How many female breeder rats do I need?

So after considering my alternatives (2.50 per medium online with at *LEAST* $12 shipping---OR $4.50 per medium rat in store) I have decided to start breeding my own feeder rats. The initial cost is higher yes--but with the right cost-saving measures (ie bulk rodent block at $1/lb) it WILL be dramatically cheaper even to feed say 1 litter of 12 (3 mths of food for my 1 bp) to the size I need which means 1 rat will eat 0.5 lb/monthly seeing as they eat 1 lb/monthly as full grown adults (according to feeder sites they can reach the desired stage in as little as 6-8 weeks). So---that'd bring my total feeding budget to say 8 dollars per month those two months---and then only $2-3 to feed my breeding pair untill I need a new litter. This is compared to $16 plus tax in store bought/$22 for one month of online for 1 bp.
Bedding does not have to be store bought--I have plenty of shreddable paper products.


The fun part is trying to calculate how many breeder females we will need to be able to supply the amount of feeders we need without wearing them out prematurely but also without making our colony too large (meaning more tubs and expense then we need). This is what I don't yet know (still researching but having difficulty).


So we need on a weekly basis:


14 medium size (200 g or so) rats (for the 40 pound dog---yaay whole model prey feeding)
2-3 medium size (for my bp and 1-2 other snakes we'll be considering---otherwise just my bp)


So approximately 15-17 medium rats a week---erring on the larger estimate side to be safe.


How many females would this require while allowing them to recover adequately between litters and remain healthy?

I have read on here that you need 1 female rat in your colony for every snake that you have

LOL wow sorry guys---I was half asleep when I did my math costs last night---rats eat almost 1 lb a week each, not a month!! Herp derp derp....

I figure about 4-6 breeder females for the dog and 1-2 will cover all my snakes--so I'm looking at 5-8 females and 2 males, right?

Just make sure your dog will eat rats. We feed raw and she will NOT eat the rats, no matter what I do to them. They are frozen/thawed.

We have 14 snakes, I have 1.4 in 5 bins and the 6th bin is grow out. I spend $30 a month for bedding/food. I get Mazuri 6F in the big bag. I have extras to sell. Sometimes my largest females get fed multiples simply because I don't have the room to raise up to medium rats, but they are probably large smalls. This is just when building back up from laying. Otherwise, they only need smalls as larger prey is not fully used in digestion and pooped out.

Hope this helped.

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Originally Posted by aldebono

Just make sure your dog will eat rats. We feed raw and she will NOT eat the rats, no matter what I do to them. They are frozen/thawed.

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Same here. I feed my dogs raw and they will not eat rats. They will eat squirrel, rabbits and groundhogs, but not rats. But my cats and ferrets love rats.

I calculated it to a female will lay on average a litter of 10 a month. U need room to grow them to whatever size u need and u should seperate males from females at about 2 months old. u dont want to wear out ur females so id suggest changing them out every 8 months or when u see a production decline.... so there is another holdback tub ur gonna need. the males will get to med size faster than the females so when u feed em off start with the males first before they turn jumbo on u. if u seperate the females when there preg then u will get a better output of babbies. im not sure why u would feed ur dog rats but maybe i skiped the part that exsplains it. i have known many breeders to use just crappy dog food with no harmful dyes and raise up hundred of generations on just that.... ne ways i also found that 1 male to 4-5 females will work best and when u keep a holdback male pick the one with the biggest balls (im not joking) here is a vid to how i had my setup (its a old vid and i had over 40 bps and a few other snakes) if ur bored http://youtu.be/S7zwqhz5GAc

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I calculated it to a female will lay on average a litter of 10 a month.

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This is only possible if the male is in with the female 24/7 and she gets pregnant within a couple days of giving birth. No rest period between pregnancies will also wear out your females faster and they may not have as large of a litter or as healthy of babies.

When I bred rats, I wouldn't put the male and female back together until the babies were weaned (4 weeks) and my average litter size was 15 or so. I even had two different mothers have 20 babies each. :)

I personally keep my males and females together and replace the females when needed. It works fine both ways. I don't need super large litters, and I am limited on space too. So it works best for me this way.

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Originally Posted by Sita

This is only possible if the male is in with the female 24/7 and she gets pregnant within a couple days of giving birth. No rest period between pregnancies will also wear out your females faster and they may not have as large of a litter or as healthy of babies.

When I bred rats, I wouldn't put the male and female back together until the babies were weaned (4 weeks) and my average litter size was 15 or so. I even had two different mothers have 20 babies each. :)

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Sorry it was a looooong day, i ment to put in u will have larger litters but 10 was average if the female was left in. I didnt proof read im sorry. I have also seen a litter of 31 that i believe a user on here or fauna posted a few years back.

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This is only possible if the male is in with the female 24/7 and she gets pregnant within a couple days of giving birth. No rest period between pregnancies will also wear out your females faster and they may not have as large of a litter or as healthy of babies.

When I bred rats, I wouldn't put the male and female back together until the babies were weaned (4 weeks) and my average litter size was 15 or so. I even had two different mothers have 20 babies each.

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Sorry it was a looooong day, i ment to put in u will have larger litters but 10 was average if the female was left in. I didnt proof read im sorry. I have also seen a litter of 31 that i believe a user on here or fauna posted a few years back.

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No worries, I just wanted add some detail and let people know that there's other ways to do it that can lead to different results. :)