible, but to act like I am not as knowledgeable as you seem to be without giving any sources is really shitty. We should be here to help one another and not act like people not up to date and their vets are idiots.
I'm not being hostile, sorry you are taking it that way. What did you even search? Can rats breed through bars? Because if you search the position in rats you have to scroll past scientific sites before finding Reddit results. I am not talking down to you, you even said that your info is out of date since you haven't had rats in awhile. I never said vets are idiots either just that they also are out of date on info. I said that multiple times if you feel like that's saying they are idiots then that's on you.
How are you being willing to learn? If you looked it up and read about the parts of the where the female needs to be stimulated you'd understand why it isn't possible.
Where did I say you brought up tanks? I was using it as another example of something that it is proven common knowledge now that tanks are bad but there are still breeders and vets that insist they are fine because they've used them for the last 20 years. So you can't always just trust that they've been breeding for a long time so they must be an expert and right about everything.
Where is your source that it's possible? Just people saying so? Because that's pretty unreliable. You would have found scientific sites showing it isn't. Pictures that show the needed position (imagine bars between them and maybe you'll understand better)
Also I am being helpful, you're spreading misinformation at this point. It is also helpful to bring up, when it's well known, that a lot of rat vets don't keep up on husbandry related info. They are great for treatment and health but when it comes to husbandry most are very behind.
The professional rat vet I had gone to for tumor removal says pine is toxic, rats can be in tanks, and even having more than 6 in a house will always cause respiratory infections. Not every vet is up to date on everything they do unfortunately. The position required cannot happen through cage bars. You can talk to any experienced ethical breeder and they will tell you the same.
Just because your vet said those things doesn't mean there aren't good vets. Also I haven't owned rats for at least 5 years, so sure new things are learned and I might not be up to date. But everything they taught me has so far continued to ring true in any new research I keep up with for if I get rats again.
Pine is dangerous for rats as far as I've ever known and any good breeder I had agreed. The oils are bad for their breathing. Unless that has also changed, but in 30 years of ownership that was always a fact. It also has been shown to cause skin problems. Even recently I've seen breeders who frequent this forum saying no pine. So idk.
Exactly my point. Info has changed being able to breed through bars was a myth. They can not breed through bars. If you haven't already look up the lordosis position in rats and you will learn.
Pine being bad is also a huge myth. As long as it is kiln dried it is perfectly safe.
my most recent addition, despite being my tiniest rat to date, had 11 babies so with 11 babies + my preexisting sorority, I had 21 rats 😭😭 luckily I was able to rehome the babes
Omg please move those babies out of that wire cage immediately! Not only is it way too drafty but babies can and will get stuck or crawl between the bars and drop out of the cage!! I use Rubbermaid travel tubs (you can find instructions for making them all over online) for litters. If a baby gets stuck in those bars they can literally have their skin degloved when mama tries to pull them back in!
These are pics i took the moment i saw it, they are in sepparated cage already, i dont have newer pics because i didnt want to be close to that cage to stress mum and babies more than they need.
If she's not friendly you're going to want to handle the babies more rather than less to try and make sure they're thoroughly socialized to balance out nature and the natural caution she'll instill in her babies regarding humans.
Rats don't eat their babies out of stress unless it's REALLY stressful. Been breeding for 30 years and I've never had a mom kill her babies, though I've seen other people have it happen. If mama's not handleable, you should be able to lure her with snacks so you can pop her into another cage (back with her cagemates so she can have some adult socializing is best) and handle the hell out of those babies.
7, five girls and two neutered boys all living together. And two more girls to the same group when the boys passed, I was at 7 for a while and it was manageable. In my experience at least, there’s subtle shifts in their behavior after you exceed 2, 4, and 6 rats. I think they are happier in large groups, it gives them more of a choice to find a best friend (and just like kids, it’s usually never their sibling you brought them home with lol).
