Buying F/T vs. breeding your own?

[Pampho85]

I'm just wondering, what are the disadvantages and advantages to breeding your own rats/mice vs. buying F/T? I honestly thought it was much more expensive to switch to breeding your own because you have to pay for bedding, food, extra tubs and such. But, it looks like that that's not the case. Is it not worth breeding your own if you have have about 15-20 snakes? How much money do you actually save while breeding your own? Thanks!

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Pros:

Do you save money yes? I cut about 50%-60% of the cost and I do not pay shipping.

I know exactly what my snake eat and where it comes from, this mean quality.

Cons:

The smell you better have have an option of outside building or basement room with a good exhaust fan so you do not smell it in your house.

Cleaning up, it's more work you have to clean up and interact with the rodents.

Rats grow fast so you need to be ready to euthanize before you get over populated with over grown rats. (Euthanizing rats is no fun)

[notmyfault]

Honestly, unless you really enjoy raising your own feeders for your snakes and you have enough snakes to warrant breeding feeders, its usually not worth it for most people.

Depending on the size of your collection, you would end up spending more or equal time with the feeders as with your snakes. Although having live feeders on hand makes feeding time easy. Just pick an appropriate size rat, pre kill or just throw it in, whatever your preference is and boom that's it. With f/t there's a little more prep work involved such as the thawing process reheating then doing the dance or leaving the rat in the cage.

I find f/t to work best for me because I have been able to get my snakes on f/t and I simply don't have time to breed the feeders myself. Storage is easy with f/t and the best part no smell from the live feeders!!!

Overall though to each his own and if you really want to take a shot at breeding go for it. I have and found that it just wasn't for me.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[Pampho85]

@Deborah: That's a huge difference! I honestly thought you would be saving about 5-15% due to buying food, bedding and such. Also, how do you euthanize your feeders? I've heard that the best way to do it is get some dry ice, put it in a small container with holes, then get a large cooler, put the rats/mice in, hen put the dry ice container in it, close the cooler and then wait for 5-10 min. Is that the most humane way possible?

@notmyfault: Time is the thing I'm worried about too. I don't know if I'll have time in the future, but hey, if it saves me quite a bit of money, I'm down for trying it! haha

[Stewart_Reptiles]

@Deborah: That's a huge difference! I honestly thought you would be saving about 5-15% due to buying food bedding and such

It comes down to where you buy your supply, I buy bulk, enough for a month and I buy from a local feed store.

I produce over 2000 feeders each year.

, . Also, how do you euthanize your feeders? I've heard that the best way to do it is get some dry ice

The problem with dry ice is that first it's not always easy to find, second it does not keep, third it's expensive compare to other alternatives.

I have a Co2 tank, I used to use a paintball canister but my needs increasing more and more, I switch to a bigger Co2 tank (10 lbs) which is exchanged when needed.

You can get a setup for less than $50

[dart]

My advice would be, if you only have 15-20 snakes and they all eat F/T is to stick with it. To add to what Deborah said,

Pros:
Cheaper (kinda)
Quality (you know the health of your rats)
Live always available (picky eaters)
Convenient (food is always on hand)

Cons:
Time consuming (cleaning)
Expensive to start (racks, watering, etc)
Smelly (omg yes)
Space (racks, food, bedding)
Killing rats is not fun!

Honestly, if I almost wish I didn't breed rats. They're a lot of work and they smell. The convenience factor is the only reason I breed them. When you buy F/T in bulk, the price comes close to even when you factor in food, bedding and racks. Building a rat rack is worth like 80+ rats. For smaller collections that readily eat F/T I'd advise against it. But, once you start getting into feeding 300+ rats a month and you have space/time available, it becomes worth it.

[The Serpent Merchant]

It also really depends on how many snakes you are feeding, and how long you have done so.

Like replacing all of your light bulbs with LEDs the initial cost is much higher... But over time you save money because the continuing costs are much less... So eventually you will save money but not at first.

Second I think that breeding feeders makes no sense if you have less than 10 snakes, the time and money required to breed rodents (not to mention the smell) out weight the savings (which are less since you aren't feeding as many rodents a week)

I currently have 7 snakes and I buy frozen. I buy 6 months worth of rodents at a time ($300-$400 usually) but save at least $250 vs buying rodents locally. To me that is more than enough savings for now.

Once I have a few more snakes and am not living in an apartment I will start breeding my own as it will at that point be worth the effort and I will have a rodent breeding shed in my back yard.

[Mike41793]

I concure with literally everything aaron said. For now im fine feeding f/t. In the future, when i hope to have many more snakes and am living in my own home, i will most likely breed my own. I'll definetly be doing it in a shed though bc those suckers REAK lol. Idc how many times a week you clean out the tubs, they still smell bad to me lol.

Also, and im not trying to start a fight here, ive heard snakes will generally feed better on live. As in less refusals. Whether this is true or not, i dont know for sure.

[Jabberwocky Dragons]

Great comments here and I don't really have anything extra to add except that I wouldn't necessarily include quality as a pro in raising your own... or rather, I wouldn't exclude it as a pro in buying f/t.

I get incredibly high quality f/t locally from a fellow bp enthusiast that breeds extra rats for other locals.

[dart]

Great comments here and I don't really have anything extra to add except that I wouldn't necessarily include quality as a pro in raising your own... or rather, I wouldn't exclude it as a pro in buying f/t.

I get incredibly high quality f/t locally from a fellow bp enthusiast that breeds extra rats for other locals.

The point of adding it as a PRO is because I know what my rats eat. No chance they've been fed dog food with red dye in it. That piece of mind is very important IMO. I've also ordered F/T from online places when my colonies didn't quite do the job, but when I received them I noticed a big difference between my rats and theirs. The rats I've bought are packaged poory, have bloody noses and purple feet. Now that my colonies have grown substantially, I sell my excess rats to other snake breeders as well and I can tell you, none of mine look that way.