average cost

I don't produce many rats, no mice and I've got a lot of snakes....

My rodent bill this week

75 fuzzy mice
2500 hopper mice
50 adult mice
100 wiend rats

12 shredded bags of aspen
2 bags of rat food

an extra (800) 9.75 deli cups, 1000 lids and 1050 disposable water bowls.

3 part time employees

I LOVE this time of year, no sleep (espectially with a 5 month old this year) but I truely love getting to go threw everything and enjoy the work.

hmmm, let's see...

snake related expenses:
rat food: $30
aspen: $25
frozen rodents: $25
misc. supplies: $25

i do breed my own rats but i have 30 snakes and not a big enough colony yet to feed them all, so i order frozen rodents for the f/t eaters about once every 6 months. i just upgraded 2 of my snake racks, so that was probably somewhere in the $1k range for everything (rack, tubs, heat). as for electricity--the rats are in the garage and we just installed a window air conditioner to keep it cool enough and i think it is pretty much going to suck the life out of me when i see the first bill (and it's not even summer yet!).


now for fun, gecko related expenses:
crickets: $50
cgd and supplements: $20
misc. supplies: $25
shipping supplies: $20

then there are caging upgrades, additions, etc. which i've probably spent about $300-400 on in the last several months and will spend a few hundred more as i prep for this summer's baby boom. :) i'm also starting my breeder roach colony up again, which may or may not bring the cost of crickets down slightly. and generally there is a gecko purchase in there here and there but i try to use funds from sellling geckos to buy more geckos. :P

in a way, when broken down like that it doesn't look like a lot of money, but at the same time there is always something that comes up that isn't accounted for on a list. a vet visit and meds, a new animal purchase, a new enclosure, rack, etc. plus utilities like water and electricity. i do spend most of what's leftover from each paycheck (after mortgage, utilities, groceries, etc.) on herp related things, but i wouldn't have it any other way. :sunny:

I have 25 snakes and don't breed rodents so all my food is F/T or purchased for the couple of live feeders. I have found that I value my time more than money, so taking care of rodents is not what I choose to do (besides the problem of no space for them at the moment!)

Food of various sizes, about $75/mo
Aspen $5/mo
misc cleaning supplies (gloves, clorhex, etc) $5/mo

Add into that the racks I have bought ($200) and need to buy ($700) and another t-stat (big herpstat for $350) and I don't want to think about the rest :-)

I enoy having snakes so I don't mind. Guess it's good I never had kids!

deb

Rat food-$20-$30 per month

Newspaper-free, i raid everyone else's house
aspen-$15/month
Converting my shed to a snake room has cost me over $1000 now and is still not complete
cleaning supplies-$+15 per month

Taking care of 18 snakes at the moment...

Racks: cumulative, not monthly ~$700
Electricity: ??

Feeders ~ $100
Bedding ~$5
Cleaning supplies ~$15

Rat colony is still in the works

Rat rack, 5 tubs with watering system: ~$160

Rodent block ~$20
Bedding ~$15

Right now I have 30-40 babies that need to grow to feeding size but still need quite a few more adults for breeding.

If we're counting caging too then tack on about $4000. :P