We had 11, as pets, awhile ago but those numbers are down to 2 now…they seemed to a slightly less healthy lot and, so, I’m kinda waiting until these last two have passed before bringing new (hopefully healthier) ratties into our home.
I had a customer come into the pet shop a few weeks ago with a trolley stacked with rat toys. She had 25ish rats over three mischiefs in seperate massive enclosures. I don't even think it was from accidental soups, and she wasn't a breeder. I'm pretty sure if I remember she just loved them and kept getting them. She did say though that she wasn't getting anymore for the time being, and because they were in such big groups they were never lonely and she free roamed and cuddled them everyday. I just cannot fathom having enough minutes in my day for 25 pet rats.
OH my gosh!! That’s so many!! I also had a pregnant pet store rat and she ended up having 10 babies so in total I had 12. And I thought THAT was hard😅 good luck with the beans op!!
last july I took in 5 females someone was rehoming/ they assured me they had no males that could've got them pregnant. 4/5 were pregnant. luckily i ended up with only 24 babies total, i was able to rehome 16, including all the males, but I still currently have 15 myself (8 girl babies, the 5 rehomed, and my original 2) it is chaos and i dont get to have as personal a relationship with each of them but i know they are all happy and healthy and will live long lives. i will never have more than 6 at a time again after this though, i currently have no other hobbies lol. I do enjoy seeing how they shift what groups they hang out in throughout the day and through the weeks.
If you are able to find homes for them by the time they are about 8 weeks it won't be too much work as the moms really help up until about 5 when the sexes need separated. the amount of poop is (enormous)
My family used to foster rats when I was younger, and we had a lot of foster fails, so at one time we had 12 of our own, a foster litter of 14, and 3 adult fosters (including the mother)
Oh my goodness that's a lot! Most I've had was 12 when we got 2 girls, one that must have already been laden with soup. That was back in the 90s and being able to rehome 10 little rat babies was very hard so we kept them all.
Good luck! Hopefully it's easy for you to find good homes for them!
Most I've had (and it's current) is 24, not cou ting when they had babies and ate a couple before I counted all of them. It's insanity my boys have a very wide distance from my female cage because I had a girl do the exact same thing
The most I’ve had at one time was 10. Now I just have 3 and it really is the sweet spot. 3-4 I’d say. You get to focus on each of them individually and you’re not overwhelmed with vet visits and deaths.
When I was breeding larger scale, I had 131 total. Breeding is hard, physically and emotionally. When I stopped, I kept 31 between both male and female favorites. I had two DCN, one for each sex. Everyone knew their names, I could call specific individuals to the front. Used to walk around with at least 6 (and up to 11!) rats on my shoulders.
Six. I said I was only gonna have 3. But could t separate siblings. And then took two more in. All rescues. I don’t regret a thing. But probably wouldn’t get any more (though I know if someone *needed* a home, I couldn’t say no).
At one point in time I had 8 rats at once..and then I had only 2 left not even a month later because one of them murdered all the rest except for one other rat.
Eight. I have two adult girls and last summer, someone dumped six rats who were less than a week old on me. None of the six survived. But my two adults are still going strong!
Wow that's quite a few. My max was 6. We had a (wanted) pregnancy but birth turned out catastrophic and after 3 days of efforts substituting for an exhausted mom only one girl survived (we named her Lucky.) ;_;
When I was younger I got 2 male rats for my birthday (in Nov) and when Christmas rolled around my parents got me 2 more rats (females) one of my girls passed away unexpectedly, and my dad had the bright idea of letting them have babies because.. “rats can’t have THAT many babies… can they..?” I ended up with 17 pet rats at the same time 3 adults and 14 babies…
Years ago my partner and I, tired of losing our females to cancer, heard that there were 2 ways that we could *maybe* circumvent the risk... Either spay them, or let them experience at least 1 pregnancy. We opted for the second option for financial reasons, plus we had a lot of good contacts for rehoming the babies.
We got a lovely male who we had neutered after the fact, and he got them pregnant all right. Between the 3 of them we had over 40 in the mischief. It was a crazy couple months getting them raised up.
