Well... rats

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Originally Posted by lord jackel

You have to manage your breeding.

Look at the "sticky" section for a breeding plan so you get roughly the number of rats you need each week (you will have about a 2 week window before the rats get too big)
Find a petstore that will take any extras (or other snake breeders)
Feed off the males first (so any females that get to big can be used as breeders)
Adpot retired breeders to pet stores or via Craigslist as pets. (until you RTB is big enough).

Just a few ideas hope they help.

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Ive adopted rats out through craigslist, but i have not found a petstore willing the buy breeders.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

You can also look around your area for a reptile rescue or a raptor rescue organization, even a herp club of some sort. They may be quite happy to take your larger rats as a donation to a good cause. :)

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I'll look around

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Originally Posted by atp151415

DUde build a little rack like i did

my other female is looking pregnant now, and i also saw them mating:D

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Im sick of racks ATP:P I just retired my mouse rack, it was becomeing a pain.

haha,
well i only spent 45 dollars in wood and tubs for my rack, i followed the one on arbreptiles.com but i halfed everything in half like how much wood you need and stuff. Those concrete mixing tubs work great and i havent had one even chew on it.

My baby rats have peach fuzz on them lol

Im only going to start with 2.2 rats. Unlike mice i would not be happy to be over ran with rats( id hate for too many to get huge) And thats feeding 2 snakes, plus a few of my friends.

no get 1.2, thats what i got and it works great
having two females instead of one per male gives him some more fun, lol

and thats one less rat to feed

If you do 1.2, you either have to have the male in with a female all the time, which doesn't give the females a break, or you have to have the male by himself when you are giving the females a break, which isn't good for such social animals.

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Originally Posted by kc261

If you do 1.2, you either have to have the male in with a female all the time, which doesn't give the females a break, or you have to have the male by himself when you are giving the females a break, which isn't good for such social animals.

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Which is why I'm going with 2.2 ATP, so the male will not be lonely once I seperate them.

right now im at about 20 females breeding and another 30 starting in the next few weeks.

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Originally Posted by Beardedragon

Which is why I'm going with 2.2 ATP, so the male will not be lonely once I seperate them.

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Once you separate the male weaners your male won't be alone. I have 1.3 right now, and my male is just fine, and will b with his sons in 3 weeks. If you take your male out for handling everyday, then that will help with the lonely part.

I'd also look into a reptile rescue group to adopt a large snake like a large boa or a burm, that way you won't have to wait for it to grow up. I've adopted all of my burms from my herp society, we're always looking for people to place big homeless snakes with. I'd also start out with a larger group of rats. You never know if they're all going to be good breeders or not and if you do produce more then you need, you can always freeze them at the right size. They don't really breed like clockwork and you'll have times during the year where you have too many, and times when you won't have enough. Even with the same group of breeders you'll have peaks and valleys of production throughout the year.

Mark

Red Tail Boas are beautiful snakes... but they're too expensive and get too big for me in this little apartment. Not to mention that my BF would likely leave if I ever even thought of getting one!

Now, the rescues are an idea... We have at least one of each out here, I just wonder if they would be willing to pick the rats up since I can't drive. :)