Fancy rats as feeders?

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Originally Posted by stupidcracker00

What do you mean by "best rats"? Like pet store vs. local breeder? Or fancy genetics vs "plain" genetics. (sorry I don't know how else to describe it lol)

So would you recommend spending the $70 for the breeding pair?

Thanks,
SC

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Best as in very selectively bred for many generations before I purchased them.
When my partner and I bought our original group of 14 rats it cost us $440 and every rat came with 5-7 generations of pairings so we knew pretty munch what each rat would produce.
The genetic we got included: All dumbo eared, some velveteen and some rec coats, black eyed Siamese that carried red eye recessives, Russian blue, American blue, black eyed whites, blue agouti, manx, dwarf and a few others.

Would I recommend paying $70 for the average breeder to make feeders, not at all.
I did what I did to make pets to sell to pay for the whole rat breeding operation and it did that and then some selling pet rats 2 for $15.

Last year I decided to bred some of my own rats so I could have fresh pickies available for my hatchling BP's. For my initial breeding stock I choose to spend the extra money for some nice masked Russian Blues from a healthy line. I figured if I was going to go to the trouble of keeping and breeding rats I'd might as well bred interesting looking rats.

Obviously the snakes do not care if their food is a cool color or has Dumbo ears. The only thing I believe that matters with feeders is that they are healthy and not dehydrated or malnourished.

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Originally Posted by snakesRkewl

Best as in very selectively bred for many generations before I purchased them.
When my partner and I bought our original group of 14 rats it cost us $440 and every rat came with 5-7 generations of pairings so we knew pretty munch what each rat would produce.
The genetic we got included: All dumbo eared, some velveteen and some rec coats, black eyed Siamese that carried red eye recessives, Russian blue, American blue, black eyed whites, blue agouti, manx, dwarf and a few others.

Would I recommend paying $70 for the average breeder to make feeders, not at all.
I did what I did to make pets to sell to pay for the whole rat breeding operation and it did that and then some selling pet rats 2 for $15.

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Ok that's what I thought were saying. That's exactly what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to create pets along with feeders that way it'll pay for itself. I know for a fact that this lady has selectively bred her blue dumbos for many generations along with her other types of rats. She is a high quality breeder, not just some po-dunk rat breeder (like what I will be lol). She knows what she's doing and has been doing it for a long time.

So bottom line, would you recommend just breeding fancy rats as pets and then using them as feeders also? Or should I get a whole different line of feeders like from the pet store?

Thank you for your input,
SC

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Originally Posted by stupidcracker00

So bottom line, would you recommend just breeding fancy rats as pets and then using them as feeders also? Or should I get a whole different line of feeders like from the pet store?

Thank you for your input,
SC

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We don't seel pets anymore and breed the high quality rats for feeders :gj:
If you have the time and a way to sell pet rats it can pay for quite a bit of the rest of the rat breeding operation.

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Originally Posted by Adam Chandler

Last year I decided to bred some of my own rats so I could have fresh pickies available for my hatchling BP's. For my initial breeding stock I choose to spend the extra money for some nice masked Russian Blues from a healthy line. I figured if I was going to go to the trouble of keeping and breeding rats I'd might as well bred interesting looking rats.

Obviously the snakes do not care if their food is a cool color or has Dumbo ears. The only thing I believe that matters with feeders is that they are healthy and not dehydrated or malnourished.

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Ya that was my thought process initially too. I just wanted to make cool lookin rats to feed my snake since I was trying to make cool looking snakes. Now that I've done a TON of research I am really excited about making rats a secondary hobby. Not just for feeding purposes. I feel like that will be more rewarding in the long run than the amount of money I save by not buying feeders. But that's a nice benefit too ;)

Another thing that got me stoked was how much you can actually sell a good-gened pet rat for. When the lady told me 35 I was like, "Are you serious???", but it makes sense now. The genes are the top of the line, the selective breeding has created very tame personalities, it all adds into the cost. Plus the demand for blue dumbos is high right now. I'm sure I could sell each of mine for at least $15. Especially since I will continue to selectively breed for personality and colors. This would really make it worth it.

Thanks for your reply,
SC

Yeah.. the Vivarium doesn't ship live out to places..It would be super expensive and a rat would freak out and they can chew through anything.

just for fun, here is my agouti (wild coat type) dumbo irish girl, hua
http://i1293.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8c44db35.jpg

Shipping live rats is like shipping a puppy. Special container, airfare, health certificate, etc. It's a royal pain unless you're getting a large group of some sort of gene you just really must have and can't find otherwise.