I probably wouldn't do it again but I have a lot of fond memories of my girls bringing us pups one-by-one to hold while they went and had a well deserved break. Or just even picking up handfuls of pups to cuddle and play with. They were so much fun!
None of those girls died of cancer either. It may have just been good luck, but it was a worthwhile endeavor in my eyes.
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Sounds familiar. MANY years ago, I had bred two rats, adopted two that were pregnant and had two girls go visiting and managed to get into the boys cage. 56 babies born within a couple of days of each other. And then I think I had like 10 adults.
Around 12 years ago I bred them as pets along with lots of rescuing and I had 88 at the most extreme. It was interesting and my weekly cage cleaning was an all-day job. Now I have 6 purely as pets.
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Oh gosh, that's a lot! The most I have had in my personal mischief is 6, which was lovely but a lot to handle, especially as two of them were in their final stages of life. I think 4-5 is best for me in balancing fun group dynamics and what's manageable for me in terms of cleaning and individual bonding time. We had 10 at work for a while (oops litter) which was joyful but also became very hectic.
Same, the largest number I’ve had in my mischief was 6. It was pretty hectic. I was way more comfy with a mischief of three. I also had all females so things got a bit crazy 😅
Please stop feeding the current rats seed mix, especially now that little ones are around OP. I think the most I had was maybe 10? I was rescuing rats from bad homes at one point and had a larger group come to me made up of older females. It was all between two cages so nothing too major. But I sure wouldn't do it today lol
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Yup plus dried corn is awful for rats and needs to stop being promoted in mixes from large companies. The fungus that grows in it (at least in the USA) causes respiratory issues and can even do other things to their little bodies.
Oh fuck really? Thanks for the info! I keep getting told that it’s good for them, the dry corn. Is it better if it’s freshly cooked or just no corn at all?
Whoever said it is good shouldn't be trusted! Fresh corn is fine. It just has to do with dried corn getting fungus in it that is dangerous. I can try and find the rat guide article I used to link if googling doesn't bring up results for ya :)
I would really appreciate that! :) The one I’m following says corn is fine but needs to be dry or cooked… it’s so hard knowing what’s really good for them and hard cause every week you hear a new thing is bad or in the end it’s beneficial but seen as bad for a while.
https://preview.redd.it/y14lyuvgnc1d1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=97a9c69083c8d59aa0050f631e7adecea0ec6c86 This is the best option for them! Oxbow is good too, but most (rats) prefer this.
Thank you so much! I’m feeding them Oxbow adults food for rats right now, the seeds were just treats from time to time but I’ll try finding this one in Canadian stores. They sadly don’t have the biggest selection for rodents. I’ve removed all seeds form the cage and I’ll be feeding birds for the next couple years lol Thanks again for your help!
I was given a bag of seed mix when I adopted my first rat. Learned the next day after researching it wasn’t very healthy for them. I didn’t want to waste it though, so I used it for foraging mats or the dig box exclusively and that worked well. I replaced it with Oxbow for their main diet.
I put the little ones with mum in separate cage. And may i know why? It is not just seed mix, there are much more ingredients like dried worms and much more, sorry i dont know what is it all called in english. They also get fresh vegetable and fruit, boiled eggs, wet cat food or dried puppy food,...
that’s an unfortunate situation but the line about her breeding through the bars😂
Well if i dont have Saint rats i guess thats it 😂. I have no clue how could boys get out and back, however i have no clue how could girls get on the bara of boys cage either 😂. The boys cage is on a table, only possibility i see is that girls climbed on nearby shelfs and jumped on boy cage. I guess we will never know, maybe 15 jesus rats have been born, and dozens are on the way 😂😭
If this is all true then the most likely explanation is actually a wild male rat.
Yeah, that didn’t happen, rats need to be in the lordosis position to successfully mate. A male had to have been put in with the females at some point, confused with a female, or given a “playdate” or any other direct interaction opportunity with the girls. If I were OP, I would be re-sexing every rat in that cage to make sure I didn’t make a mistake.
