Breeding Rats

I've been haveing lots of trouble finding small frozen rats. I thought that sometime during the summer I could breed rats out in my barn and when they get to the size I need them I could freeze them for the rest of the summer and winter. What do you guys think about this?

Freezing would be good - in fact you might really WANT to do that to stave off whatever parasites they might pick up in the barn. I do know from experience mice REEK - I have heard rats are much less stanky.

Of course you could always order from rodentpro.com or another supplier and have a buncha frozen shipped to you (which is what we did once we realized the undertaking of breeding as many as we'd require).

Ya they sure do know how to smell! I tried to breed mice before and boy did they stink up my room!

Yes I know about the onling rodent stores but I can't really afford to spend over $100 for one snake. If I had more snakes like others on this site, I might consider it but it's just a little too costly for me. And since there's no big petstores around where I live, my options are limited.

Has anyone else ever tried to breed rats?

I haven't tried to breed them...but to answer your original question, I think it's a fine idea to breed some yourself and freeze 'em to use as needed. Doesn't seem like it should be too complicated. :)

Well, I can tell you from experience that mice breed VERY easily. (Too easily :roll: ) I can't imagine that rats would be much different.

Thanks for all your encouragement!! I have two 10 gal. tanks and a 50 gal. (i think) tall. I figure the largest one for an enclosure, one of the 10 gallon tanks for a nusery, and the other one for breeding grounds. What do you all think?

I tried to breed mice but ended up offering them all as dinner! They stank up the whole apartment and none of my friends wanted to visit!

sounds good to me BP713 - yeah I've heard rats stink WAY less than mice. This raises a good question though - is there anywhere online you can place an order less than 100 dollars for good quality rodents?

I breed my own rats. It doesn't get any easier. Throw em together, they do their thing, you have lotsa rats! Much less stinky than meeces. I keep mine in a 75 gallon aquarium. They breed like.....rats.....and I recently had to freeze a whole bunch because there were too many and they were overrunning the tank.