Thoughts on Feeder Breeding

I've been considering breeding my own feeders more and more, but wanted to shoot around thoughts on it. Every breakdown of f/t vs breeding has said that f/t is cheaper, especially for those with a smaller collection. My concern is that at my new house our freezer space is very limited, so I can only buy 1-2 months supply of f/t at a time, less if we have our usual amount of human food in there. Shipping is NOT worth it in those small amounts, and the nearest driving distance trustworthy supplier is about 1 1/2 hour drive away; while I love my old beater car for running as well as it does, the gas mileage is not all that great.

I've been eyeing the boamaster rodent racks since they're a decent price with the watering system set up, and until we can build up our tool collection again I don't think I can build my own racks. With only 5 snakes in the house, I figure I can run 2 or 3 rat breeding groups of 1.2 without much difficulty, and thankfully my landlord is a very reasonable man who has had absolutely no issue with the animals, especially seeing the organization we practice in keeping them ("No :cens0r: indoor cats or dogs, that's all I care about" :rofl:).

I'm just frustrated because I would prefer f/t for convenience's sake, but we don't have a place we could put a separate freezer. There's space inside the house where I could put racks, and as long as we keep up on cleaning I can't see the rats becoming an issue. The gas money and slightly higher prices of the nearest reptile shop/rodent suppliers makes it the same if not more expensive than ordering online. However, we do have a feed store in town that could order Mazuri for a decent price.

If you guys have any handy tips on keeping smaller colonies of rats they'd be greatly appreciated, or any ideas about this for that matter. Rat breeding actually looks like some fun, and I don't mind rats themselves. Just trying to figure out what to do in the new house/new situation

In most cases id say its not worth it but in your case it really sounds like it would be imo. Plus you could always cull and freeze extra rats, or sell nice ones as pets! Ive heard some people on here say that their snakes tend to eat better on live. (Not trying to start an argument by saying thats true, ive just heard some people say it.) When i have the space and time to, i would love to breed my own rats.

EDIT: how do you have space for a rat rack but not for a freezer? They make smaller chest freezers you know

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

EDIT: how do you have space for a rat rack but not for a freezer? They make smaller chest freezers you know

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Realized I probably should've clarified after I posted, haha. The room we have for racks is on the side of our living room. Since the rodent rack would only have a slightly larger footprint than that of a concrete mixing tub, it'd be easy to fit it along the wall behind an open backed shelving unit (some strange modern-y thing my mom gave us, but would hide it mostly while still keeping a good amount of ventilation)with the tubs facing out to the side for access.

Edit: I suppose I should add the rack I'm looking at is said to have dimensions of 22 x 28 x 62. Pushes the shelving unit out some but it's also almost a perfect fit for a filing cabinet we have on the other side

I personally don't think you'll want a rodent rack in the living room. I agree with the above though.. my first thought is that if you have space for a rack, you have plenty of space for a small chest freezer and be able to simply keep larger amounts of frozen.

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Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

I personally don't think you'll want a rodent rack in the living room. I agree with the above though.. my first thought is that if you have space for a rack, you have plenty of space for a small chest freezer and be able to simply keep larger amounts of frozen.

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I'll keep an eye on craigslist, if not check out prices of the smaller ones. It's mostly the foot print I'm concerned with, we're very limited inside. Of course there's plenty of space in the car port, but the neighborhood association is picky about items out there. Our land lord received a complaint when we left a large tank and two tubs off to the side for a day/night while we situated the inside. I'll see if I can get a number and ask about appliances, seeing as it might be less of an issue.

Thank you for the replies, having ideas to bounce around helps a great deal and it's greatly appreciated

22.0"x28.3" 5cu feet GE. You think you can spare the .3" extra lol?
http://m.lowes.com/mt/www.lowes.com/...1&facetInfo=GE

I got the same one except the 7cu foot one bc it was only $20 more.
Theres noooo way in hell i could ever get enough f/t rats to fill it. I have 4 bps right now and 3 months of food fits in just the basket inserts that come for it lol.

