Hardest part of this hobby

I'm fairly new to this cool hobby that I should of started a long time ago. I guess I've gotten to be a little soft hearted as I've mellowed with age. All the cleaning doesn't really bother me but raising these rats is the best way for me to feed them and I thoroughly enjoy breeding rats. But having to pick the ones to feed makes me feel terrible, these rats are so damn cute.

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Yeah breeding your own rats is fun, but feeding off certain ones can suck sometimes!
Thats what holdbacks are for though!!!:D

I love breeding my rats.Yeah its hard to let go of the females.

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It is sometimes hard to feed off certain rats, but that is also the purpose of raising them. When it come down to it I don't feel that bad doing it because they are raised for that specific reason. I also really like how much money breeding my own rats saves me.

Cleaning smelly pee and poop for me.

Lol, I tell myself that's what they are there for. That and we do have a few "holdback" pets...;)

Button, for example:
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/01/22/qa5avyge.jpg

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Well posting cute pictures of rats being held doesn't help the situation at all. I keep handling to a minimum just to avoid that situation.

Lol. We handle all of our rats regardless. They are all friendly.

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Originally Posted by DrDooLittle

Lol, I tell myself that's what they are there for. That and we do have a few "holdback" pets...;)

Button, for example:
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/01/22/qa5avyge.jpg

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Ohmygawd. Button is cute as a button!

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

Ohmygawd. Button is cute as a button!

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Haha, guess how she got her name...

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It's not the baby rats that I have problems feeding off. Sure, they're cute and I enjoy playing with them. But I don't really have any emotional attachments to them. It's the retired breeder girls that are always so hard to feed off.

I'm not raising rats, but I have chickens, so I know how you feel. When I first got my chicks, they were supposed to all be hens, but a couple roosters snuck in. Well... I'm not allowed to have roosters, so I'm sure you can imagine what happens to them. (I did keep one rooster though... as long as none of the neighbors complain, and so far none have and one neighbor even said they LIKE hearing the rooster!) Then one of my hens came up limping, so I separated her to heal, gave her some eggs to hatch. Only one hatched, and naturally that one was a rooster. Again, I'm sure you can imagine what happened to him. Not easy, don't like it, but it is part of life. Give them respect in life, raise them humanely, and do the best you can for them until their time comes.

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Originally Posted by satomi325

It's not the baby rats that I have problems feeding off. Sure, they're cute and I enjoy playing with them. But I don't really have any emotional attachments to them. It's the retired breeder girls that are always so hard to feed off.

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like that one in your freezer lol...

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

like that one in your freezer lol...

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LOL. Well, that particular died naturally.

Either way, I don't like feeding off any of my breeder girls. I hand picked each and everyone of them. They were all raised up from weanling age or younger.
They're too old for someone to want to adopt, but I don't have the extra resources to keep them all as pets. If that was the case, I would have more pets than breeders. heh.

Wow those ears....ya I try not to handle them so I don't get attached. I enjoy breeding my rats and mice as well, the cleaning isn't to bad with a smaller size colony....

My fiancé on the other hand, oh man she saves like every other one, she finds them all cute!

Hardest part for me is dealing with the fact any new snake could have crypto/RI and have to properly quarantine :( not to mention used products, always buy new! NEVER used unless its can be bathed in acid

I know the feeling. I'm the same way which is why I just made myself a CO2 chamber to humanely put these rats down instead of feeding them to my BPs live. Right now, I'm trying to switch my BPs to freshly killed rats.

So far, 3 out of 8 took them. I still have 8 more to go - still unknown if they will take pre-killed or not. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

It isn't too hard for me to feed the babies, but the breeder females and males I am definitely attached to. I have already culled the problem mothers and overbearing males and the screamers and biters. Now all I am left with are really good-natured awesome rats. It is going to be very hard when I have to consolidate my breeders for the move. I will likely end up giving them away to local feeder breeders who I know will take good care of them (You know who you are ladies!).

