Trying to do a cost analysis of feeding a female ball from born-3 years

I am getting into ball pythons to build a collection, but I decided that in order to build my collection I will have to raise up several females in order to get some of the morphs that I would like.

Being the crazy planner that I am, I was trying to graph the cost of feeding a female for 3 years to see how much it will cost, which way the best way of buying/producing food will be, etc..


What I need to know is a general time frame of the size of food they will be on (I have rodent pro prices, and other estimates I can go with to compare)

These feeding estimates will be with rats the whole way up, from pinky-whatever sized rats a 3 year old female will eat.


I know that my snake is about 6-8 months and is probably eating between pups and fuzzie sized rats.. but im curious if anyone has a general estimate somewhere that says something like


0-2 months 1 pinky
2-4 months 1 fuzzy
4-8 months 1 pup
8-14 months 1 weaned
14-24 months 1 small
24-46 months 1 medium


i know these are probably way off, I was just coming up with an example for people to correct.

If anyone had 3 years worth of logs for an example female Id love to look at it :)

Thanks,

...and my wife thinks I'M obsessive! :worry:

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Originally Posted by srozell

...and my wife thinks I'M obsessive! :worry:

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we won't ask my wife what she thinks I am :)

they all grow at different rates, so getting an actual figure on each size will be hard. i just budget around 100-150 bucks per animal per year. seems to work out close enough for me and my feeder prices. roughly 2 bucks a rat for 50 feedings a year.


vaughn

I understand that it does completely vary by female, I just like to over-analyze things to the point of annoyance ;)

I could just say, first year avg 50 feedings, avg X per feeding.... but even for that I would have to know the "typical" sized rat being fed to a 12 month old, 24 month old and 36 month old female in order to do that.

$100 per snake per year.....thats how I have been figuring new snakes into my cost estimates. It is really hard to figure in exact number on feeders because when bulk frozen rodents are purchased, the price generally varies with the number purchased. If you have a place to store a year's supply of frozen rodents go for it and you will save a few dollars in the long run. A ball pythons eating habits can also effect the estimate ...if one goes off feed for a few months not as many rodents will be need.....and also there are unexpected costs like....vet bills.

Yes, it is hard to estimate, because each snake is different,and while some are regular, voracious feeders, some are a little more "sporadic", plus like someone else said, some go off of feed for a few months, like during the winter months. Also, you figure sometimes they will be hungry enough to eat two food items in a sitting, and sometimes, they don't want anything but a "snack".If I were you, I'd ask Adam about this, he could probably give you a good answer.

I realize this thread is a little old, but here is how I figure costs for one (1) ball python who is lets say a year old. These estimates are calculated in two ways. (1) buying frozen food in bulk...(2) buying from a retail pet store.

Just to cover the basics there are 52 weeks in a year. Assuming your ball python eats once per week (disregarding certain variables like going off feed), total costs would be as follows:

1 Jumbo mouse (40-50g) = $0.58 for quantities < 100

$0.58 * 52 weeks = $30.16 per year + shipping (to my area) = $25.00 with a grand total of $55.16 / 52 = $1.06 per mouse.

Now if you were to buy them live from a retail pet store your costs would be as follows:

1 Mouse (size varies) = $1.99 + tax (which is 0.0825 in texas) = $2.15

$2.15 * 52 = $111.80

Once you move up to small rats the price will vary anywhere from $0.21 to $2.17 respectively per feeder. Hope that kind of puts things into perspective.

Get yourself a nice little freezer..My girl is happy the rats are no longer cuddling with the Filet Mignon...

hi i just started breeding rats and i still buy rats from a local kid who breed and sells rats as pets i get all his extra at .50 cents a rat for small and i get about 40 a month from him plus from my breeding of rat i get about 40 a month and i fifty puond bag a food for the rats cost me 10.00 and last about 2 month and a big bag of bedding last a month and that cost 6.00 on sell plus the electric[sp] i would guess about 50-70 buck a year and probaly closer to 50 a year