how would i go about....

The feeding can be afforded easily... It's not that its not affordable, It would just be easier to breed rats and do the feeding that way...

We wern't expecting for them to just start popping out babies, We knew it would take a while... We just didnt know that the female was too large to breed. That was the only problem

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Originally Posted by Byte

Yea but we want a female that we know will breed. With all of our snakes (6) it gets expensive feeding them all....
We want to be able to breed a.s.a.p and we've already wasted the money on one taking the chances....
so were looking for a proven breeder...

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I think buying from www.rodentpro.com is soo much cheaper than breeding rats. It was just way to stressful on all the animals and on us. Took space, smelled, they needed a lot of food and care. Every single day I had to change everything and I spent $40 on food and bedding supplies for only 2 female rats and a male rat and their 20 so offspring they produced in 2 months. And I always fed apples, grapes and all sorts of fruits and nuts which they love so much. It was just a stressful ordeal that I do not want to go through again. I find that buying from rodentpro is cheaper :D

But if you had lots and lots of snakes and wanted to breed your own food monthly to feed all your critters without wasting gas, and money on frozen rats then breed rats. Just hang fly strips to keep flies on the down low.:) (I have 4 snakes to feed so I dont need to breed my own rats and thats probably one reason why I find it better to just go out and buy my own food ) because breeding rodents seems to be more time consuming and more money costing than your actual snake:eyepoppin

I breed rats, because some of my snakes just will not take f/t. It is not that hard, but I would take BPKid's advice and buy sub-adults so you know you're not just getting someone's old, washed-up breeders. It'll take more time but definately worth it. Or heck, if you did want a proven breeder, buy a preggo female and a seperate male, let her have the babies, give her some time off and breed her again; but again you have no way of knowing her age.

Just a personal preference but I don't think finding a "proven breeder" is that big of a deal. Personally I would want females that have NOT bred yet or just a short of maturity. You will get the most out of her breeding life this way. Who knows if the rodent you buy that has been used for breeding already is nearly retired or not.

Like was said you won't get instant food, it takes time especially when they are moved to a new setup. I raise my own food and it's always been more cost effective for me.

My dear sweet sister Kayla(Byte).... she has it all wrong. I am not breeding our rats because of any financial problems or because it is cheaper in the long run (because it's not!). I want to start my own colony due to the simple fact I'm sick of going to 3 pet stores that are 3 cities away to obtain food that half the time is not in stock because they sell it so quickly. I'm going to keep my current male and female rats together for at least 3 months (total) to see if anything happens. In the meantime I will be purchasing another female from petco that looks to me to be a maturing young lady.

Thanks to all who replied in this thread.