thinking about breeding rats and mice.

[pythontricker]

Ok so I would really like to buy a pair of rats, and a pair of mice to start breeding. I don't want too large of a project, this is just hopefully enough to feed 5 snakes. Any tips would be great!

[pythontricker]

****Bump****

OOOOOk, tough crowd. (crickets in back ground)

Is there any mouse and rat general care and breeding care sheets that you guys could link me to? Any info would be much appreciated.

[Jay_Bunny]

A pair of each isn't really going to provide you with much. My girls produce a litter roughly every 12 weeks. They get 3 weeks in with a male, 3.5 weeks to raise babies, and 3 weeks vacation before going back in with a male. So with only a pair of rats, you will only get one litter of 4-14 babies every 12 weeks. ...ish.

With mice, you get litters a bit more often, but its still not often enough to make you self sufficient. I have 12 snakes and four breeding adult females. I am not producing even close to enough.

As far as care, make sure they have a good size enclosure or rack system. I use cat litter pans for my rack and 10 and 20 gallon tanks as enclosures for my rats. Mice go in 5g and 10g tanks. Fresh water, rat food (good stuff, Use Becky's Mix and lab block) good bedding (I use wood pellet bedding and a layer of aspen on top) and chew toys. I also give them occasional fruit and veggies.

With the enclosures, I keep no more than 1 rat to a 10g (unless they are weans, and then 3 until they get too large). I keep no more than 4 to a 20g long tank. In the rack, no more than 3 to a tub. With mice, I keep 4-5 per 10g. 3-4 per 5g.

[littleindiangirl]

I wrote this a while ago. Hope it answers some questions...

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=69076

[stangs13]

It is best to have a female a snake! So depending on the nmber you have that is how many rats you need. Wow Connie great link!

[pythontricker]

thanks for all the great info! this will really help. I got 20 feeders yesterday for like $47! it is getting ridiculous. some how, i think this will save me money because about every 3 or 4 weeks I am spending that kind of money. (some of my snakes eat more than one rodent at a time.) So I think if I just buy a crap load of food and bedding etc, and get all the setups. I will be set for like 6 months free of charge. (that is saying I plan a head for this properly) thanks again for all the info!

[Jay_Bunny]

Wow 20 feeders for $47. Thats a great deal! I spent $30 on 7 wean rats, 1 mouse, and a mouse hopper. And its a 20-30 min drive to and from the store. Breeding my own feeders is a necessity at this point.

[cassandra]

I really like Connie's write up, which should really apply to me since i have 4 snakes, but some of those costs are different for me*, so the conclusion (it's still cheaper to buy F/T from a .com) is not as clear for me.

*I can't get feeders locally that cheap and due to the size feeders I need, they are still more expensive from the .com (go go feeding a burm). Also I didn't see the inclusion of gas to drive to buy local feeders, but I may have missed that. =)

I do breed both mice and rats and I think I make out ahead, but I also really enjoy doing it, so bonus hobby activity. =)

My weekly feeding requirement is: 1 smallish rat, 1 med/large rat, 2/3 jumbo rats, 2 adult mice.

(some of my snakes eat more than one rodent at a time.)

So what are your exact weekly requirements? =)

[greghall]

I have 1 male rat 5 females & Im over run with rats ! freezing them when they get a little big. I have 11 snakes but as with ball pythons some don't eat each week,rats grow way to fast.had 52 last month & already got 23 down this month Im holding back some females now so they don'e all go at once.

[littleindiangirl]

I really like Connie's write up, which should really apply to me since i have 4 snakes, but some of those costs are different for me*, so the conclusion (it's still cheaper to buy F/T from a .com) is not as clear for me.

My little write up is for one snake that eats ft.

If you do happen to have more than one snake, breeding your 2 females more often is going to be saving you more money than buying online because your still PAYING the same amount to keep those 4 rats, your just getting more out of them. Make sense?

Pretty much, when you raise your own feeders, your looking at how much it costs to raise each adult breeder rat compared to how many feeders you get from that animal, and how that compares to the amount you'd be spending to buy online.

So it does come out differently, and I think in the end, it saves you more money the more production you get out of each rat.

I think it's just figuring out that balance where your getting the most out of your feeders that holds people up from making the leap to producing their own. That and the initial costs to build the rack or make the tubs and buying the breeders.

I personally feel it takes a downword turn to raise and feed live, there it gets tricky because if you dont have animals that take FT or prekilled or large rats, your wasting money and rats as they grow too large too quickly.