average cost of a starter rat colony?

after searching most of miami for female rats, i came across a private breeder. he's willing to sell me 4 females and 1 male for $40. so my question is ... what's the average cost of a starter colony ? and he's litterally 3 blocks from my house. thanx in advance......

I believe I spent around $110 (numbers are a little fuzzy so not perfect) for two, three bin racks without a watering system (DIY build). I got most of my rats from our local reptile store and another reptile owner locally who has her own colony. So I paid feeder rat prices for about 10? individuals to start. So I would round mine to $150.

I now only spend about $30 a month for rat food and bedding. I was spending $50 a week for rats.

We have 15 snakes who take different size rats and I am running an average of 1.4 in the colony. I definitely have extra rats that I freeze and could definitely downsize my colony, but I am working on multiple genetic projects that I don't want to loose as well as breeding for pet standards.

thanx for the info... no one wanted to give up females, it was insane... pet shops like petco and petsmart didnt carry females, smaller local shops wouldnt sell their females ...

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Originally Posted by hwrobleski13

after searching most of miami for female rats, i came across a private breeder. he's willing to sell me 4 females and 1 male for $40. so my question is ... what's the average cost of a starter colony ? and he's litterally 3 blocks from my house. thanx in advance......

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I think by cost you are just talking about breeding stock, right? Not caging, food, etc?

Breeding stock wise it's all about quality. If he has a good bloodline with healthy rats then yes, the 1.4 group would be well worth $40.

Private ratteries are usually the way to go since pet stores tend to have the least healthy rats (physically and genetically).

Petsmart and Petco restrict their stock by store. There are male only, female only and mixed stores. Just call and ask.

The best producing breeder female I ever had came from Petsmart. An Petsmart offers various colors, dumbos and hairless. Petco is usually just albino in my area.

Both of my Petco and petsmarts carry rats, but yes, some only carry males, some only females. But I've seen mostly hooded colors, with a few whites.

Wish you were closer!

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Originally Posted by Adam Chandler

I think by cost you are just talking about breeding stock, right? Not caging, food, etc?

Breeding stock wise it's all about quality. If he has a good bloodline with healthy rats then yes, the 1.4 group would be well worth $40.

Private ratteries are usually the way to go since pet stores tend to have the least healthy rats (physically and genetically).

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yes just breeding stock ...