However, the whole reason I started breeding rats is because I know how they were treated before becoming food. I know mine are clean, healthy, happy, well fed and well loved.

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Originally Posted by medusasmorphs

My fiancé on the other hand, oh man she saves like every other one, she finds them all cute!

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My girlfriend is NOT going into the rat racks once there are babies!

A friend of mine started breeding rats and after a while stopped feeding his off. It is quite funny but he breeds and sells 'fancy' rats and uses the income to buy F/T.

A lot of people see it as a weird conflict of interest (since we both keep reptiles) but my sister is actually pretty active on rat forums and for a long time participated in a rat rescue network. A lot of the rats that got re-homed that way were ex breeder females that people didn't want to see become snake food. We've actually had a few such rats as pets. Unfortunately due to my history with having rats as pets I'm not sure how I'd stomach breeding my own for food. It's easier when they come to me already dead and frozen. I don't have nearly as much emotional attachment to mice but they stink :mad:

Yes, the breeding your own food has it's ups and downs. For the most part, we keep handling of the food rats to a minimum. It's just too darn hard to feed them when you get attached. We console ourselves with keeping one special rat out of each litter. That one gets handled and spoiled rotten, and I mean spoiled rotten. About one out of every 4 specials stays here to become future breeding stock, the others become extra special pets thanks to my awesome local mom and pop pet store.

My big thing is, I cannot feed dumbos. Top ears don't bother me, but I just can't bear to feed a dumbo. Those insanely cute faces and big ears....not going to happen. So on rare occasions when we have an excess of dumbos we can't send to the pet store, hubby has to feed them. I just can't do it.

Of course, the fact that my daughter's first pet was a dumbo, and my own extra, extra special boy is a dumbo has nothing to do with that. Nothing at all.:rolleyes:

I've gotten so attached to the little buggers, I've become a surrogate mom more than once. Feeding a litter or sometimes just one lone runt every couple for hours for a few weeks tends to make it really hard to let them go. Yes, I know full well I could feed the ones that aren't thriving or have lost momma or whatever, but darn it I can't help but feel like they need a chance. Even if it does wear me out. :sigh2:

By the way.... Button is just too darn cute for me to stand it!

Gale

We pick favorites out of the litters to do the same thing it makes me feel a little better. One breeder male we kept is just plain black but when he was a pinkie my one year old grandson got ahold of him and bit him on the head. Which resulted in the loss of one eye. Well every one felt so bad we named him winkie and he is still here as a breeder and is very sweet. My son and I take turns picking the feeders from the racks. Because that's the worst part having to choose the ones to die. But that's why we raise them.




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Call me crazy, but when I hear a slam against the side of the tub, followed by a squeal... I do a fist pump :gj:

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Originally Posted by coreydelong

Call me crazy, but when I hear a slam against the side of the tub, followed by a squeal... I do a fist pump :gj:

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Yup. LOL

Don't get me wrong I feel bad but I also think its cool when my snakes strike. I don't care to watch the struggle but I like to watch the snakes swallow one down.

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Originally Posted by DrDooLittle

Lol, I tell myself that's what they are there for. That and we do have a few "holdback" pets...;)

Button, for example:
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/01/22/qa5avyge.jpg

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And here I was thinking I was all original for naming my scottie dog Button, for the exact same reason, sigh (although she is!)

I want some dumbos so bad to breed for pets of course but I'm having trouble finding them.

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Ok, no more talking about how cute and cuddly the rats are. They are food and I don't want to start feeling bad when I feed them off.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/01/25/u6e5y9yh.jpg

They even play Polly pockets!


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30 rats..... 30 fist pumps today. Everyone was hungry :gj:

That's awesome!

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Originally Posted by DrDooLittle

That's awesome!

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I should have videod the 0.1 Champagne. I had a feeling it was going to be dramatic!! She did not disappoint.

My snakes are pigs I opened the tub with that normal girl in it and she stretched out trying to get me I hope I don't by x myself but females are ravinous right now and I know they are in some stage of building so I want to feed them as much as is healthy.

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