Selling babies to a pet shop is one option but the risk you take is a lot of pet shops will sell rats for feeder food for snakes, also, you will not be able to choose who your rats go home with and they may not be sold in pairs - without a friend to play with rats can get very bored and lonely.
National Fancy Rat Society (UK)
Scottish Rat Club
North of England Rat Society
Yorkshire Rat Club
To have your rat page added just sign the guestbook on my home page and put in your page address
Although female rats can breed from about 6 weeks, breeding this young can put terrible strain on the mother rat as they are just not old enough to cope with looking after loads of baby rats. It's best to wait until female rats are about 4 months old and no older than 8 months before you let them breed for the first time.
Female rats are pregnant for about 21-23 days. It may not be that obvious your rat is pregnant because the pregnancy often doesn't show until the last week. It is important to give your mother to be plenty of bedding and boxes so she can build a nest which is often left to the very last minute, in some cases the day of the birth.
The best idea is to separate mother and father well before the due date as the female can become pregnant again soon after giving birth. You should also give your female rat at least 2 months before she becomes pregnant again.
An average litter size is about 12 babies, although this vary greatly as a litter can have from 1 to over 20 babies.
The babies should be left with their mum for about 5 to 6 weeks, after that time it is important to separate males and females otherwise there may be the pitter patter of even more tiny feet. The females can be left with their mother providing you have a big enough cage.
