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Things to Think About Before Breeding Rats

© Karen Yang

I'm going to start this one off with a warning. Don't breed rats unless you are somewhat knowledgeable about genetic risks and are prepared to deal with any and all consequences! Remember, whenever there is a birth, there is also a chance for death. Are you prepared to care for a whole bunch of orphaned baby rats? Can you stomach it if the mom decides to eat several of her young? Can you cope with the possibility of losing both mom and babies? The more prepared you are, the less likely any of the above will happen, but you should be aware that these are real risks.

Why are you breeding?

This is the big one. As far as I'm concerned, there's really no reason to breed rats unless you're trying to improve the gene pool in some way. If you're doing it to witness the miracle of birth, please wait until you're ready to have your own kids and then go ahead and have them - believe me, there'll be miracle enough waiting for you then. (Not to mention pain, blood and yuk galore. If you don't want to put yourself through that, by all means, don't do it to your rats!!) If you're dead set on witnessing a rat birth, find an experienced breeder in your area who will let you watch. It's a much easier way to do it!

If you're doing it to breed rats to sell, then I hope you'll be selling them as pets and not as feeders. If you're breeding feeders, please leave this site now. Certainly you won't be able to make much money from breeding pet rats, so don't plan on getting rich from it. You have to go really inhumane and large-scale before you make any sort of profit from breeding rats, so it's not even worth considering.

If you're doing it as a genetic experiment, please be careful. There are a number of things that can go wrong when you mess with genes that you don't fully understand, so make sure that you research what you're doing. Some examples: 1) Breeding for tailless rats sometimes results in hind-legless or part-spineless rats, and there's really no market for them at all. 2) Breeding for odd-eyes can increase the risk of megacolon, a very unpleasant and usually fatal condition. 3) Breeding dominant Pearl to Pearl is lethal, so don't bother trying it! A good place to start learning about genetics and possible problems is Myomorpha's Genetics section at http://www.rodentfancy.com/myomorpha/fin... (also check out her Placement and Breeding section -- very useful info!)

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