How many to start?

[WHerpsunlimited]

I am thinking of breeding rats for my ball pythons. I have 5 now so i was thinking of starting with two females and one male. How long does it take to start having babies? I was planning on building a small breeder rack since I don't need very much now. How does my plan sound and were should I start? Thanks for any advice.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

To produce consistently you need one female rat per snake.

Gestation is 21 days.

[Daigga]

One female per snake is a good place to start. I'll also say the best thing you can do is to find a supplier with a good breeding stock and to get yourself a younger group of females to start. Don't be afraid to get them too young to breed right away, raising them up to ideal size will be a good practice in husbandry as well as ensuring you are happy with your girls. The last thing you want is to get impatient and rush off to the nearest pet store to buy large female rats, as these are usually retired breeders that will throw very small litters that won't help you any.

Once you have the females you want, make sure you have access to a good food source. Find a feed store near you that stocks mazuri rodent diet or something similar. As with the rats themselves, the supplies you buy at the pet store are going to be overpriced and inefficient for your purposes (10 dollars for 3 pounds of rat food is obscene. Feed stores should have 50 pound bags for no more than 25 dollars).

Probably first thing to do is actually to purchase/build the housing for them. A rat rack with a plumbing system is a gift from god as far as breeding purposes go. Rat cages or glass tanks are a nightmare to clean rat poo out of on any kind of larger scale. They aren't so hard to build, if you can't buy one near you. Be ruthless in the culling of chewers, though. I've had to throw out a lot of tubs due to annoying chewing, and it gets costly at 5 dollars per tub...

[WHerpsunlimited]

Thank you. I plan on building a rack first then get some.

[sapphira80]

Daigga-- I had some problem chewers, they were driving me crazy! Idk how large scale you breed and this may not be feasible for you (I only have 20 breeders), but throwing in some uncooked pasta with their food a couple times a week has gotten rid of my chewing problems. I just buy the biggest bag of whatever is the cheapest enriched pasta (usually store brand egg noodles) at the grocery store. They seem satisfied to chew on that and not the bottles, tubs, etc.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Daigga-- I had some problem chewers, they were driving me crazy! Idk how large scale you breed and this may not be feasible for you (I only have 20 breeders), but throwing in some uncooked pasta with their food a couple times a week has gotten rid of my chewing problems. I just buy the biggest bag of whatever is the cheapest enriched pasta (usually store brand egg noodles) at the grocery store. They seem satisfied to chew on that and not the bottles, tubs, etc.

Chewing issues can be addressed very easily, a 2x4 piece of wood will do the trick.

Something else must be done with chewers, every chewers and cagemates MUST be euthanised, if they chew once they will chew again and also teach other to do so.

[Tsanford]

Chewing issues can be addressed very easily, a 2x4 piece of wood will do the trick.

Something else must be done with chewers, every chewers and cagemates MUST be euthanised, if they chew once they will chew again and also teach other to do so.

I second this. I chop 6" pieces of 2x2 or whatever other scrap I got into each tub and this satisfies the chewing. I change them out every couple of months when they are chewed or covered in their waste.

Also Deborah is right, any chewers, biters or escapists are fed off. Rats are smart and will teach all unwanted behaviors to the rest of them.

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[Daigga]

Just to clarify; I use paper towels for snake bedding and would toss the empty cardboard tubes in with the rats for them to chew on or play with. For some, this was totally fine, but others chewed on everything they could get their teeth in. Culling is really the only way to go to stop unwanted behavior. It kind of sucks when you get attached to a rat only to check in one morning to see her staring at you through a huge hole in the bin, but that's just the way it goes.

[WHerpsunlimited]

Should I breed dumbo rats? There are so many different types.

[sapphira80]

Okay thank you everyone the info about chewing. I will definitely be following your advice.