To breed or not to breed

alright...if i do breed how many colonies should i have? i was thinking two... with 1.3 in each.

Having one breeding female per snake is a pretty good rule of thumb. That will give you plenty to feed off, as well as surplus to freeze for later. Be forewarned though, it is easier to justify new snakes if you have a ready supply of food handy! :D

-Evan

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Originally Posted by Evan Jamison

Having one breeding female per snake is a pretty good rule of thumb. That will give you plenty to feed off, as well as surplus to freeze for later. Be forewarned though, it is easier to justify new snakes if you have a ready supply of food handy! :D

-Evan

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I didn't know that! Great tip...i'll get 4 females, and can i do with only one male? or should i get two?

that will be my next excuse, "i have too much food. better find more mouths to feed :D :D :D "

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Originally Posted by Amy05

I didn't know that! Great tip...i'll get 4 females, and can i do with only one male? or should i get two?

that will be my next excuse, "i have too much food. better find more mouths to feed :D :D :D "

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Well to avoid overbreeding your females you'll want to separate your rats, and being social animals you'll want to have a buddy for your male...so two males would be perfect.

As well as providing a companion, it will also strengthen the bloodlines if you decide to keep back any females for future breeders so you get less inbreeding going on.

-Jason

great! so i should have 3 tanks (2 for females, 1 for males)? 10 gallons are enough, correct?

No. Ten gallons is not enough for two fully grown, adult male rats. The ventilation would be horrid and they would get respiratory distress from it. Not to mention, how can they possibly have any enrichment in something that small? You would have to change the bedding every 3-4 days to keep them even relatively comfortable.

Get a decent 2 level or so wire cage with a plastic pan(Petsmart is good, no galvanized wire, it will rust) for the two boys, a plastic tub with the lid replaced with wire mesh as the "meeting place" and 2-3 ten gallon tanks for the females to be individually separated for birthing/rearing.

With only 4 snakes, it would be more feasible to not breed and just to get 4 rodents at the pet store every week. I breed mice for my 13 snakes(Ball Pythons and Corns) as it wasn't cutting it buying $35 in undersized mice from Petco every week. The boa gets rabbits, so I don't have to worry about that every week(I can get those in bulk).

As I said, I do breed mice, and no they don't smell. If they're fed a good diet, kept on good bedding that absorbs(such as kiln-dried pine), and you put a little baking soda in their bedding, they smell like any other little furry mammal. Neither my rats nor mice stink. If you can handle the musky scent of ferrets(which I like and don't mind :) ), then you can handle mice. I like mice because they can never get too big and I don't have to worry about what to do with ones that get too large for anything I have to eat. I have about 4-5 groups of 1.3-1.4 and they supply my snakes perfectly. I haven't had to buy a mouse(unless I wanted one for a breeder) in about a year. True, your boa will eventually need to be on rats, but you can easily buy those frozen in bulk from a good rodent dealer for much cheaper than you could breed them(depends on size).

Just do what would work better for you and your snakes. I doubt breeding would be feasible for you, at this point. Four rodents per week is nothing compared to others' food bills.

Do alot more research and figure out what would be best.

I'll have to feed four snakes come January, and here my pet store charges $6 for small rats....I'm not sure what your situation is for feeder price Amy, but for me $6 is a little ridiculous to shell out every 5-7 days per rat...

I'd rather spend the money up front, setup a nice rat rack and breed my own, plus make a bit of money back selling excess feeders with good temperments to the pet store for food/supplies.

I know I could feed frozen thawed and save money by ordering bulk online, but I really don't care for having to thaw out frozen rats....plus rats are great pets, by far my favorite "small" rodent.

Caging-wise I'll be following these plans for the most part...http://www.arbreptiles.com/cages/rat_rack/ratrack.shtml

Good luck with whatever you decide!

thanks. adult rats are about 3-4$ here. i feed f/t either way. i do think it would be fun to get into breeding though. i just have to find another money tree :cool:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...Splinter02.jpg

That was going to be my stud rat, until he decided to go homicidal on my hand...https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../firedevil.gif

I'll only ever keep incredibly friendly, non-biting rats...

No Amy 10 gallon tanks are not appropriate for multiple adult rats or even multiple young rats. They simply do not provide anywhere near enough room for a social, active animal to exist properly. I only use them for maternity tanks where one single female goes to give birth, raise and wean her young. My adults live in large, well ventilated plastic tubs or very large glass tanks (40 breeders) or in large wire rodent caging. Rats will turn on each other if overcrowded.

I'd suggest you do a lot of research first as rats are a high maintenance animal and it may not be worth your while to breed them yet.