Another thinking about breeding rats thread

[Quantum Constrictors]

Hey all,

So I have been buying F/T rats for all my snakes for a few months now and am starting to notice how costly it is.

I will give you an example. Today I spent $30 on 2 small adults,8 pups and a live mouse hopper. When I paid $9 at the one store for the adults I couldnt believe it! 2 smalls for $9!!! and 8 pups for $20 at the other store!

Now youre probably wondering why I have to buy at 2 different stores. Well thats where the next problem comes in. SUPPLY! The 2 pet stores in my town that are not petsmarts or pet values sell live or frozen rats. But they never ever have the right sizes in stock. I have actually had to miss feeding because they wont have stock in for me to feed my snakes! I usually buy 1 month or 2 stock at a time and most of the times I cant because they wont have enough or any at all. And I REALLY hate buying F/T from the one store because they have a bad rep on their F/T.

The next is price. I pay $2.50 PER rat pup. Qt's over 10 are 2.25 each. Small adults are $3.99 each. Qt's over 10 are $3.50. This is way way way too much.

So I have a buddy up 2 1/2 hours away from me that has THE best prices for F/T rats my only problem is that he lives so far away and its $50 of gas just to get their and 5 hours out of my day.

So I start doing my research.

I start making charts on how much it will cost for me to buy a 4 months supply of F/T from A) Pet store B) Buddy C) Breeding.

So :

A) The pet store will cost me an insane amount of money for 4 months.

B) My friend costs me $40 cheaper than the pet store for 4 months

C) Breeding is $20 more than the friend and $20 cheaper than the pet store.

But Buying from my friend I also have to factor in $50 for gas money.

So with breeding I have been doing a ton of research. I have found that this thread here :

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-Many-to-Breed

is the most helpful in how many I should breed and when and all that jazz.

So I want to start a 2.12 breeding colony like it says in that thread. I have 6 snakes right now but plan on having 3 or 4 more in the near future.

What ever I do not feed to snakes I will just sell off to the pet stores or freeze for later.

I plan on have 6 10 gallon tanks with 4 females in each tank with a total of 3 of the tanks having females in them.

EDIT: Oh and I forgot to add it will probably cost me about $200-250 to get the rat breeding colony set up.


Now this is all still a thought it my head.

Do you think that it would be easier and less hassle to put the extra money into just buying the cheaper F/T from my friend?

Will it be easier to just breed the rats?

What do all you rat breeders out there think?

All help is appreciated!

Thanks so so much!

[wilomn]

You won't have much success with 4 females in a tank so small. Do yourself a favor and build a rack.

[Quantum Constrictors]

You won't have much success with 4 females in a tank so small. Do yourself a favor and build a rack.

Ok cool thats what I was thinking. A 10g being to small with so many in one. So a rack as in like using tubs?

[wilomn]

Indeed.

[Tfpets]

I built myself one of the generic rat racks you see all over the place. Mine is 4 of the small cement mixing tubs. I try to keep the colonies at 1.5. For the most part I can keep up with my collection of about 40 snakes, only occasionally needing to thaw some frozen rodents. I even occasionally get to put some in the freezer!

[kdreptiles]

I'm a bit more picky about my rats, and only keep 3 females per 24"x32" cement mixing tubs. Sometimes 4. A 10g is way too small even for one. Besides, then you have to put the water bottle in the tank, where it can get chewed up. Then you have a watery mess on your hands.

Are you sure you want 2.12? That is a LOT of rats for 6 snakes, you can sell the excess if you're lucky enough to find buyers. My 2.11 colony has left me with a ton of excess in the freezer. It is also a LOT more smell. Do you have a well-ventilated area? Tanks are pretty poor for ventilation. Ventilation problems can lead to RI, just like in snakes.

Daily care is needed for the rats, whether it's providing food or water (they go through a LOT of water) or keeping their cage fresh, as well as checking to see if they're healthy. If they become ill it's still your responsibility. I highly believe there are quite a lot of breeders who only do it for their snakes that really shouldn't be. Rats are not to be treated like some people like to treat them, they are still intelligent animals that crave attention and stimulation.

My 4 tub rack (with 24"x32" large cement tubs) cost me only about $120 including the tubs. I would recommend doing this, it was actually a lot of fun to build!

I used this plan, except for the main frame I used 2x4s instead of 2x2s.
http://www.rodentracks.com/Large-Tub-Rat-Rack.html

Here's mine


Breeding rats is very exciting and rewarding to those who love them, as well as being somewhat cheaper per rat to produce your own.

[Quantum Constrictors]

Thanks KD you were a ton of help!

Yah I thought the 10g would be a bad idea but like I said this is all an idea right now and not in motion yet.

I really dont even know if I will breed it seems like it is a lot of responsibility and time consuming. I have a lot of both of those its just I was wondering if it is.

Also the other problem is that the rack would be set up in my bedroom that has little ventilation. I just have a fan circulation air 24/7. There would be absolutely no where else to put it since I live in an apartment with my mother and sister.

Do you think this seems worth it at all or would the 2 hour drive every 4 months be the more logical thing?

[kdreptiles]

Yes, it is quite a bit of both of those. Also smelly. In a small room with little ventilation, it will be almost impossible to keep the smell down. I have to have mine in the living room. They are also nocturnal and make lots of noise at night (the sound of the water bottles all night drives me NUTS). I think if you don't have a large room with lots of ventilation it would be a bad idea.

Woops, I also noticed I said the tubs were 24x32. I meant 24x36.

[wilomn]

You could pull the bottles at night or just put in a watering system.

[Tfpets]

I will say that I put WAY more daily work into the rodents than I do the snakes. My rats are pets with a purpose you could say! They are all handlable and friendly. Mine are in my son's bedroom with tons of ventilation. We keep them very clean and use Aspen to try to keep the smell down. My wife even bathes them occasionally! It's funny to go into the bathroom and see rats grooming themselves all over the counter top!

Edit: my rack is same idea/design as the one above!