To Breed or Not to Breed, That Is the Question

We have three ball pythons in our house. We acquired the first one about 13 months ago, the second one about 9 months ago, and the third about 4 months ago. At various times, all of them have eaten frozen thawed; however, all but the newest one (which is not quite one year old) have gone on extended hunger strikes to the point where they wouldn't eat FT or pre-killed. About a month ago, when one of them was on a hunger strike, I decided to try feeding him a live rat. Sure enough, that did the trick. So, for about the past month, I've been feeding all three live rats. Now, I'm wondering whether I would be best off just breeding rats on my own. My primary goal is to avoid the headache of having to go to the pet store every week for live rats. I could try going back to frozen thawed, but I've found the live rats to be a lot easier because I don't have to mess with thawing frozen rats, which I found to be rather time-consuming, and don't have to worry about wasting money on thawed rats that are never eaten (for a while there, I was throwing out a rat or two every week because one or two of the BPs weren't eating). Of course, breeding rats on my own would probably offer a secondary benefit of being less expensive than buy rats.

I've read the stickied threads, but I'm still not sure what all is involved in breeding rats. More specifically, how much time is required? For example, how often do the tubs/bins need to be cleaned? Also, how many bins and rats would I need to supply my three BPs with food on a weekly basis (right now, all three are eating small rats, but two of them probably could eat medium rats).

I'm hoping some of you experienced rat breeders can give me a concrete idea of what to expect if I decide to start down the path of breeding rats.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

3 snakes is not really worth the time and hassle of breeding rats

I bred mice for awhile. While you do cut some of he price down, roughly half. You end up spending more time cleaning there cages, feeding/ watering them then you do with the animals they are for... And the best reason of all for not to do it is the smell....

rats, always rats :snake:

It probably wouldn't be worth it. I know it's probably not even worth ot for me, but I really enjoy working with them. They really only pay for themselves if you can sell off your excess. I breed on a fairly small scale, but am looking to upgrade :) They aren't all that demanding as far as time goes. I probably spend 5-10 minutes a day checking on everyone, topping off food, water etc. Cleaning days are the biggest time killer. I spend about 45 mins once a week to clean a 5-tub rack, a large grow out tub and 3 asf tubs.

It may be a bit overkill to get into breeding these guys for 3 BP's buddy

I appreciate all the responses so far. My primary goal is to avoid having to run to the store every week to buy rats; saving money would only be a bonus. What is involved in breeding that makes it such a hassle? From MootWorm's response, it seems they only need cages cleaned once a week. I'm still trying to figure out how many tubs/cages I would need if I were to try breeding to feed 3 BPs.

I think for your three BPs, african soft furs would be the way to go. Just get a pair or trio. And theyll never get to be too big for your snakes, as regular rats eventually will if the snakes dont eat them right away. I think for 3 bps, an asf pair or trio could be a manageable project to keep the snakes fed at a low cost.

sent from my incubator

The only issue I see with ASF is that they'll take a LONG time to get to the size you need. I mainly keep them around for their pinkies lol. I go through about 8 pinks a week, and they produce in such high numbers it's perfect for me.

If your snakes only eat live or pre-killed, then breeding your own rats for only 3 snakes would require almost constant litters. Since rats will have on average 12 babies per litter, and they do grow fairly fast, you are going to have a lot of extra rats that are too big to feed to your snakes, unless you cull off part of the litter to keep it small.

I used to breed rats, but I stopped for one reason: the smell.

You must have some kind of ventilation, because it will stink up the place. I didn't mind the cleaning at all. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit :P I've heard that ASF doesn't smell, might look into that.

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Originally Posted by DPBallPythons

I used to breed rats, but I stopped for one reason: the smell.

You must have some kind of ventilation, because it will stink up the place. I didn't mind the cleaning at all. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit :P I've heard that ASF doesn't smell, might look into that.

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ASF's smell. I promise. From what I hear, its not AS bad as rats, but I don't know first hand. They still need ventilation and cleaning once a week.

Thank you for responding. It appears that the consensus is that, for my particular situation, breeding rats will be more of a pain than it is worth.

About two weeks ago, I bought three rats (one for each of my BPs). What I didn't realize is that one of the BPs was in shed. Of course, he wasn't interested in eating that day so I was "stuck" with the unused (uneaten) rat. We had an extra 10 gallon aquarium in the house so I washed it out, put some paper towels in it, and added the rat to it. It definitely was stinky even though I changed the paper towels daily. A few days ago (Sunday), I replaced the paper towels with wood shavings, which has helped immensely with the smell. I haven't done anything to clean the tank since Sunday, and still no smell. My wife is strongly opposed to me breeding rats and was mildy upset with me Sunday when I bought each of the BPs a new rat for dinner (instead of buying two and using the one left over from last week). Although my youngest son wants to keep the "extra" rat as a pet, I don't know how long that will last. So, for the time being, I'm not breeding them, but I am keeping one rat.