Breeding 100+ a week

[azmodane]

So lets say I wanted 120 adult rats a week how many breeding groups would I need? Also at that size is it necessary to pull the mother out once she drops pups and move her and babies to separate tub or would it ok to keep the group as it is and just pull the babies out once they stop nursing? Also would it be best to do 1.2 or 1.3?

[wilomn]

120 adults?

It's simple.

Let's say an adult rat is 16 weeks old. That means you need to pull aside 120 rats every week for sixteen weeks. Mind you now, during this initial 16 weeks NONE of the rats can be fed to your snakes.

The first week you'll have 120 weaned rats. The second week you'll have 120 4 week old rats and 120 weaned rats. The third week you'll have 120 5 week rats, 120 4 week rats and 120 weaned.

See how that grows?

By the time you hit your 16th week you've got a BUNCH of rats growing but then, on week 17 you will have 120 adult rats every week for as long as you keep the line going. Of course weather, malfunctioning equipment, newb mistakes on your part, can all set you back weeks at a time.

Good luck though, I like it myself.

[xdeus]

So lets say I wanted 120 adult rats a week how many breeding groups would I need? Also at that size is it necessary to pull the mother out once she drops pups and move her and babies to separate tub or would it ok to keep the group as it is and just pull the babies out once they stop nursing? Also would it be best to do 1.2 or 1.3?

Hmm... let's figure it out:

It takes about 3 months for a rat to grow into an adult and an average litter would have 10 pups (usually more, but let's be conservative). So you would need 12 females to have that initial litter, but their breeding cycle is about 2 months.

12 females x 9 weeks = 108 breeders.

@1.3 = 36 males/breeder groups

However, I would bump that up by 15-20% for females that don't breed all the time, small litters, etc.

As far as your other question, I would pull the small rats out at 1 month and give the mother another weeks rest before placing the male in her bin again.

[azmodane]

Alright wow this is looking to be a much much much larger project than I anticipated.... looking at needing about 60-70 tubs which will most likely be full for a majority of the time... 36 tubs with breeders about 20 tubs with rats that are growing and some rest/safety tubs....

[snakesRkewl]

I'm assuming your being hypothetical at this point

[azmodane]

Well I was really looking into it but it looks like jumping straight into gettin 120 a week is gonna be way more work than i need to take on at this point... I knew it was going to be work and would take some time but this is a lot more than i anticipated..

[blackcrystal22]

It's a good idea to start breeding, but never rely solely on the live rats your working with to feed your snakes.

ALWAYS have a backup plan if something goes wrong. Keep lots of frozen rats and mice on hand if you ever need them.

I use combined live and frozen. If live goes well, I'll feed off what I need to when I need to, but I always use frozen exclusively because it's easier for needed sizes.

Good luck.

[snakesRkewl]

Well I was really looking into it but it looks like jumping straight into gettin 120 a week is gonna be way more work than i need to take on at this point... I knew it was going to be work and would take some time but this is a lot more than i anticipated..

That would be insane to start off trying to breed and care for a group of rats that size with no previous experience breeding alot of rats.
I breed anywhere from 15-20 females and could not imagine trying to produce 120 adult rats a week.
I produce about 3-4 litters a week averaging 12-13 a litter.
I rarely let mine grow to adults though preferring to feed chunky weanlings.

[RichsBallPythons]

Start small for few months and work your way up.

I started everything small and now im up to 16 females and 2 males. All females have litters every other month with one month rest. This produces roughly 150 pinks every 2 months for me to keep freezer steadily filled.

[ice#1]

start a few months earlier then you need them that away you can stock up beofre you ever need that many thats what i'm doing. started my mice and rats 6 months before i get the 80+ snakes i plan on breeding

breeding small scale in 1 or 2 cages is nothing compared to breeding a rack or 2 and since i seen ur other thread of for wanting just as many mice per week your looking at at least 3+ racks for mice and rats for using (by 3 plus racks i mean making the racks your self so you can custom do 1 rack for nothing but breeders of rats then one for nothing but mice breeders. then an extra rack or 2 just to raise both the mice and rat babies in. but honestly youd just a guess need more like 3 or 4 extra racks to raise the babies in depending on size of tub you use and how many you put per tub

bet your glad you asked these question before you sank allot of money into doing it then found out it was allot more work then you planned on. but at same time if you want to get into breeding snakes breeding your own food is the only way to go. here for even f/t rats is 7 bucks for a jumbo so 7 x 120= 840 dollars per week to feed snakes taxes not included

i myself by time all my adult snakes get here plan on having 50 female rats breeding (excess rats and mice for first few months will go to fill a deep freeze for a stock pile for myself) once full will start selling excess off to the pets shops around me so they will help pay for themselves after a Lil bit of time