doh rats

[P. Novak]

Alright so I've been attempting to breed jumbo rats, and I wanted to know how long the gesgation(sp?) period is? Another thing is, is that I only have one female and one male at the moment. The femaled appeared to be pregnant over a week ago with a fat tummy. I have them in a breeding rack, and well slowly over the last couple of days the female has developed bite marks or scratch marks on her side. At first it wasn't too bad, but now it's pretty disgusting. It's like a hole. :wall:

Any tips please?

I just seperated the male from her because I believe he is causing it.

 

[ballpython2]

I'm not sure what it could be but can i see pictures?

Maybe she caused it her self and it is biting at it her self and causin it to get worse?

In my opinion any holes call for a vet visit if it gets too big

 

[P. Novak]

I'm not sure what it could be but can i see pictures?

Maybe she caused it her self and it is biting at it her self and causin it to get worse?

In my opinion any holes call for a vet visit if it gets too big

I'll get pictures later tonight.

Hm, that is always an option.

I don't mean to offend anyone with this, but I don't think I'm going to take a breeding rat to the vet. I'll just feed her off and get another one. It's only cause it'll be a waste taking a prey item to the vet.

 

[Diggy415]

humm i raise rats and must say i have never seen a hole and if your snakes take frozen i would freeze it first, you don't know if it has mites or what not or another disease that is causing it, female mice get their back ends chewed up alot due to males, but havn't seen such a case with rats. Good you seperated them and i believe gestation is 20 dys look up "breeding rats" on the net, tons of info that's how i got my start and now im 16 tanks strong with both rats and mice, more mice at the moment. if you get another F and it happens again, replace the aggressive male.

 

[Rochelle]

The gestation period is 3 weeks. If you believe it even remotely possible that it may some sort of parasite or disease..do NOT feed it to your snake.

Good luck!

 

[P. Novak]

The gestation period is 3 weeks. If you believe it even remotely possible that it may some sort of parasite or disease..do NOT feed it to your snake.

Good luck!

I was worried about that, but wouldn't the male have it as well? And it took days for it took get this bad. It started out small and kind of reminded me of what some of our pet mice use to do to each other. If I do decide to feed it I won't until I'm certain it won't cause any harm to my pets. It'll be frozen before feeding as well.

Pictures will be up tonight.

 

[Diggy415]

yeah if my rats have tumors i just throw them out, even frozen i can't feel safe, i had a friend who i gave a rat too and it was 2yrs old and had a large tumor the size of my fist, and was still alive, she couldn't put it down and spent 200+$ at the vet and i had to do the work and then toss it, that's what pisses me off to have a rat get that bad. I also have a mom rat who has a small teat tumor but no other mothers to take over and yet she has to finish being a mom and then she is out.

 

[xhexdx]

My guess with no pictures is it's an ulcerated tumor.

Gestation for rats is 23 days, and they are breeding age at approx. 4 months old. Hope this helps.

 

[P. Novak]

My guess with no pictures is it's an ulcerated tumor.

Gestation for rats is 23 days, and they are breeding age at approx. 4 months old. Hope this helps.

I really don't think it's a tumor. This may sound ridiculous, but it reminds me of the damage done from a chestburster in the movies aliens. It looks like the male knawed her like she was a chew toy.

 

[xhexdx]

I'd like to see pics if you are able.

 

[P. Novak]

I'd like to see pics if you are able.

I've been meaning to take some pics, I'll get them up as soon as I can; Busy with school and work.

 

[P. Novak]

URGENT: The female rat that I have been talking about was getting much better, so I put the male back in. The male rat for some reason began breathing heavily and not moving around very much. Then died a few days ago. The female, I just noticed, has another HUGE hole in her other side, it opens up right into her. I don't know the cause and I've been trying to research it. She seems to be really suffering and was wondering what would be a good way to put her out of her misery. I was considering feeding her to my biggest snake?

 

[Meaningless End]

i would just feed her off. personaly i use the neck snap meathod to pre kill... its very quick and effective... when male rats start to get that laybored breathing thing going on its usually because there sick and about to die... so those always get fed off..

good luck.. biggest pain ive found about rat breeding is when mothers eat there young... its gross.. and it pisses me off everytime...any female i have that eats her babys gets fed off right away because its lakely that they will continue to do it...

rats are gross man...

 

[P. Novak]

I know they are, and really strange too. Anyways, I would have really liked to keep her as my main breeding girl, but she is just a mess. After she is killed, I will take a picture of her. It is really disgusting.

 

[ballpython2]

I know they are, and really strange too. Anyways, I would have really liked to keep her as my main breeding girl, but she is just a mess. After she is killed, I will take a picture of her. It is really disgusting.

whatever it is becareful you dont contract anything from it because mammal to mammal diseases are never fun