Mama rat with a bunch of babies!

Check out my mama rat with her litter of babies, boy is she a tired girl!

I just heard from the moderator that we have to post links instead of photos? What a bummer, I may have to find another forum, I like reading posts with a bunch of photos where I don't have to click on each photo link. Maybe they should let us post one photo with the links to other photos like this one below. Or I could just start my own forum and allow photos LOL. I really like this forum because there are so many sections for different topics. Anyone know of another good forum for snakes and breeder rodents? I'm really bummed, I post stuff on this forum every day...

http://www.capsandstems.com/mama_rat-1.JPG

http://www.capsandstems.com/mama_rat-2.JPG

http://www.capsandstems.com/mama_rat-3.JPG

http://www.capsandstems.com/mama-rat-4.JPG

You do end up with posted pictures. You just have to use a photo hosting site like photobucket, then you post the link from that. The post ends up with your photos showing as if they are here so you can see all the pictures without having to click to another site.

There's a sticky up about "How to post pictures" that explains it all far better than I can.

Nice rattie.

Alternatively you can also use the Tapatalk app if you're posting from your phone. Makes posting pictures way easy.


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I've actually been posting photos on my personal website and using a link to that site here, so the photos are actually on my server. But I still got a message from the admin to post links, not photos. I guess we are not supposed to use the photo icon above when writing a post? I'm pretty sure if I post a photo like the one above then when people just look at this web page they increase the bandwidth of this server we are on. If it's a link that you have to click on there's no bandwidth being used here. So I think my top photo is wrong (even though the photo is on my website) and the links below the photo are correct. I think I'm understanding that correctly. The admin was saying that she 'fixed' all my previous posts.

She's like, "isnt there anything you can do to help me?!" Lol I love raising my rats, they're very expressed (I couldnt think of the right word)

Wow! So many baby rats!!

Those who breed their own rats how many snakes do you have? I plan on building to four before years end and given the speed with which these rats grow i dont think thats enough to start breeding. Im afraid i will end up with a bunch of rats too big to feed to my snakes and be stuck with them.

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

Check out my mama rat with her litter of babies, boy is she a tired girl!


http://www.capsandstems.com/mama_rat-1.JPG

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This photo is the best lol

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by OTorresUSMC

Those who breed their own rats how many snakes do you have? I plan on building to four before years end and given the speed with which these rats grow i dont think thats enough to start breeding. Im afraid i will end up with a bunch of rats too big to feed to my snakes and be stuck with them.

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I have 20 snakes but I feed 21 every week (my sister-in-law has a snake). I have about 85 rats and 85 mice, because I don't have all the correct size rodents I am feeding usually about 30 off every week on average. What I don't go through I sell on craigslist and I usually don't have any extras. Unless you are on an island of deep in the middle of nowhere, you should be able to sell off your extras. Although most feed F/T, there's always that one stubborn snake who has to have live and the owner who can never find them since the stores don't like selling feeders. I have build up a small clientele of 'regulars' who buy my extras so I barely even have to list them anymore. Hope that helps!

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Originally Posted by MontyP2016

I have 20 snakes but I feed 21 every week (my sister-in-law has a snake). I have about 85 rats and 85 mice, because I don't have all the correct size rodents I am feeding usually about 30 off every week on average. What I don't go through I sell on craigslist and I usually don't have any extras. Unless you are on an island of deep in the middle of nowhere, you should be able to sell off your extras. Although most feed F/T, there's always that one stubborn snake who has to have live and the owner who can never find them since the stores don't like selling feeders. I have build up a small clientele of 'regulars' who buy my extras so I barely even have to list them anymore. Hope that helps!

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I hadnt even conisdered selling the extras on some place like craigslist. Great advice thank you.

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Welcome ;-) :)

Also, if your snakes will take frozen thawed, you can raise them up to the size you need, euth all of the rats at once, and freeze them for future use.

I think it can be cost effective to raise your own feeders even for a modest snake collection, It really just depends on where you are currently getting your rodents. If you have a local feeder breeder or reptile shows that come to your area frequently, I'd say forget about breeding your own feeders unless you are into the rats themselves. But if you are in a position where you have to either buy online or from pet stores - with the price on shipping and the price gouging in brick and mortar stores (stopped by petco today $6.50 for frozen ad $10 for live medium rats, ugh) breeding your own looks enticing.

For a smallish collection, I would probably get 2 males and 4 or 6 females. The reason for two males is that I personally would want to keep the males and females separate so I could control the breeding since it's a small snake collection and it is cruel to house a rat alone. 4 females because you will have better production and longer breeding lives if you don't breed the females back to back. The average rat litter size is 8 - 14 but the feeder lines tend to pop out numbers in the teens, if you are feeding weekly, even for 4 snakes you'd want to aim for 2ish litters a month, taking a month off here and there if you've had some big litters. You'd be looking at about $25 dollars a month in food and bedding costs for a colony of that size. You can get by with less choosing a cheaper food or bedding than I do. If you're even remotely handy you can do a DIY set up for them either a rack system or bin cages for around $100 - $150 accounting for housing for the males, the breeding females, 2 birthing bins, and grow out housing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OTorresUSMC

Those who breed their own rats how many snakes do you have? I plan on building to four before years end and given the speed with which these rats grow i dont think thats enough to start breeding. Im afraid i will end up with a bunch of rats too big to feed to my snakes and be stuck with them.

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I actually have 20 snakes, but I think you can breed rats with even just one snake depending on what snake it is. With a ball python the rats may eventually outgrow the feeding size, but that's one of the reason I got my dwarf reticulated python. She is now eating all of my rats that are too big for my ball pythons. Once my retic gets to full size she will be able to pound down extra large jumbo rats, probably even small rabbits LOL. This week I pushed the limit up to feed off bigger rats before they get too big, my snakes are growing like crazy as I get rid of these bigger medium size rats.

I feed a variety of rodents, so sometimes I'm feeding mice, sometimes African Soft Fur rats, but mostly just plain ol rats. And sometimes I feed on the bigger side, sometimes on the smaller side, depending on what I have available that week. I'm actually holding back more female rats so I'll have more babies since it seems I'm always running short. I also keep about 50 frozen thawed mice and rats to supplement in case I have a week where I don't have the right size. Usually when I run out of rats I have tons of mice, and when I run out of both I have extra ASF.

The social structure of rats is complicated as well, some females are content to have babies with other females in the tank. Others fight like crazy and need to be isolated. Sometimes female with babies will fight other females so bad that babies get killed in the process. You have to constantly monitor what is going on socially in the colony. It's similar with mice, you can't just throw a bunch of mice together and expect them to get along. I usually put in new young mice in the 'feeder tank' and take out all the hides and watch them for about half an hour. Then I pick out the mean ones and feed them off LOL. Usually works like a charm.