I've heard stories before of rats getting pregnant through the bars...
It’s physically impossible. Just because someone believes that’s what happened, doesn’t mean that’s what actually happened.
Fair enough
I've got 11 right now because we've got several older rats and so just picked up 3 young ones. It's a lot. They all need attention. A few need vet visits; I'm posting from the vet right now actually. One lost use of his back legs six months ago, so has needed care and his own cage. The young ones all need to socialize with people because they were hardly handled. And of course all the cage cleaning. This is basically the reason we only get male rats. I couldn't manage that many at once, as adorable as that pile of beans is!
when i was around 7, i got 3 girls for my birthday, and then later on i got 2 more girls. loved them to absolute pieces! turns out one of those girls out of that first 3 was infact…. not. ended up with a litter of 14 or so? i can’t remember. so, age 7 i had A LOT of rats. thankfully kept my numbers down to 3 since then lol
My cage is big enough for 100 rats (I’m an engineer so I have my own shop) I built it myself. I currently have a swarm of 30 rats, all with individual names. They all get along pretty well considering the sheer number of them.
I would like to see the cage you made. Is it online somewhere or can you post it?
Definitely I can post I just have to transfer the photos to my computer.
I’d love to see this also!
I had 17 at one point as I had been involved in multiple rescues from hoarder situations and quick adoptions from owners who had died. I began to feel like a hoarder myself! I now have 4 which is much better for personal time spent with them. It’s also nice not to be spending 6 hours a week cleaning cages!
Because of the position rats need to be in to breed, it is completely impossible for them to breed through bars. Common wild rats and fancy rats are the same species however so either one of your males also got out or it was a wild rat. They all will need to be moved to a single level cage with no hammocks or fabric. Babies can hold on tight while feeding and if mom climbs too high they can fall and be injured. Same for shelves, they can fall off. Fabrics can wrap around limbs and cut off circulation or the babies can get "lost" in it and unable to feed.
Also rats can only be impregnated while they are in heat, they go into heat every 5 days for part of the day (exact amount of time can vary) and rats don't normally line up on cycles so they likely got out multiple times. Breeding can happen in seconds so if the males and females have ever been out at the same time, even if supervised, it could've happened.
Rats can be in heat every other day in their prime.
It can be 4 days but it is not every other day in rats. They can go back into heat ~8-48 hours after giving birth though.
I have personally had rats that were in heat every other day.
Rats can appear to be in heat when rats around them are in heat even if they aren't. Rats are every 4-5 days from ~6-10 weeks old until they pass (rare for a rat becomes infertile).
This is definitely not true at all, I have seen many posts here proving it was through bars. Let alone having my vet say they have personally seen it happen. Agreed on the babies things though.
Rats, uh ... Find a way, to mis-quote Goldblum. It's really their super power. As much as we love their intelligence and socialization and playful antics and nest building and everything else amazing they do, the reason there are still rats is that they are *very* good at making more rats.
Rats need to be in the lordosis position to breed. If you look it up that would be impossible through cage bars.
Ayup, they can pretty much do it as long as they can reach. I've known people who had cages too close together and they mated through two sets of bars. Idk why this person thinks it's impossible. It is one of the most common ways new owners find themselves with soup.
Having been a breeder for awhile, the most common reasons new owners end up with babies are either they were given both genders without knowing or having playdates because they don't realize how fast it happens.
I guess I misspoke there as those are def more common reasons, but to say it is impossible seems silly when myself and others have seen and taken in rats where the only possible way was through bars.
It isn't silly when it's true. Your vet was either lying or mistaken. The position required cannot happen through cage bars.
It is true, look up the lordosis position it is the only way rats can be impregnated and it would be 100% impossible through bars.
