My Adventures in Rat Breeding

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Originally Posted by voodoolamb

Ask the place you buy from for the ugly jerk rats?

I sometimes have trouble too. I have a cage of rats all named "Notty" as in "Not Food!"

Last week I tried to drop one into the tub of my live feeder and the little bugger held on for dear life and started kissing my hand. Sooooo he went back to the colony. Notty XI.

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The place I usually buy from (also the only one I know that sells live) always only has 2 or 3 to choose from. The guy sucks at grabbing them to put them in the container I bring so he has me do it. 😓
But how do you decide who gets to go in the Notty cage? I would take weeks to decide and by then they'd all big enough to be in there... 😅


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The notty cage are the ones that I planned on feeding but then they did something super cute at the last minute and I was like NOPE! :D

Then I have my regular breeders and babies that I had planned on holding back anyways.

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Originally Posted by voodoolamb

The notty cage are the ones that I planned on feeding but then they did something super cute at the last minute and I was like NOPE! :D

Then I have my regular breeders and babies that I had planned on holding back anyways.

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That way, they'd all stay with me because they all have cute beady eyes! My biggest wish is to get over it!!!! [emoji28] [emoji28]

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Originally Posted by voodoolamb

It can be both ;) My breeders are all named and loved on. They have HUGE cages, lots of toys, get lots of treats, and are fed an organic diet. They get free range time out of their cage, come when called and are just awesome pets. I socialize each litter, and sell quite a few as pets, the rest of the babies end up snake chow.

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Same, except for the organic diet. I'm not sure Native Earth fits into that category. We love our breeders, give them names, and socialize the babies. I've sold a few, but I'm currently holding back on that until I can produce enough feeders for my snakes. Buying them elsewhere sucks. Just a few more months and the girls I've been raising will be ready.

What I love about rats are the surprises. I don't know much about rat genetics, but it's really neat how you can breed two black and white animals and get colors that aren't visible on the parents. The latest litter surprised me.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...m%2F6r1y5i.jpg

The mother of this new mama rat (this is her first litter) has only ever had black and white babies, so I wasn't expecting the lighter ones.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...%2F219c2zp.jpg

I love how they look nothing like their mother.

Yup, my breeders are pets and all have names. They eat better than me, yesterday I cooked them some eggs and pancakes as a treat lol. I'm working on improving the natural temperament of my lines. So far, I have pet homed five rats to co-workers. They're very enjoyable pets with a lot of personality. I don't know of any pet breeders in my area, so I'm hoping to advertise some for pet homes in the future. At my local Petsmarts they're sold for $16 for your average black hooded. I plan on selling more unique colors and markings for $10 each. The ones I sell as pets will offset the cost of rodent food, that way I'm essentially feeding my snakes for free.

I'm mindful of the Seoul virus as well. I'm not selling any as pets right now. I'm hoping the CDC will lose interest soon, like what happened in the UK. Seoul is not a life-threatening virus unless you have a compromised immune system. It's considered endemic and not dangerous in some other countries. It looks like it has been in the US longer than what the CDC thought, because now people who have been tested are showing old anti-bodies who haven't kept rats since five years ago. It could be endemic in the US wild rat population. You could have come in contact with Seoul just from working in a barn and coming in contact with rat urine or feces.

As far as there being a trick to feeding cute rats off, I don't know that there is one. I never had a problem feeding off mice. When I switched to rat pups as my snakes got larger that was a whole different story. They were so cute and friendly. I made the mistake of playing with a cute hooded beige. Nobody ate him that night. I figured he was safe, so I told myself that I would keep him if nobody ate him the next night. As soon as I put him in he got wrapped. I felt so bad that I cried for probably fifteen minutes. Next week I became attached to another rat pup who licked me and bruxed in my hand, and that was Tony who obviously didn't get fed off lol. I got Tony a friend, but after that I didn't play with the rat pups anymore. Even now, I don't play with the food rats because that makes it harder to feed them off.

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Originally Posted by the_rotten1

Same, except for the organic diet. I'm not sure Native Earth fits into that category. We love our breeders, give them names, and socialize the babies. I've sold a few, but I'm currently holding back on that until I can produce enough feeders for my snakes. Buying them elsewhere sucks. Just a few more months and the girls I've been raising will be ready.

What I love about rats are the surprises. I don't know much about rat genetics, but it's really neat how you can breed two black and white animals and get colors that aren't visible on the parents. The latest litter surprised me.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...m%2F6r1y5i.jpg

The mother of this new mama rat (this is her first litter) has only ever had black and white babies, so I wasn't expecting the lighter ones.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...%2F219c2zp.jpg

I love how they look nothing like their mother.

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Looks like you got some mink and beige pups. :)

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Originally Posted by nightwolfsnow

Looks like you got some mink and beige pups. :)

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Thanks! I've never produced these colors before so I wasn't sure what they were. Definitely holding a few of these girls back.

nothing like getting unusual result in your breeding program, how exciting !