Size/Age of rats?

[PurplePython]

Well I am getting my first adult Ball Python this weekend. I am going to have to start dealing with rats now. I was wondering what size rat I should start with to start breeding them? Small, medium, large, or jumbo? Which is the best size rat to start a breeding colony?

[bsash]

Well, you can feed mice if you want. I like rats because they are great for plumping up small snakes fairly quickly. Another thing is, for breeding, rats will continue to grow until they are fed off, you might start breeding them at size medium, but they will grow into a jumbo if you never kill them. Also, rats have larger litters than mice, so you will not need so many to keep up with your feeding needs. Also, they grow faster than mice, so they usually reach your feeding size need faster.

It is all personal preference. However, I prefer rats because there are more pros than cons for me. It is your choice in the end, do what has more pros than cons for you.

[PurplePython]

Well, you can feed mice if you want. I like rats because they are great for plumping up small snakes fairly quickly. Another thing is, for breeding, rats will continue to grow until they are fed off, you might start breeding them at size medium, but they will grow into a jumbo if you never kill them. Also, rats have larger litters than mice, so you will not need so many to keep up with your feeding needs. Also, they grow faster than mice, so they usually reach your feeding size need faster.

It is all personal preference. However, I prefer rats because there are more pros than cons for me. It is your choice in the end, do what has more pros than cons for you.

I am most likely going to breed rats and continue to breed my mice. It just seams like a longshot that I will constantly have liters of rats that I can take pinky/fuzzy rats out of to feed my smaller snakes if I get more. Thats there the mice will come in (to feed to my smaller snakes).

Plus my girlfriend is getting a corn snake soon, which probably means she will get more than one also, lol. It'd be easier to have mice that are a good size for corns to eat instead of rats aint it? Even when they get older?

So I am thinking small rats would be a good place to start, since you say they grow so fast. By the time my small rats become "jumbo" I should have another snake or two anyway I am guessing.

Thanks for the help. I just never considered breeding rats until I actually realized how much it is going to cost me in the long run of buying them every week. The closest place to me that sells rats at feeder prices is like 40 minutes away. These pet shops around me only sell rats as "pets" and they are like $11.99 each....

[bsash]

I am most likely going to breed rats and continue to breed my mice. It just seams like a longshot that I will constantly have liters of rats that I can take pinky/fuzzy rats out of to feed my smaller snakes if I get more. Thats there the mice will come in (to feed to my smaller snakes).

Plus my girlfriend is getting a corn snake soon, which probably means she will get more than one also, lol. It'd be easier to have mice that are a good size for corns to eat instead of rats aint it? Even when they get older?

So I am thinking small rats would be a good place to start, since you say they grow so fast. By the time my small rats become "jumbo" I should have another snake or two anyway I am guessing.

Thanks for the help. I just never considered breeding rats until I actually realized how much it is going to cost me in the long run of buying them every week. The closest place to me that sells rats at feeder prices is like 40 minutes away. These pet shops around me only sell rats as "pets" and they are like $11.99 each....

Well, it depends on how many snakes you are looking to feed, and what sizes you will need. I had 7 ball pythons two years ago, and my two monitors (Monitors only get one rat a week), and I had a 2.5 breeding group of rats, each of the five female rats would have 6- 10 babies a litter, about every 6-8 weeks. I would feed the pups off to the ball pythons at 4 weeks of age, making them about the size of a small mouse, the rats that went to the monitors were about 8 weeks old, and about the size of a large mouse. Having a breeding colony of that size, and producing as many babies as they did, I had lots of extras to sell on craigslist.com, and more than enough to feed my own animals. So, like I said, it depends on what your needs are exactly.

I tried breeding mice, they either never bred, or ate all of their babies, so I fed them all off and started with the rats. With rats, I have never had a problem, I'm just not allowed to breed them anymore, so now I'm the one buying from people on craigslist.com, ha ha.