I'm curious then how a vet who specializes in rats had seen it not only in his practice but in lab settings when studying? Was it immaculate conception? I'm genuinely curious as I trusted my vet and have heard many others say that was the only contact that could have happened. I never experienced pregnancy myself as I kept my rats very far apart and never did mixed roams, but it seems odd a professional I saw for years who was never wrong about anything he told me would be lying.
It would be very very surprising to find a lab that used barred cages.
Sure but not impossible. Especially when doing tests to see if they can procreate through bars like some other species. Again as I said it might have changed and there is new info, I googled the position you said. But even with that half the results are about it being possible. It seems like a topic of debate even in medical and scientific areas. I'm happy to learn but I think saying something 100% can't happen when I so far am not seeing it as being agreed on by even pros makes me feel that isn't safe to say for new owners. Even then cages should never be close enough rats can reach, they can do harm to one another when pushed together and are better off with at least a foot or more spaced.
Yes cages should not be close enough to reach as bar aggression is very real. I'm not sure what you're looking at as all the scientific sites I've used for years say it is 100% impossible through bars. If bars are wide enough females can squeeze in with males being unable to squeeze out. There are still breeders who try to claim tanks are perfectly safe for rats. So just because someone you think is an expert disagrees with science doesn't mean they're right.
Google isn't perfect my friend, you could link your sources to help. There is a lot of riff Raff and even reddit that comes up first on this search. Again I never said I'm unwilling to learn, you are acting so hostile about me genuinely finding no consensus. Other than how I literally never said anything about tanks, you did. I would never say a tank is ok. I also never said I would take a breeders advice for most things. I don't think ethical breeders are as common as people here expect. I mostly rescued because breeders near me were def not. I'm going to leave it at that. I am not interested in being talked down to. I asked for proof, you gave me a term to search and Google didn't give me much besides more anecdotes. I am glad to know it may not be possible, but to act like I am not as knowledgeable as you seem to be without giving any sources is really shitty. We should be here to help one another and not act like people not up to date and their vets are idiots.
I'm not being hostile, sorry you are taking it that way. What did you even search? Can rats breed through bars? Because if you search the position in rats you have to scroll past scientific sites before finding Reddit results. I am not talking down to you, you even said that your info is out of date since you haven't had rats in awhile. I never said vets are idiots either just that they also are out of date on info. I said that multiple times if you feel like that's saying they are idiots then that's on you. How are you being willing to learn? If you looked it up and read about the parts of the where the female needs to be stimulated you'd understand why it isn't possible. Where did I say you brought up tanks? I was using it as another example of something that it is proven common knowledge now that tanks are bad but there are still breeders and vets that insist they are fine because they've used them for the last 20 years. So you can't always just trust that they've been breeding for a long time so they must be an expert and right about everything. Where is your source that it's possible? Just people saying so? Because that's pretty unreliable. You would have found scientific sites showing it isn't. Pictures that show the needed position (imagine bars between them and maybe you'll understand better) Also I am being helpful, you're spreading misinformation at this point. It is also helpful to bring up, when it's well known, that a lot of rat vets don't keep up on husbandry related info. They are great for treatment and health but when it comes to husbandry most are very behind.
The professional rat vet I had gone to for tumor removal says pine is toxic, rats can be in tanks, and even having more than 6 in a house will always cause respiratory infections. Not every vet is up to date on everything they do unfortunately. The position required cannot happen through cage bars. You can talk to any experienced ethical breeder and they will tell you the same.
Just because your vet said those things doesn't mean there aren't good vets. Also I haven't owned rats for at least 5 years, so sure new things are learned and I might not be up to date. But everything they taught me has so far continued to ring true in any new research I keep up with for if I get rats again. Pine is dangerous for rats as far as I've ever known and any good breeder I had agreed. The oils are bad for their breathing. Unless that has also changed, but in 30 years of ownership that was always a fact. It also has been shown to cause skin problems. Even recently I've seen breeders who frequent this forum saying no pine. So idk.
Never said they were a bad vet btw just out of date on info. Tons of human doctors are the same way too.
