Do you ever have this problem?

so i am considering breeding rats. I have 2 snakes right now, but i am getting another 2 soon. 1st of all, an opinion question, rats are CHEAP here (adults are only 2.60), i dont know if it would be worth i to breed them.
Also, do you ever have a problem becoming attached to them? i would be using them as just feeders, the babies to my BPs, and when some of the saved babies are adults ill be using the previous breeder adults as food for my RTB. I would be afraid after seeing them born, and raising them that i wouldnt be able to feed them to my snakes.
Advice?

thanks!

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Originally Posted by Amy1217

so i am considering breeding rats. I have 2 snakes right now, but i am getting another 2 soon. 1st of all, an opinion question, rats are CHEAP here (adults are only 2.60), i dont know if it would be worth i to breed them.
Also, do you ever have a problem becoming attached to them? i would be using them as just feeders, the babies to my BPs, and when some of the saved babies are adults ill be using the previous breeder adults as food for my RTB. I would be afraid after seeing them born, and raising them that i wouldnt be able to feed them to my snakes.
Advice?

thanks!

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Its difficult at first to feed the babies off, at least for me. As far as the breeders, they are never fed off here unless they are mean. I think its the right thing to do to let them live out their lives for doing such a great job making babies.

I will only be keeping 2 out of my 5 babies. my hairless male and my jumbo female. I have already been working with both of them. I try not to have contact with the other babies for fear of not wanting to feed them off. they are cute but the more you touch and play with them the less they become food and the more they become pets.

I do see your point about the adult feeders, and for them being rewarded for making babies what about when they die? can you feed a rat after they have just died, i dont mean morally, but is it healthy?
thanks!

Doesnt your Dad hate animals? How is he going to let you keep feeder rats?...heck if I hated animals I think I would tolerate snakes better then rats lol. :sunny:

hahaha. well. he has put up with 2 snakes, soon to be 3, then later on 4, fish, a dog, and a horse. He doesnt mind them as long as he doesnt have to have contact with them, so as long as i take care of my animals im good, which i do anyways. He doesnt want the feeder rats because he thinks they are going to smell. He doesnt go into my "pet room" (i have 2 bedrooms, i keep my puppy's stuff, horse tack, and all of the snakes in there), and im going to put in the feeder rat cages, wait for the first litter to be born, then show him, and ask him if he smelled anything...because lord knows he would complain about it before that.

but, if they do smell, even i dont want them, but my friend has given me some tips on how to make them not smell (vanilla extract in the water, baking soda on the bottom of the tank, some handy little tips).

when a rat or mouse dies of natural causes you do NOT want to feed it to your snake. ;)

ah. alright. thanks.

Also the more often you change the bedding and clean the tank/cage out the better they smell. Dont use pine or cedar though.

By the time an old retired breeder dies naturally hon it's either developed a cancer or just faded away. Neither of which makes for a quality meal for any snake in my opinion.

We also retire our older breeders as a bit of a thank you for all their contributions to our snake collection. They still have a job as they hang out with rats of their same sex, either with future breeders growing up or with the feeder rats. The mature rats tend to keep the younger ones in line and break up any scuffles so they can still be a use in the colony and have some companionship (rats are highly social and hate to be caged alone).

I avoid a lot of contact with our feeder rats. They get checked daily of course, watered, fed, a quick hands on check when I clean enclosures and of course, checked over before being fed off. Other than that I don't touch them so I don't get bonded to them much. The breeders on the other hand all have names and get petted a bit and occasionally come out for a play (not a lot, they are after all breeders and usually busy with their rat lives LOL). At first it was hard for me to feed off fuzzies as for me that's the cutest stage but now I'm fine with it.

I just remember that I'm only a cog in the wheel of a very natural process. Rats are born to feed snakes, snakes are hatched to eat rodents - so when all is said and done, my human emotions aren't really needed in that process.