Starting to breed....

I have 4 juve BP's and just started to breed my own Rats. they are pets/breeders and my daughters are having a blast watching them grow. I am into the Rats for about $150 with the cost of the rack/shelves, food(50# 6F) and bedding for at least a month. All in all i think it is worth it to know what is going to my BP's. I also just inherited a 1.1 mice from a friend, the little girl looked like she swallowed a ping pong ball. which is cool because one of my balls is giving me trouble, she will take a hopper in an instant, but a rat pinkie has no interest.

I clean the tubs almost twice a week and its not that bad, no complaints yet. by the way they are in the living room.

watch craigslist for free 10 gallon tanks

4 snakes eating mouse size prey. Look into either ASF or gerbils. ASF will be for ball pythons below 3'. Gerbils will be used for anything over 3'. I don't like racks for either of these so I recommend glass tanks.

Gerbils can easily be ran 1.2 in a 10 gallon. ASF can be ran as high as 1.4.

These are two super easy to produce, hardy rodents with very little smell. BOTH require chew blocks. ASF can live well on dog food or hog food. Gerbils i would use hog food and small seeds.

I started my ASF colony at 2 snakes. Best decision ever. And a rack is a very good decision even with only 1 colony of 1.2. For 4 snakes 1.2 is more than enough especially with ASFs - they produce 15 or more babies every 3-4 weeks.

Ok, I'm speaking from experience... For 4 snakes I really encourage ASFs if it is legal in your state. These guys are smaller than regular rats and you can keep them a while and they won't outgrow your snakes. There will be times, especially in winter when they would refuse food. When you get maxed out on rats, you can pull the breeders to stop production and start a new 1.2 colony at this time.

Ok, about the racks. I suggest you build a 4-level or 5-level rack. One rack for the breeder, one rack for the male growouts, one rack for the female growouts, and one rack an empty tub that is ready to house rats.

Then on cleaning day, all you need to do is open one dirty rack, move all the rats to the clean ready rack. Then clean out that tub, and go on to the next rack. Then you end up with an empty clean rack for the next cleaning day. Another thing about the empty rack, sometimes you'll find a fight break out. You can immediately take out the troublesome rat and separate him without too much trouble.

Ok, you will more than likely go through 16-24 rats a month. This can be supported by a 1.2 ASF colony. But, it takes about 3 months to grow out ASFs to a size for adult bps. So you will need to plan this right. It took me 3 months to get my colony established at a point where I didn't have to supplement with appropriate-size feeders from the store. But, after the initial 3 months of "growing out", my colony now cycles like clockwork.

Good luck!

P.S. 10 gallon tanks are good too. That's how I started. I actually just built my rack last weekend. Same as the rack, I keep one empty tank on the ready.

I have to say tho, I wish I built the rack on day 1. It is SOOOOO much easier! No more filling water bottles daily! I now have a 5-gallon water tank that I expect to last me more than a week!

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Originally Posted by anatess

P.S. 10 gallon tanks are good too. That's how I started. I actually just built my rack last weekend. Same as the rack, I keep one empty tank on the ready.

I have to say tho, I wish I built the rack on day 1. It is SOOOOO much easier! No more filling water bottles daily! I now have a 5-gallon water tank that I expect to last me more than a week!

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if you stay with asf, then yep I agree to use a rack. Never seen a plastic container that will survive a gerbil for long.

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Originally Posted by suzuki4life

if you stay with asf, then yep I agree to use a rack. Never seen a plastic container that will survive a gerbil for long.

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I have about 10 to 15 gerbils at any given time all in mortar tubs (plastic) and they do just fine. I love when people talk about how bad gerbils are and forget that rats can chew threw concrete. Its not about what you give them to chew threw its about what you don't give them. Make sure the tub is smooth. If they have anything to get their teeth on then its done for. If its smooth you are fine. At least thats my experience.

Gerbils are BY FAR the most relentless chewers in the rodent world. At one point I had over 200 breeding pairs of gerbils and they would spend HOURS AND HOURS digging and gnawing at the corners of their 10g tanks. I wouldn't imagine that they would do well in plastic tubs, but I never tried it.

My rats have never chewed out of a mortar tub or a litter pan, but they made short work of some 90qt Sterilites that I was using for grow out tubs.

I recently got back into BP's. I picked up a Black Pastel Female and am getting a Lesser female before X-mas. I then talked my wife into letting me pick up a male and female mouse to try and breed instead of paying a arm and leg for feeders. I got them in a 10 gal with bedding and 2 hides. I'm hoping all goes well! My father in law tried this when we had 2 normal BP's and he had mice coming out tha WAZU!!!! Hope I'm as lucky as him! LOL!

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Originally Posted by azmodane

Now my question is could you give the mice too much room? All my measurements are rounded but I found litter pans that are 16x12x4 for $4.98 18x15x5 for $7.48 or mixing tubs 27x19x6 for $5.91... The litter pans are more of a square shape where as the mixing tubs curve a little then flatten at the bottom.... I realize that with the small litter pans it will require a lil less wood to make the rack but for 1.00 more you get way more space... I guess just looking to hear some comments or recommendations....

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I only have 3 snakes; a baby corn and 2 baby balls. I breed my own mice and ASF's and theres np at all doing so! It will sive you money and you can make money out of it. Persanally I dont think you need to build a rack to feed only 4 snakes but, it is fun to do and also a learning experince. (was for me!) If I were you I would just run two 1.2 colonies in 10gal tanks. In 3weeks time you should have 32pinks and in another 3weeks you should have about 32 ready to wean pups. (That is just based on my litter survivail from four mothers) If you do go woth building a rack wich there is nothing wrong in doing so I would go with the 16x12x4 tubs. You could prob run a 1.3 mabye a 1.4 but, that could be a little stuffy for the mice. I use a 18.5x15.5x4 tub and I can run a 1.4 np. Everyone has room to nurse thier babies.

Hope I helped and good luck breeding!

I only have 1 ball python and I breed my own feeders too. My snake is very picky and refuses to eat frozen. I tried every trick in the book to get her to eat frozen feeders with no luck. As I live in Northern Michigan and only have access to frozen I made the choice to breed my own. My son likes it too. The parents are his pets and the babies are mine. Currently I have two females and one male mouse. I just started. So far so good. Just had six babies born 4 nights ago.