Mice or Rats?

I think, eventually, I want one of these.

http://www.arscaging.com/ars1050.html

along with all the other caging they provide.

Thats a good call. I have the ARS mouse rack and their "BP rack". Check my gallery. I love em! They make life SOOO much easier. I keep a 1.5 in the ones I use for mice and a 1.2 for the ASF's and I haven't seen any cannibalism yet, just keep them fed well and make sure the waters coming out. The vanilla trick works well for my rearing tanks, but I'm afraid to put it into my rack's water system. In the first couple weeks I had a million mouse babies too. I only bought 2 levels, have 3 tubs dedicated to mice and 7 to the ASF's. The ASF's are slacking right now, but I heard they take a while to get going(Only 4 pinks, as opposed to like 80 mice pinks), but the rack seems to work well for both groups. The mice smell alot more than the ASF's, but cleaning a mouse cage is peaceful, ASF's go on a rampage, bouncing off the walls, I know one's got to get loose eventually the way they are. No aggression, just scared from what I can tell. As for regular rats, for me, the hassle of having too many huge rats that nobody would eat was too much. I now have a 1.2 and thats it for my big females. The other thing is most rat racks have 3 tubs per level, so if you're doing 1.2, I just felt like I wouldn't have baby rats often enough when baby snakes start hatching. Everyone says it on here so I'm going to quote them all and say "Do what works for you and your bps." :)

It just depends on what is going to work for you. Personally, if I could get my hands on more ASFs, I would focus on them more. I am stunned by how low-odor and low-waste-producingly they live. Now for snakes that you might sell, it might be better to keep them on rats or mice, since those are more readily available to your future customers..
I love breeding rats, for their nice litter sizes. They suit me well, and when one is done producing, I have my BCI to dispose of it, as he is on adult-sized rats. This is his "job" :) But since ASFs never outgrow the size needed for an adult BP.. I want to get into them more! Mice, if they're working for you.. they have nice litter sizes as well but it took me awhile to get started with them in the past because the ones I had were having dinky litters. Finding females of any type of feeder that will produce big, healthy litters is the way to go!

Hmm. Might be to my benefit to have a larger snake to be a rat disposal. lol. I might have to go to the boa section and ask a few questions about the red-tails. I used to have a young one when I was younger but we had to move in with my grandmother and she said no snakes. :(. She was so beautiful and I miss her now. Makes me want to get one.

I think rats would be best, especially when I have more snakes. It won't be much fun feeding everyone a mouse, then having to go do it all over again so they are getting a decent sized meal on feeding day. It would be easier to just feed one small rat than several large mice.

Another cool thing is, if your snakes will eat f/t. You can euthanize the rats at just the right size, and have more for later.
Rat breeding is fun. It does take up some space, but a rack sounds like a great choice. I keep mine in castoff 10g and 20g tanks. I use the 10gs for one mom with her litter. I only keep females alone when they are about to have their babies.. they seem to appreciate their time alone nursing. Otherwise they're either in my big 55-g "girl's tank" where I have "teen" females that need to grow before breeding and also resting adults.. Or in my 20g "bachelor pad" with the male. I want to get another male soon to speed things along a little :) Once in awhile I give my colony a "production break" and buy some feeders. This gives a chance for whatever I have going to either grow a little more, or in general it takes the load off of my colony, as I never seem to have enough females/babies! But I doubled my female count this past month, so we'll see once the teens are ready to breed.

We are currently breeding only mice and as of right now we only have 3 females in with males. Once we get some rat racks built we will probably start breeding them. Thanks for the info! :D