Is it worth it?

yea i'm gonna give it atleast 2 birthings to see what kind of numbers i am looking at, then i'll decided what to do. thanks for the help Sean.

First I want to say anyone that wants to breed feeders should give it a shot. I do think it is a good idea to start with less then you think you need and work into it. But heck we are talking mice and rats, no rocket sience there so just do what works for you.

Now from my view, I spend about 125-150 dollars a quarter with Rodent Pro including shipping. I do have one snake that is a tird and I have to buy him live mice but the other 39 (yes I have 40 animals) all eat mouseciles and ratcicles from RP and they are all healthy and in great shape.

I am not one of "those people" :rolleyes: that insist on feeding dead prey to my snakes, snakes are one of the oldest and most deadly rodent killers in the world. To me it is all about convience, this morning I will go to the freezer with my list, take out the Sunday feed and let it thaw. Once thawed I will do the cage cleaning and feeding for about half my group. Then Wednesday after work the same drill for the other half.

My animals are enough work, I am not a full time breeder or anything like that so I have other businesses to run that take a lot more of my time. I also hunt, fish, take care of my house and yard and own two cats and two dogs. I can not imagine adding mice and rats to my home nor the effort to clean and care for them.

So 50 bucks a month to support my colony seems like a fair wage to give those rodent pro dudes to me. Their mice and rats never stink of urine, they all look healthy and the convience is wonderful. Now as a hunter I own a very big deep freezer in the garage so that helps. I can buy a 90 day or more supply at a time, I don't like keeping frozen more then 6 months though as nutrition value starts to decline by them.

Now the other part is I do put all but my boa and carpet python into brumation each year, the break is for them and for me. They get the last meal of the year in the first week of Dec, the lights go to short duration, the heat tape goes off and the cages are cleaned the week before Christmas then on New Years day (hung over or not) by then they don't do much. I don't feed again till week one or two of March after a week of long light and warmth.

Now I don't keep Balls and many of you (98%?) do so I know you can't do this just like I can't with my Boa or JCP but the result for me is 3 months of the year with no one to feed except my Durmils Boa and my Jungle who eat only twice a month in that time, they stay warm but get the same lighting so I think that slows them down too.

Hence I only feed about three quarters a year for most of my collection so my hobby from a food cost per year is about 450-500 max a year. So if taking care of rats took me 50 hours a year (it would have to be more) I would have to value my hourly time of freedom quite low to breed my own and smell rat stink to boot.

For many I know you like dealing with rats and mice, etc. That is cool but to me personaly frozen is the way to go, now if I can just get my Transvaal House Snake on frozen all will be perfect, :snake: