When to start breeding rats?

We have 5 BP's right now, but recently bought a 10 tub rack, so we have 5 more spots to fill. We also plan on buying a bigger rack next time we find another great deal.
We will probably have at least 10 BP's total by the end of the year.
We found a rat rack on craigslist for a good price. Do you guys think we should stick with ordering f/t, or should we start breeding rats? Is breeding rats for 10 snakes laughable? We're just want to know what's the cheapest way to go. Thanks!

I currently have 4 snakes with plans for at least a couple more and breeding this fall :) So I started my rat colony a couple months ago and well it has taken that long to just get some nice feeders so I would say start now. As for expense I have only spent about $80 for bedding and food to date so once they get breeding on a regular schedule it will be cheaper for my with only 4 snakes. I would Imagine with 10 snakes you sill save a little cash. The main reason I started breeding my own was because the store I was purchasing mine from went out of business so I bought some of their bredding stock :) But I am glad I did I know the feeders have been well taken care of a fed good quality food. Some of the feeder I have purchased from other sources were less the par with waht I wanted to feed my snakes

There's a good breakdown at the top of this forum.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-Many-to-Breed

You should start breeding the second you can't afford to buy rats. I know people who have a handful of snakes and breed rats while others have 300+ snakes and just buy them. Sometimes the work of breeding isn't worth their time. It's all up to you. Personally I don't ever see myself breeding rats because that's a whole another job, apart from taking care of my current collection.

I've been told that if you are thinking about breeding rats you better like rats and actually enjoy it because you will be spending just as much if not more time with them as with your reptiles. Which I'm ok with because they are interesting critters in their own right so I don't mind spending time cleaning and feeding them. But then again I only have 1.3(plus babies) rats and 1.3 ASFs.

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Originally Posted by Dabonus

There's a good breakdown at the top of this forum.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...-Many-to-Breed

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Thanks for that conversion link. Very useful. Once I get back to work, I will use that 12 week program (and build my rack to that). I love this site!

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Originally Posted by that_dc5

It's all up to you. Personally I don't ever see myself breeding rats because that's a whole another job, apart from taking care of my current collection.

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Originally Posted by Brewster320

I've been told that if you are thinking about breeding rats you better like rats and actually enjoy it because you will be spending just as much if not more time with them as with your reptiles.

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I started a small colony a while back and have since abandoned the idea (for now anyways). I was so used to getting my order of Live rats on a weekly basis and the work that was involved in feeding, cleaning and general maintenance for the rats outweighed any added value I was getting from breeding my own prey items. This is just my opinion, and I still have not counted out setting up a more established colony of feeders in the future.

OP: If it is not going to cost you too much to start up a small breeding colony, try it and see if you like it and if it makes sense for you. Just remember you need to be prepared for the extra workload and have a plan for what you are going to do with any excess food you produce. Will you sell it off as live feeders? Kill and freeze it to use or sell as F/T? Do you have a well ventilated area you can house your rats? Etc...

As others have stated it really comes down to the amount of time you are wanting to spend in dealing with rats. I started out by breeding my own colonies. It was nice to always have the rats I needed for feeding, any extra's I was able to sell off locally to other snake owners and it actually paid for itself by selling off the extras. It was great for the budget. The problem came with the amount of time I was spending dealing with cleaning rats. When you start to put multiple rats in the same area they start to smell. I had to clean their bedding twice a week to keep it manageable and even then it wasn't pretty. Each cleaning session took me about 3 hours. I did have around 50 breeding females and about 12 breeding males. Then all the babies that I had to grow out to feeding size. I think at my largest point I had around 300 rats I was dealing with. I was spending too much time dealing with them so I sold all my stuff off and I buy from another breeder now, even though I have 50 snakes eating. The cost of buying, for me, is well worth not having to deal with rats. I'm sure someday I will eventually go back to breeding rats when I get more snakes than I am willing to spend money to buy the rats. Just be prepared because there is a lot of work to breed rats and keep the correct size and amount on hand when you need it.

As posted above, it really does come dowwn to how much energy you want to put in.

I started breeding rats when I hit 3 Ball pythons. Its not a huge colony. 2 enclosures with 1:3 each and a maternity tank for any weird cases.
Now I have 4 ball pythons, and 1 burm(5ft now) and I cant produce rats fast enough. Im about to add another 1:3 enclosure so my burm can have her own little colony, and can save some for my balls haha.

FEEL FREE TO SKIP TO THE BOTTOM FOR SIMPLIFIED ANSWER

I spend about 10 minutes every morning on rat maintenance. Refilling water, and food. Then checking the babies and moms for health, or complications. And spend 1 hour once a week cleaning enclosures.

I buy a large bag of aspen shavings from petsmart for around $12, and a 20lb bag of Alpo dog food(Yeah I know, im the devil) for $18. This will usually last me about 4 months. Usually just a little less.

Lets say that you drive to buy your feeder rats, and they are $1.00 each.(We wont worry about large quantity deals)
If you feed 10 snakes 1 rat a week, and there are 52(roughly) weeks in a year, then you spend $520+gas in 1 year.

If you breed for 10 snakes, you'll need twice as many rats as I have. So they'll eat twice as much food. We'll simply half the amount of time it takes for you to run out of supplies.
So if that bag of aspen, and that bag of dog food cost $30 every two months, then in 1 year you will spend $180 just on aspen, and food. Chew sticks are $5 for a 6 pack I beleive. 1 Stick lasts one month usually, so $10 will last you a year in chew sticks. Youre up to 190. Add another $10 to replace water bottle or food dishes if you absolutely have to. So thats $200 for one year grand total. Plus..
52 hours cleaning(1 per week)
52 hours of daily maintenance(10 minutes per day, excluding the 1 day a week that cleaning is done)
Thats 104 hours. Roughly 4 days



Buy-$520 a year +gas
Breed-$200 a year in supplies +4 days of your life

My math may not be perfect, but it shouldnt be far off at all. You get the idea.

You might also think about selling some if you breed more than you can use. It might not be a money making venture, but you may be able to offset some of the costs!