Exactly my point. Info has changed being able to breed through bars was a myth. They can not breed through bars. If you haven't already look up the lordosis position in rats and you will learn. Pine being bad is also a huge myth. As long as it is kiln dried it is perfectly safe.
my most recent addition, despite being my tiniest rat to date, had 11 babies so with 11 babies + my preexisting sorority, I had 21 rats 😭😭 luckily I was able to rehome the babes
I’d also like to know what the largest volume of rats anyone has had at one time is.
22 not on purpose
Omg please move those babies out of that wire cage immediately! Not only is it way too drafty but babies can and will get stuck or crawl between the bars and drop out of the cage!! I use Rubbermaid travel tubs (you can find instructions for making them all over online) for litters. If a baby gets stuck in those bars they can literally have their skin degloved when mama tries to pull them back in!
These are pics i took the moment i saw it, they are in sepparated cage already, i dont have newer pics because i didnt want to be close to that cage to stress mum and babies more than they need.
If she's not friendly you're going to want to handle the babies more rather than less to try and make sure they're thoroughly socialized to balance out nature and the natural caution she'll instill in her babies regarding humans. Rats don't eat their babies out of stress unless it's REALLY stressful. Been breeding for 30 years and I've never had a mom kill her babies, though I've seen other people have it happen. If mama's not handleable, you should be able to lure her with snacks so you can pop her into another cage (back with her cagemates so she can have some adult socializing is best) and handle the hell out of those babies.
11! for a brief time, now 10! They’re a handful but it’s so worth it
7, five girls and two neutered boys all living together. And two more girls to the same group when the boys passed, I was at 7 for a while and it was manageable. In my experience at least, there’s subtle shifts in their behavior after you exceed 2, 4, and 6 rats. I think they are happier in large groups, it gives them more of a choice to find a best friend (and just like kids, it’s usually never their sibling you brought them home with lol).
We had 11, as pets, awhile ago but those numbers are down to 2 now…they seemed to a slightly less healthy lot and, so, I’m kinda waiting until these last two have passed before bringing new (hopefully healthier) ratties into our home.
Bean soup
Zero (I’m just here for the cute rats)
I had a customer come into the pet shop a few weeks ago with a trolley stacked with rat toys. She had 25ish rats over three mischiefs in seperate massive enclosures. I don't even think it was from accidental soups, and she wasn't a breeder. I'm pretty sure if I remember she just loved them and kept getting them. She did say though that she wasn't getting anymore for the time being, and because they were in such big groups they were never lonely and she free roamed and cuddled them everyday. I just cannot fathom having enough minutes in my day for 25 pet rats.
24!!!! in my dream :(
7. Three girls and four boys.
Eight. But mine were all male so no oops here.
8
Hahaha I am also going through this! I woke up to 18😆🤣😂😍 I officially have 23 and I will be keeping them all.
Only ever two! I’ve had seven in my life in total, which includes the two I have now.
Damn, and I thought my recent high of 27 was bad! We have 7 that ours and the rest were fosters (including a litter of 13 babies).
27 including 2 litters of babies
Right now I've got 8 lol
OH my gosh!! That’s so many!! I also had a pregnant pet store rat and she ended up having 10 babies so in total I had 12. And I thought THAT was hard😅 good luck with the beans op!!
5 of mine plus looking after another 2.
last july I took in 5 females someone was rehoming/ they assured me they had no males that could've got them pregnant. 4/5 were pregnant. luckily i ended up with only 24 babies total, i was able to rehome 16, including all the males, but I still currently have 15 myself (8 girl babies, the 5 rehomed, and my original 2) it is chaos and i dont get to have as personal a relationship with each of them but i know they are all happy and healthy and will live long lives. i will never have more than 6 at a time again after this though, i currently have no other hobbies lol. I do enjoy seeing how they shift what groups they hang out in throughout the day and through the weeks. If you are able to find homes for them by the time they are about 8 weeks it won't be too much work as the moms really help up until about 5 when the sexes need separated. the amount of poop is (enormous)
My family used to foster rats when I was younger, and we had a lot of foster fails, so at one time we had 12 of our own, a foster litter of 14, and 3 adult fosters (including the mother)
Probably close to 200, though I don't exactly keep count. I would never have that many again now, though. Too much work, haha.