I get all sorts of different fancy rats for feeder prices. I would NOT recommend you expect to get $20+ for a pet rat. I sell the occasional pet rat, usually for $10 at most. But I enjoy my breeders a lot and love to see all the genetics. I have hairless(got the original het hairless by accident in a colony buy), dumbos, blues, blaze-faced, all sorts of colors and possibly black selfs coming. I actually am not certain I have a single regular albino breeder left in the colony now. My snakes eat whatever color I give them, although I do tend to give dark hooded feeders to snakes in shed, hoping the snake can see them better with the contrast.

Most of the "breeders" I've found are ridiculously anal about selling their rats to anyone who might even consider ever breeding a rat. If you have found a good one who doesn't mind you breeding, especially for feeders, than I'd definitely build a good relationship with her. I personally wouldn't spend $30 for a single rat, unless it was a very rare, very desirable trait. Blue dumbos are fairly common, at least around here.

Also, the most healthy, robust, glossy friendly rats I've ever seen were from Rodents on the Road, who essentially breed and sell feeders. I used to buy all my feeders live directly from one of the breeding facilities. They were calm and fat healthy animals. I've seen some "high quality breeders" with show rats that didn't have such healthy looking animals.

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Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

Shipping live rats is like shipping a puppy. Special container, airfare, health certificate, etc. It's a royal pain unless you're getting a large group of some sort of gene you just really must have and can't find otherwise.

I get all sorts of different fancy rats for feeder prices. I would NOT recommend you expect to get $20+ for a pet rat. I sell the occasional pet rat, usually for $10 at most. But I enjoy my breeders a lot and love to see all the genetics. I have hairless(got the original het hairless by accident in a colony buy), dumbos, blues, blaze-faced, all sorts of colors and possibly black selfs coming. I actually am not certain I have a single regular albino breeder left in the colony now. My snakes eat whatever color I give them, although I do tend to give dark hooded feeders to snakes in shed, hoping the snake can see them better with the contrast.

Most of the "breeders" I've found are ridiculously anal about selling their rats to anyone who might even consider ever breeding a rat. If you have found a good one who doesn't mind you breeding, especially for feeders, than I'd definitely build a good relationship with her. I personally wouldn't spend $30 for a single rat, unless it was a very rare, very desirable trait. Blue dumbos are fairly common, at least around here.

Also, the most healthy, robust, glossy friendly rats I've ever seen were from Rodents on the Road, who essentially breed and sell feeders. I used to buy all my feeders live directly from one of the breeding facilities. They were calm and fat healthy animals. I've seen some "high quality breeders" with show rats that didn't have such healthy looking animals.

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Well this lady is literally the only person in a 30 mile radius (at least), that sells fancy rats, especially the blue dumbos. There's another lady who put an ad on Craigslist with some baby tan albino looking weanlings for sale. I contacted her and she said she was going to breed a blue to one of those litter mates because they had the blue gene as well. He said she would contact me when he's ready to sell them. If she sells them to me, I'll be getting 2 females for 30. That, I can manage :) but this is the reason why I convinced myself to house and breed rats in my house. There has got to be so many people around my area that go to petsmart or Petco and blow 4 bucks a rat...FROZEN! They are the only two pet stores in my suburb so I know there isnt a lot of diversity already. I'll be selling to a fresh market in desperate need of snake food and/or healthy pets. Every feeder will be treated as a pet no matter what their future entails. I believe that even tho their lives could be pretty short, they should be comfortable during the time they have.

Thanks,
SC

'Tan albino'? I am guessing you mean it has red eyes. I only have 'fancy' rats, most people call any rat that is not albino fancy. I have gotten all my rats from pet stores. I got a black dumbo that carried the blue gene from Petsmart. Now I have a combination of dumbo, top ear, black eye, ruby eye, odd eye, manx, blue (russian and american), black, beige, cinnamon, agouti, blaze, berkshire, hooded, variegated and irish. And probably others I am forgetting right now. There is nothing wrong with getting pet store rats to breed, and you can end up with some really cool looking rats. Just make sure to check them out and make sure they are healthy and not nippy before buying any rat. I just picked up a silvery blue blaze berkshire male from a pet store a few weeks ago to mate with a self russian blue dumbo female. Can't wait to see what they throw.

Have you checked any places that would be selling rodent food? Sometimes you'd be amazed at how many rat producers are in an area. I knew of one, and it turns out that now I know of over a dozen within 25 miles. It's just hard to find them. If you ask around at feed stores, you may find there's someone buying food for a colony and get in touch.