Advice: To breed or not to breed.

Right now I have 4 snakes. 3 balls and a red tail. I ordered 25 fuzzies and it was $37 including shipping, MUUUCH cheaper than the petstore I was buying from at first. But heres my question: Would breeding enough rats to cover my 4 snakes be cheaper than buying frozen? I have four 10gallon tanks that are empty and the store I get aspen from has the super large bags for $6.00. So with food added in, do you think it would be cheaper to breed my own? Oh and I know about the sticky thread :) I'm just wanting additional opinions.

Breeding rats is a smelly dirty business, or at least it was for me. I'm not sure on the cost factor, but for me Frozen is much easier

For that few of a number of snakes, no, it probably wouldn't be cheaper for you to raise your own than it is to buy them. It can be and is for me, anyway, a satisfying endeavor to raise them up and know what's been fed to them and how they've been raised before you feed them off. If anything I spent more just building the rack to house some of my feeders than what I would have buying frozen. If you have picky eaters that will only take live then it might be worth it but if all of yours feed on f/t, they all eat the same size feeders or similar and you don't mind storing f/t in your freezer, you're more than likely going to be better off sticking to that rather than raising your own.

I feed mine Native Earth 4018 and buy it in the bulk pack from National Pet Pharmacy; the cost of the food alone is about equal to what I was spending to buy frozen feeders. I have plans to breed mine at some point and I have one diva female who will only take live, when she eats anything, so I don't mind the hassle of raising my own. It can be a lot of fun when you get into the genetics of them: dumbo versus standard ears, Rex, Double Rex, standard coat, Manx versus standards, etc. and the results of their breedings are waaaaaaay faster than what raising snakes is. Ultimately it's your money and time you'd be investing so ultimately it's up to you. That's what my experience raising them has been, thus far. Not trying to talk you out of it, just give you an honest assessment from my perspective. :gj:

To go along with everyone else the cost is only part of it. Time is a big part of it as well. Granted for those few snakes it won't take much time to care for the rats but it is added time. Also the smell is another issue to deal with. The more often you change the bedding the less smell you will have to worry about. I started with 4 balls and was breeding rats just to feed my 4 balls and I was actually spending more to breed than buy frozen. I expanded my breeding and have started to sell to a couple friends which has offset the cost and it's actually slightly cheaper now to breed than buy. So think about that as well. So look at cost, time, cleanliness, and then also the joy/headache you might have.

P.S. I'd suggest a rack instead of tanks. just my $0.02

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by azmodane

P.S. I'd suggest a rack instead of tanks. just my $0.02

---

x2.When you're breeding rats, it is a heck of a lot easier to tend to their needs when you have them in racks. Maintenance wise, it is expensive if you don't have that many snakes BUT you have piece of mind in knowing exactly where their meal came from and what that rat was fed before going into your snake.

I had a great system setup that was very low maintenance but ants became a huge problem (I don't think it was because of the way I was keeping them or my living conditions. I just think my building doesn't spray for pests and they are coming in from one of my neighbors; I still get "scout ants" coming into my place looking around for something to eat). Needless to say, I scrapped everything and won't be breeding rats again til I get my own home.