To breed or not to breed

So, i am getting my 2 new snakes...i will have a total of 4 now, 2 2006 BPs, 1 2005 BP, and 1 2006 RTB. I feed mice, and they are super cheep here. i get 6 meals for 6 bucks (for hoppers), I am not sure if i should start breeding or not.
Any opinions?

p.s. i'm not sure how to make this a poll, if a mod. could make it a poll and make it be yes or no, that would be awesome! Thanks.

hmmmm....


het pied male + pied female

i say do the deed....in about 3 years

hey guys....i think i forgot to mention...if i breed, it's going to be rats, not mice.

if your snakes are eating mice then why would you breed rats? that's like saying "i'm a vegetarian and i'm going to order a side of beef" :rofl:

well i'm going to switch them over to rats. i'm going to have to one day. especially my RTB.


and thanks for making it a poll.

your welcome amy (regarding the poll)

but... are you aware that ball pythons are imprint feeders? once they choose what they like it can be very hard to transfer them over to a different prey item? IF you want to do it, you need to do it when they are young.

boas however, will switch back and forth... they'll eat whatever is offered that week ;)

If you have more than a few snakes then growing your own feeders is the WTG.

When I only had 2 boas it was well worth it to breed rats and now that I have a ball that will only take live so far, its not only more conviniet than running to the store but cheaper. If you buy the rodent blocks in 40-50 lb bags they are under 30$(here at least). Plus your friends always appreciate free rats for pets or food.
Hope this helps a bit

well...this is the thing. I think breeding is the way to go, but i really don't want to breed mice....they smell. I am goin to start the new guys on rats (coming at the end of the month...BPs), i just have to get some tanks to start my little rat colony with.

Breeding rodents will save you money in the long run and can be fun all by itself. You will have the option of feeding either live or frozen, (you'll have to kill and freeze your own rats) You can freeze them at the right sizes for your snakes instead of depending on the pet store to have the right sizes in stock. You'll know how fresh they are and how well fed they were.

A couple of downsides are. You'll spend more time cleaning rodent cages then you'll spend cleaning snake cages. Unless you have a number of rodent colonies going, you'll be in a 'feast or famine' situation. It seems like you'll always be producing either too many or not enough.

Overall though, I've enjoyed it and I think it is worthwhile.