Newbie wanting to discuss Rat Breeding Stuff

[Balls Out Morphs]

Well my son and I have went from 1 ball python to 11 ball pythons over the last couple months and I have started looking into breeding our own food. Out of all of them we have 7 that will take f/t without a problem but the other 4 want nothing but live. I know there’s less work in ordering the f/t but I think after the initial purchase of the rack and 1 time buy supplies the overall cost of feeders will be less than purchasing f/t and I can still deep freeze my own. My plan is start with this same breeding plan; http://www.metalmonkeyexotics.com/blog/?page_id=1977 and after adding up the cost of rack materials I think I may go with this rack to get started; http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.p...=139&de=828813. I plan to run this set-up in my basement with a DIY Air Purifier and hope it doesn't stink things up too bad being cleaned once a week.

I know some of this is just rambling but your thoughts and opinions are greatly appreciated. I don't plan to add anymore to our collection until we have babies of our own so all of this is being based around 11 ball pythons.

[Balls Out Morphs]

Well we're building the rack today... Pics to come

[TrueDatxD]

looks good to me. id think you might need another female or two just in case..

[kyser/wrx]

Agree with truedat deffintley another female

[zeion97]

Looks good. I myself am starting a set up using non stop. (Females are hard to get here) I use two males and 4 females (2 more baby females at 5 weeks) I do plan to switch to this set up once I get more females though!

Tbh, I don't have a smell problem. And I only get what smells come from breeding from my mice.

[Balls Out Morphs]

After a few changes and a weekends worth of time I now have a sweet 8 Story Rat Factory
I'll be adding the watering system this week and as long as I get my order in by 10am this Wednesday morning I'll my rats by the following weekend.



Now I'm reevaluating the "breeding plan" I was intending on using because I'm worried I'll have a hard time keeping up with each female and how long she's been in with the male. I'm limited to this rack for the time being and I have 11 mouths to feed that range from 120g to 2500+g and want to make sure to have plenty of rats each week. What would the best "breeding plan" be?

[Balls Out Morphs]

Well my 5 pack of Native Earth that I ordered from National Pet Pharmacy arrived today, I picked up 2-40lb bags of Kiln Dried Triple Screened Pine Bedding, and 2-40lb bags of Pine Pellets. The watering system supplies will be here tomorrow and I'll be picking up my 12 female and 6 male rats tomorrow night. Being that I'll be freezing everything except what my two non-frozen eaters eat it just made since to me to try and have as many as possible at one time so I can gas things in larger groups. With that being said I plan to have 1.2 in 6 tubs and don't plan to remove females for birthing. I will use the remaining 2 tubs for grow outs and hold backs.

Now I'm trying to decide if I want to house my rat rack in the same room as my snake racks. It would make everything so much easier for me if I did but I worry about it bothering my snakes being that they'll constantly smell food. I already have a few that are on the aggressive side and I don't want to add to it by a non-stop feeding response.

[azmodane]

I've heard that having rats and snakes in the same room doesn't work. They snakes smell the rats and get excited. The rats smell the snakes and get scared so they don't breed. I bred both my snakes and rats in the same room without an issue. It was sketchy for about 2-3 weeks while everyone was getting used to the change but after that I didn't have a problem. You should be fine and shouldn't have to worry.

[Chuckels]

I would HIGHLY recommend using Pine Pellets as bedding. I've been breeding Rodents for going on 3 years now, still no expert, but I've found the smell and cleanliness of the Rats themselves is a whole lot better than using any sort of shredded pine, dried pine, or aspen. Also, if you can get your hands on some Mazuri Rodent food, I'd go with that. My production shot up about 150-200% once I switched to Mazuri.

As far as housing them together, I have never had to do that myself. I personally wouldn't unless it was absolutely a necessity.

Cost wise, I was spending $140/m on Feeders, now I spend about $40/m on feed/bedding. I built (1) 6 High, and (2) 5 High racks, and I can feed my collection of 15 snakes easily, with extra feeders normally leftover.

[Balls Out Morphs]

I would HIGHLY recommend using Pine Pellets as bedding. I've been breeding Rodents for going on 3 years now, still no expert, but I've found the smell and cleanliness of the Rats themselves is a whole lot better than using any sort of shredded pine, dried pine, or aspen. Also, if you can get your hands on some Mazuri Rodent food, I'd go with that. My production shot up about 150-200% once I switched to Mazuri.

I'm using pine pellets as a base layer and kiln dried triple screened pine shavings on top that I purchased at Southern States, the pellets are $5.49/40lb Bag and the Shavings are $5.69/7.5cuft Bag. I thought this may be more comfortable for the rats and better for nesting mothers. With using the mortar tubs and only housing 1.2 in each tub I look for any smell to be minimal by also using the DIY Air Purifier. I checked out the Mazuri but the only places I found it online are way to expensive with shipping and the places (pet shops) local to me want $50+ per 50lb bag! I compared the ingredients of the Native Earth to that of the Mazuri and they are almost identical. The big difference between the two is that I can get (5) 40lb bags of it shipped to me for about $80.

As far as housing them together, I have never had to do that myself. I personally wouldn't unless it was absolutely a necessity.

Unfortunately I don't have a choice at this time if I wanna breed my own rats. I am working on remodeling an area of my basement to be my new snake room and I believe I'm going to build a small ventilated room within it to house the rats and freezer only.

Cost wise, I was spending $140/m on Feeders, now I spend about $40/m on feed/bedding. I built (1) 6 High, and (2) 5 High racks, and I can feed my collection of 15 snakes easily, with extra feeders normally leftover.

For my 11 snakes ranging from 120g to almost 3000g it cost me close to $80/month to feed when everyone is feeding normally. I have purchased two more breeding adults and have several others that I'm shopping for so the feed bill is only going to grow. I believe after making all of the one time cost purchases it's going to be much cheaper breeding my own feeders and I don't mind the small amount of labor it takes to care for them knowing the quality food it's going to make for my prized possessions.