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I have 7 snakes, and breed my own feeders for them. Every couple of months or so I have a few rats that get too large to feed. So they just hang out till I can manage to find someone who wants them. Do any of you have this problem? What do you do when you have rats that get too big? ie: right now I have 2 adult male rats that have gotten too big for any of my snakes to eat.

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Originally Posted by equis8

I have 7 snakes, and breed my own feeders for them. Every couple of months or so I have a few rats that get too large to feed. So they just hang out till I can manage to find someone who wants them. Do any of you have this problem? What do you do when you have rats that get too big? ie: right now I have 2 adult male rats that have gotten too big for any of my snakes to eat.

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I us to then I just started buying snakes to eat my left over rat..oh dear..it's a vicious cycle.

if u have any extra female rats (live) and are in southern calfiornia ill take a few

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Originally Posted by equis8

I have 7 snakes, and breed my own feeders for them. Every couple of months or so I have a few rats that get too large to feed. So they just hang out till I can manage to find someone who wants them. Do any of you have this problem? What do you do when you have rats that get too big? ie: right now I have 2 adult male rats that have gotten too big for any of my snakes to eat.

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You can always freeze them at the size you want. There is a thread on here on how to humanely kill the rats.

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Originally Posted by MitsuMike

You can always freeze them at the size you want. There is a thread on here on how to humanely kill the rats.

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That would be my advice. Why lose out on a perfectly good feeder when you can freeze their growth at the exact size you want? ;)

i agree with everyone, just freeze the leftovers at the size that you need or like Freaky said just get more snakes to take care of the leftovers...LOL. i personally like the second option better..LOL

I suppose I could freeze em....I just like not feeding frozen/thawed...Ever since my first snake refused any form of pre-killed I just do that with all of them...

I'm In Portland, Maine...so cali is a bit too far for that! ha. As far as buying more snakes. That *is* a vicious cycle ha! I just went to the NE expo yesterday.....and I was very proud of myself for only bringing home a tortoise!

Freeze them. If you don't use them, you can find someone else who will.

You'll save yourself some rodent food, and space.

If you are breeding rats you need at least one snake that can eat jumbo rats. I would personally recommend a red tail boa. There are a bunch of companies out there now that make stackable 48" cages. You could have up to four red tail boas in stacking cages like that and only take up 8 square feet of floor space in your reptile room.

Remember, you are not just feeding off babies that have gotten too big for your collection to eat. You will eventually need to feed off your breeders too. These will generally be rats of pretty enormous size, especially the males.

If you are going to get some boas just as pets and as garbage disposals then you can pick up normals pretty cheap. I have a pretty darn big normal female for sale right now for only $100. I have been using her as a garbage disposal LOL. She ate 6 large rats for me last week LOL.

Long story short...check out Craigslist, Kingsnake, your local paper, Fauna, and other places. You will probably find the right snake pretty quickly.

Another option is to donate your monster rats to a local reptile shelter than could use them. If they are registered with nonprofit status they could give you paperwork that you could use as a tax write off for charitable donation.

There are plenty of ways to take care of things. You just have to find the option that works best for you and yours.

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Originally Posted by Aeries

That would be my advice. Why lose out on a perfectly good feeder when you can freeze their growth at the exact size you want? ;)

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