I'm feeding my snakes for free!

:D Happiness. :D

I'm breeding my own feeders, and by selling excess I pay for the food and bedding. So the only thing I'm giving is time, which I"m happy to do. I like raising rodents.

I've currently got 4 snakes. They eat 2 fuzzies, 2 hoppers, 1 small mouse and 1 small rat, total each week.

I have 1.8 mice, 2 females per tub, the male rotates every two weeks. And 2.2 rats.
Production is 2 litters of mice every 2 weeks. Which is way more than I need if you do the math. And I figure I'll get 2 litters of rats every 12 weeks, my female rats are prego for the first time right now so I'm guesstimating time frames. My bp eats f/t so 2 litters frozen at the right size will last till the next 2 litters are ready.

I've got one person who buys all my excess at a dollar a mouse and in the future 2-3 dollars a rat. At least 10 dollars worth a month which covers my consumables since I buy bedding and lab blocks in bulk.

True my initial setup cost me and it took me a long time to find someone willing to buy in bulk from me, but I'm really happy with how it's working out now. :banana: :D

Cool! Where and how did you find someone to by from you?

congrats! I wish I was able to raise my own feeders.. Then I'd have the perfect excuse to get another snake or two :D

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Originally Posted by rwreptiles

Cool! Where and how did you find someone to by from you?

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I posted an add on my local craigslist pet section called "f/t mice" that said:

Do you hate paying shipping on your F/T mice orders?

Stop paying it and buy straight from me. I breed my own mice then vacuum seal and freeze my extras. Quality mice, fresh and local.


Let me know if you are interested.
I will need to know how many you want to buy, what size(s), and when you'll need your next order of mice.
Bear in mind I am a small time operation so I need a little time to produce the mice you request.

I got lucky and someone responded saying they would buy basically all I could produce.

I had tried offering live mice on craigslist because it's hard to find baby live mice in seattle, I figured there would be a market, but it's too much of a hassle to sell live. They only want to buy one or two at a time and all the arranging and waiting for people got to me. Too much work.
Then I decided to sell some of my last mousefactory.com order since I was overproducing mice and didn't need the extras in my freezer, people snapped up the frozen ones just as quick and of course bought in bulk. So I figured hey, I'll just offer frozen, the more you buy the lower the price.
I only produce so many though so I didn't advertise any more once this person started buying. I actually had to up the rotation of my male to produce the number they want, which is no issue since my females still get a break before the male comes around.

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Originally Posted by mainbutter

congrats! I wish I was able to raise my own feeders.. Then I'd have the perfect excuse to get another snake or two :D

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That was my excuse for buying my fourth snake, Mitsuko, the red tail boa. This was before all the selling and I was like, I have an empty tank, and the mice are here anyway, so I want another snake! :D

Anytime you can either break even or come out on top is a good month.

I think we all want to have the hobby pay for itself, so this is good.

Congrats. :)

Bruce

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Originally Posted by Bruce Whitehead

Anytime you can either break even or come out on top is a good month.

I think we all want to have the hobby pay for itself, so this is good.

Congrats. :)

Bruce

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Yep! I really don't mind and actually enjoy the time I put into it and actually the money wasn't a biggie either, I love my hobby and can go without things like expensive coffee and new shoes. But I'm a poor college student so any money saved it really great.

Now my problem is telling myself to keep saving and not get more snakes. :P

Sweet! It can be done. I usually can pay for my rats' feed with the funds that I receive for selling my hatchlings. Breaking even is a good thing. Making money is great! But I am in it for the hobby.. breakin' even is just a nice bonus :)

Im tired of buying f/t all the time. Im just now getting into african soft furred rats. I've never bred rats before so this will be a different experiance. Im picking up my first trio after christmas.

That is great news it is always nice to have something pay for itself. I originaly was going to start with about 150asf rats to breed. But I have had a change of mind and am now starting with 35females and 5 males. I am going to only start by putting three trios together though, to see how fast they produce and what I can realy use. Goodluck with your snakes and breeding colony:)

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Originally Posted by Ginevive

Sweet! It can be done. I usually can pay for my rats' feed with the funds that I receive for selling my hatchlings. Breaking even is a good thing. Making money is great! But I am in it for the hobby.. breakin' even is just a nice bonus :)

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My thoughts exactly, I didn't mind spending money to have the privelage of owning these animals. But breaking even... a gift for sure.

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Originally Posted by Darkice

Im tired of buying f/t all the time. Im just now getting into african soft furred rats. I've never bred rats before so this will be a different experiance. Im picking up my first trio after christmas.

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Good luck with them. I've never seen an ASF in person but I love the regular rats I have. So I'm crossing my fingers for you and hopping you get nice ASF's rather than the really agressive ones I've heard of.

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Originally Posted by MDB

That is great news it is always nice to have something pay for itself. I originaly was going to start with about 150asf rats to breed. But I have had a change of mind and am now starting with 35females and 5 males. I am going to only start by putting three trios together though, to see how fast they produce and what I can realy use. Goodluck with your snakes and breeding colony:)

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Starting slow is a good plan. I started with only 1.1 mice and kept adding more till I found the right balance. It's not just about producing enough but also producing often enough to have all the right sized available most of the time. I use a little more than 1/3 of the mice I produce and sell the rest. And like I said I was extremely lucky to find someone to buy from me, there just isn't as big a market as one would think.