First Rat

[Samuel]

Tenac took his first rat today. It was a smaller, normal rat. I was up in Sioux Falls, SD .. about an hour from me and took a tour of the pet stores there. Besides telling Petco that their BPs need at least one hide, and pointing out that the humidy was at 30%, I didn't get much.

All of the petstores had at least 1 BP, and ALL of them were kept incorrectly. If I would have had the space, I would have bought them all to take home .. but I didn't. I looked at the rats to see how expensive they are, and to figure out what kind of investment it would take to start a little breeding coloney .. looking at the pros and cons.

The last store I was in had their rats marked at $9.99. yeah .. I typed that right .. $10 effing dollars. I looked at my watch, and realized that by the time I got home our pet store would be closed ... and Tenac already had a night or two of hunting in ... so I was like "Screw it, Tenac needs food .. and I need to get going, so I will just pay the price and see if Tenac takes it alright".

"Ma'am, I need a rat."

"For a pet or for a feeder?"

"Feeder"

"Alright, Follow me."

She lead me to this box of rejects .. full of red eyes and such .. just the ones that would never get sold as a pet. She boxed one up, and brought me to the counter.

"That will be $2.18."

" ... what?"

"The ugly ones are cheaper"

"SCORE!"

So .. I got me one of the rejects, and took him on the journey home. The guy wasn't in a playful mood, kinda lazy .. not weak .. just lazy. Tenac didn't know how to react. He only eats live, so He was all excited, Sed his neck and sat waiting fro the rat to run by.

he didn't.

It took Tenac some time to realize that if he wanted to eat, he was going to have to get close to his food as his food will not get closer to him. WHAM! Perfect strike, perfect constriction. Since it was his first rat I was worried about the rat bite .. but Tenac knew what he was doing and all I had to do was sit back and watch him work.

YAY!

So .. long story .. but I had a cool day so .. TIME FOR SHARING!

^_^

[Mochelem]

Thats cool, I would have never paid $10 for a feeder even if I had to wait another day... Its cool that they sold you a cheaper one. I walked into a pet store here and asked for a feeder rat and went up to the counter and they said that will be 5.75, lol I told them this was a feeder not a fancy rat, they replied that is how much they cost so I told them to put that one back in the tank because Im not paying that much for a rat... I went to a pet store down the street and bought one for 2.50...

[John Marker]

I wish I could find feeder rats that cheap. I am paying about 4.50 plus tax for mine, and I have to drive 30 min each way to get them. Unfortunately I have only been able to find one pet shop in my area, and I use that term loosely, that carries feeder rats. I would love to pay under 3.00, that would be great.

Some people have all the luck.

[Mochelem]

I wish I could find feeder rats that cheap. I am paying about 4.50 plus tax for mine, and I have to drive 30 min each way to get them. Unfortunately I have only been able to find one pet shop in my area, and I use that term loosely, that carries feeder rats. I would love to pay under 3.00, that would be great.

Some people have all the luck.

If I had to go through all that to get rats I would look into either breeding them or try F/T... You can have frozen sent to your front door a lot cheaper than what your paying for them... Gas isnt cheap either...

[John Marker]

If I had to go through all that to get rats I would look into either breeding them or try F/T... You can have frozen sent to your front door a lot cheaper than what your paying for them... Gas isnt cheap either...

I am seriously looking into begining to breed my own rats, but I currently only have 5 ball pythons, ranging from about 400g to about 2700g. I am not sure if breeding will really save me any money. Also, one of my bp's refuses to take f/t, he was on strike, hunger strike that is, for about 7 months while I was attempting to get him on f/t. I have another, a female, that was slamming f/t for about 9 months, then in February she decided that all she wanted was live, go figure. So that is currently my situation, I am trying to figure out what I want to do, haven't come up with the definite answer as of yet.

And as far as the shipped f/t, I have a freezer full of them at the moment. I don't complain about feeding those at all, real cheap.

[grunt_11b]

I guess I'm lucky.. I only pay 1.50 for small and medium rats, and I thought that was a little high. Apparently not..

Alan

[rabernet]

I guess I'm lucky.. I only pay 1.50 for small and medium rats, and I thought that was a little high. Apparently not..

Alan

Not high at all - mice are $1.65 each and small rats are $2.99, medium $3.99 and large $4.99 at my local pet store that sells feeders.

[Rapture]

I am seriously looking into begining to breed my own rats, but I currently only have 5 ball pythons, ranging from about 400g to about 2700g. I am not sure if breeding will really save me any money. Also, one of my bp's refuses to take f/t, he was on strike, hunger strike that is, for about 7 months while I was attempting to get him on f/t. I have another, a female, that was slamming f/t for about 9 months, then in February she decided that all she wanted was live, go figure. So that is currently my situation, I am trying to figure out what I want to do, haven't come up with the definite answer as of yet.

And as far as the shipped f/t, I have a freezer full of them at the moment. I don't complain about feeding those at all, real cheap.

Compared to what you are paying now I think you would save money breeding your own.