Finally going to breed my own rats.

[Aric]

With the price of gas and all the shops that sell frozen rats around here have gone up ($4 a rat now), plus the quality of the rats has gone down a ton over the past few months, I have finally decided to breed my own feeder rats. I am thinking of just starting out small with maybe 3 females and 1 maybe 2 males just to get the hang of things, then when I get more snakes (believe me im getting MORE) breed more. I am just looking for advice on starting the whole rat breeding/feeding/cageing/etc. Thanks in advance.

[gncz73]

well i have 10 groups of female and there are two females per group and all i do is use the same male or two for all the groups

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

I would say go with 1 male for now, but it depends on your luck, I had a dud male for a while that wouldn't produce!

I will check this thread when I wake up and give some more helpful advice, I've been up for 28 hours now and im wiped



Important question(s):

1. How many snakes are you wantign to support
2. What size rats do you need.
3. Have you planned anything for enclosures yet?
4. Where did you get your rats/plan on getting them? Pet store rats of breeding size are often unhealthy and ?'able genetics (may be fine. may be inbred)

[Shelby]

I keep mine in 1.2 or 1.3 groups. I don't want the hassle of moving the male around all the time, and with more males I have a more diverse gene pool so I can raise up replacement female breeders as needed. I leave males with the girls all the time. The males don't hurt the babies, and often you will see them grooming the babies and generally hanging out with them.

Lab style cages (or freedom breeder rack levels if you can afford it) are the most efficient way to cage them.

If you can get quality lab blocks, that is the simplest way to get them the proper nutrition. Harlan-Teklad is the best, but it's hard to find. Mazuri has some good formulas, but make sure to get one that doesn't have alfalfa in it (or at least make sure it's low on the list) and that has corn low down on the list. Check protein levels. It should be below 20%.

I can't get good lab blocks so I use a formula like Becky's (SatanicIntention) it's in the sticky at the top of this forum.

Provide water in a bottle.. make sure if it's the ball valve kind that it isn't leaking! Sometimes brand new ones from the pet store will leak. No fun..

There's lots of beddings you can use.. aspen, carefresh, yesterday's news litter, I use pine. Some people don't like to use it, but these are not pets and it doesn't harm them as food items for the snakes. Most of the big rat breeders use pine. In the end, it is up to you.

I hope this helps a bit.

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

I'm about to purchase a ton of harlan-teklad lol. They are local to me and will deliver in 1 ton increments, gonna have to sell some somehow ;P


When you say you leave the males with the females the whole time, does that mean you leave them right before/after they give birth when they can re-impregnante the females?

[Shelby]

Yep.. males always with females. I havent had problems with consecutive litters. Works for me.

[Aric]

Important question(s):

1. How many snakes are you wantign to support

probably just around 15-20 right now and who knows in the next few years.

2. What size rats do you need.

From pups to big smalls

3. Have you planned anything for enclosures yet?

Not yet but the local reptile shop has some freedom breeder rat racks and they might be for sale, if not ill probably get some lab style cageing for the time being.

4. Where did you get your rats/plan on getting them? Pet store rats of breeding size are often unhealthy and ?'able genetics (may be fine. may be inbred)

The local herp shop, they are really nice and fat, plus they feed them the Harlan-Teklad food.

[frankykeno]

Personally Aric I'd suggest 4 females, 1 male. Make sure the females are of the proper age and size...around 4 to 5 months but not over 9 months for first breeding. Put them in tandem, 2 females at a time with the male and then pull the first set out when you see signs they are preggie, pop in your second set. That way you can have litters at different stages and sizes to suit most of your size requirements. With having a breeding buddy system like this, if one of your females has too many in her litter you can foster them to your other female in that pairing and not lose any that way.

It takes awhile to get a breeder/feeder rat colony running right to completely support all your feeder needs but it's well worth it in my opinion. I personally don't like to leave my male in with females and their litters, or have more than one female in an enclosure with a litter but that's just my way of managing my own colony. It's worked extremely well for me but as in all aspects of husbandry, to keep his/her own as long as the animals are thriving.

Just make sure your breeder stock is very healthy and not closely related (pretty hard to manage in some pet stores but hey it's worth a mention). There's a ton of threads in the Feeder Forum about rat breeding that should be a lot of help for you.

[Aric]

ok I think ill try 4 females, im going to be working on 2 more snake rooms (one I keep calling the Ball Room ) and I have the perfect space to put the rats, now I just have to find the cages.

[Shelby]

bigappleherp.com has nice lab style cages. I've got a bunch from them.. second best to the freedom breeder rack.