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

22.0"x28.3" 5cu feet GE. You think you can spare the .3" extra lol?
http://m.lowes.com/mt/www.lowes.com/...1&facetInfo=GE

I got the same one except the 7cu foot one bc it was only $20 more.
Theres noooo way in hell i could ever get enough f/t rats to fill it. I have 4 bps right now and 3 months of food fits in just the basket inserts that come for it lol.

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Sweet! Thank you! Didn't realize they came that small

I've owned a chest freezer smaller than any rack I've ever seen. And... extra room for Icy Pops!! Can't go wrong with extra Icy Pops, no way.

Just thinking that after a month or two, you'd regret putting a rodent rack in the living room. I have a few pet rats in my living room, but I'm remarkably unpicky about my house, and no one else lives here but me and my critters.

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Originally Posted by Valentine Pirate

Sweet! Thank you! Didn't realize they came that small

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No problemo!
With that 5cuft one what i would do is use it for all your food, itll fit alot trust me lol, and then use your smaller freezer in youre refridgerator as the rodent freezer. (thats if you or your roomates are worried about keeping them together.) Otherwise, as wolfy said, youll have PLENTY of extra room for ice pops!

+1 to the idea of getting a small chest freezer. I thought I'd try to breed this female feeder rat I brought home for one of my snakes when she decided not to eat it, and she's cute but she's nothing but trouble. She won't let the male do his job. Also the boyfriend conditioned her to think everything that goes near her face is food, so she just chomps right down whenever I try to pick her up. Fortunately the pet store I work at moved recently, and when it was all over there was a chest freezer for frozen dog bones that didn't have a space, so I took that. Once the garage is clean I'll fill it with frodents and Ratley can just be a pet. It doesn't take up much space, and neither do packs of feeders, but a rack certainly will, and I imagine you'd still need to supplement your critters with another food source to make up for small litters and other misfortunes. When you're feeding a larger collection there seems to be a little more wiggle room to get your rat colonies breeding at the right rates but with just a few, their production rates could be pretty variable.

I'd put my vote in for a small freezer as well. I enjoy raising my own feeders a lot but they are a lot of work at the same time. I spend every bit as much, if not more, time cleaning their tubs and feeding/watering them as I do my snakes. My collection is currently 13 ball pythons and 100+ rats in 18 concrete tub racks ( mostly grow outs & pups with two dozen or so adult breeders). Mine live in my garage, so I really can't say on the smell but a rack of them in the living room...? Each to their own and not judging in the least but you get more than one or two in a room, depending on how often you change their bedding and the smell can get to be noticeable in a hurry, lol! I raise mine because it's honestly just easier than dealing with shipping and having to buy "x" number of this size versus that for all of my various sized animals (hatchlings to a 2007 female being the size range), so that's what works for me. If you can make the freezer work and your animals will eat f/t, I'd say stick with that and don't fix it if it isn't broke, lol! Good luck and hope it works out, whatever you decide. :gj:

Agree with the chest freezer.

With 5 snakes, you'll likely end up with far too many rats than you need, even with just 2 breeding groups of 1:2. Then they will end up in your freezer anyway, leaving you no room for human food.

Chest freezer in the living room with a nice cover over it. Maybe a lamp on top. Nice. :gj:

Here's another tip - Look for sales on display models. They may have a scratch or two or maybe a dent but they work fine and you'll save a bundle. I like that better than getting someone's used merchandise.

Thank you for the replies! It's indeed decided on the chest freezer (and icy pops :D ) and it's actually become the least of the space issue with a newly acquired iguana in the house. Looks like the shelving unit (and more furniture even) may be replaced by iguana enclosure. I love my significant other, and thank god he has iguana experience of 10+ years, or I might've followed through with my urge to acquire a mini freezer and drop it straight on his head... (LOVE iguanas, and wanted one someday, we'll be able to make it work but I had hoped to figure out the smaller issues first. Oh, and maybe prepare, ya know, might've been a good idea :taz: )

Thank you again guys, I have a tendency to simply miss simpler solutions and move straight to the more complicated stuff. At least I can keeps the snakes simple and cheap! I'm overloading on the house rearrangement brainstorm in my head

The smell of rats can be very overwhelming, that said I really dont recommend them inside your living space. More of a garage would be a good place... just saying. 2nd thing, I wouldnt worry about producing high number of rats, you could always sell them. Just my $0.02