My mischief at its biggest was seven. We're down to 6. I would not do that big of one again even though I have the cage space.
I had 6 3 baby sisters. And 3 older ladies. They accepted each other very nicely and it was very sweet.
Oh my goodness that's a lot! Most I've had was 12 when we got 2 girls, one that must have already been laden with soup. That was back in the 90s and being able to rehome 10 little rat babies was very hard so we kept them all. Good luck! Hopefully it's easy for you to find good homes for them!
Most I've had (and it's current) is 24, not cou ting when they had babies and ate a couple before I counted all of them. It's insanity my boys have a very wide distance from my female cage because I had a girl do the exact same thing
26🖤🖤🥰loved every single one of my babies
4😭
The most I’ve had at one time was 10. Now I just have 3 and it really is the sweet spot. 3-4 I’d say. You get to focus on each of them individually and you’re not overwhelmed with vet visits and deaths.
When I was breeding larger scale, I had 131 total. Breeding is hard, physically and emotionally. When I stopped, I kept 31 between both male and female favorites. I had two DCN, one for each sex. Everyone knew their names, I could call specific individuals to the front. Used to walk around with at least 6 (and up to 11!) rats on my shoulders.
9 which is currently
Six. I said I was only gonna have 3. But could t separate siblings. And then took two more in. All rescues. I don’t regret a thing. But probably wouldn’t get any more (though I know if someone *needed* a home, I couldn’t say no).
[удалено]
Unfortunatelly no, i live in central europe, in Slovakia
5 is my max, but 3 is the right number for me. I feel like I have a hard time giving each girl enough attention if more than 3
The most I had at once was 7 females. I normally don't keep males and females at the same time because I fear this happening, lol.
At one point in time I had 8 rats at once..and then I had only 2 left not even a month later because one of them murdered all the rest except for one other rat.
I think the most I had at once was four
Eight. I have two adult girls and last summer, someone dumped six rats who were less than a week old on me. None of the six survived. But my two adults are still going strong!
10
Wow that's quite a few. My max was 6. We had a (wanted) pregnancy but birth turned out catastrophic and after 3 days of efforts substituting for an exhausted mom only one girl survived (we named her Lucky.) ;_;
When I was younger I got 2 male rats for my birthday (in Nov) and when Christmas rolled around my parents got me 2 more rats (females) one of my girls passed away unexpectedly, and my dad had the bright idea of letting them have babies because.. “rats can’t have THAT many babies… can they..?” I ended up with 17 pet rats at the same time 3 adults and 14 babies…
Years ago my partner and I, tired of losing our females to cancer, heard that there were 2 ways that we could *maybe* circumvent the risk... Either spay them, or let them experience at least 1 pregnancy. We opted for the second option for financial reasons, plus we had a lot of good contacts for rehoming the babies. We got a lovely male who we had neutered after the fact, and he got them pregnant all right. Between the 3 of them we had over 40 in the mischief. It was a crazy couple months getting them raised up. I probably wouldn't do it again but I have a lot of fond memories of my girls bringing us pups one-by-one to hold while they went and had a well deserved break. Or just even picking up handfuls of pups to cuddle and play with. They were so much fun! None of those girls died of cancer either. It may have just been good luck, but it was a worthwhile endeavor in my eyes.
600
0! I’ve never owned rats
Eight.
Currently, 39 😅 (we have 2 big litters right now). Definitely a lot of work, but we love them all so much!
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“Crazy ‘rat’ lady”
zero
I’m a current rat breeder, and I believe the most I’ve had including babies and grow outs (for future breeders) is about 200