Do you think its a good idea?

If i buy 15 or so 09 baby female normals and raise them up. For a few years so that i have number of breedable females. When i do start geting heavily into breeding balls?

Honastly not really. Once you figure out how much it costs you to raise those lil hatchling females to adults it is cheaper to just buy several adult females when the time comes. I know you can buy baby females for around $35 each but it is going to take you aproximately three years to get the breedable. I purchased six adult proven breeders all over 2,000 grams for $150 each. IF you add up the amount of rats and time it just isnt financially sound to buy a bunch of hatchlings for that purpose in my opinion. Todd

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Originally Posted by toddmbecker1234

Honastly not really. Once you figure out how much it costs you to raise those lil hatchling females to adults it is cheaper to just buy several adult females when the time comes. I know you can buy baby females for around $35 each but it is going to take you aproximately three years to get the breedable. I purchased six adult proven breeders all over 2,000 grams for $150 each. IF you add up the amount of rats and time it just isnt financially sound to buy a bunch of hatchlings for that purpose in my opinion. Todd

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it depends on weather you breed rats and sell rats if you ask me. Im basicly feeding my snakes for free because the rats i sell pay for bedding and food plus a little left over.

If you get adults, like what was said above, you might find out that a lot of them won't go for you the first year. I think it was Adam Wysocki on reptileradio who said that people tend to buy adult females to breed the same year, and a lot of them don't end up laying viable, or any, clutches for at least another year. So, you are better off just buying them young and raising them up yourself.

I've also found this to be the case. Some will go right away, but some won't, for whatever reason. The best bet would probably be buying 1-2 year old females that are in the 900g - 1,200g range a full year before you plan to start breeding, then raising them up for another year. That way most of them should have enough time to acclimate to your care, and should breed for you during your first breeding season. They will cost more than babies, but you will end up saving a year or two, and you won't spend any more money than if you bought babies and raised them all up to 1,000g yourself. That is only for normals, though. If you are talking about any morph females, get them as babies, because 1.000g morph females will be hard to come by, and they will cost you more than it would to raise them up from hatchlings. That's just my opinion.

very good points and I totally agree that they do tend need to be acclimated well before trying to breed so aquiring them a year before is good advice. Todd

I thought i should ask this again as its has been a while and the last time it was asked i got a whole bunch of mixed answers. Some saying yes some saying no. So in your honest opinion do you believe its a good idea? I mean if i did this when they are are ready in a few year i will have all the females i need to start getting serious in ball breeding. By the way now the question is should i get 15 or so 2010 female babies and raise them up?

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Originally Posted by rareballer

If i buy 15 or so 09 baby female normals and raise them up. For a few years so that i have number of breedable females. When i do start geting heavily into breeding balls?

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You can easily do that if you breed your own mice, its really easy and saves you aot of money...

Good luck, Payson!

A) Buy 15 female hatchlings to raise up and breed down the road.

B) Buy 5 adult normals + a male morph of some type (let's say Pastel). Let's say you get 20 (probably more) good eggs spring 2011.

By odds, 5.5 of those eggs would be pastels and 5.5 normal.


By summer of 2011 with option A you would have 15 female yearling normals.

Option B gives you 5 adult normal females, 5 pastel hatchling females, 5 normal hatchling females.

I found it pretty easy to pick up females from CL as sub pricing of online breeders. I was only looking for a small handful. I found one female 1950 gram girl that was 5 year old for $20. I also picked up a couple of other girls (1200-1700) for $50 each, one laid 5 nice eggs for me. As well as a 3,000 gram proven breeder for $100 (gravid). I had a chance to pick up a couple other 2-3,000 gram girls for $40-$50 but I'm happy with my 5 adult normals. If you have a chance a getting some mature girls why not? My time in raising babies in morph girls. I picked up 5 09s which I'm raising up for future projects. My adult normals will be bred next winter to my new male and the following year the 09s should be ready to go.

Xavier

A lot of the decision depends on how ready to you are to start breeding. Do you have proper heating, enclosures, incubation materials, food source for adults/hatchlings, etc?

If you don't, and you think it could take you some time to acquire them, then go with hatchlings, get the necessary supplies for them, and use the time they spend growing up to acquire things slowly but surely and make sure you have all of your bases covered.

If that is not an object, then it really is a personal decision. As mentioned before, some newly acquired adult females just won't go the first year, some will. Either way is a good route to go if you are ready, its just a matter of personal preference.

Best of luck.