breeding questions

Hey everyone-
right now i have one adult corn snake thats 9 years old that eats adult mice, a late 07 pastel that eats rat hoppers, and soon a late 07 female spider.
As I am only 14, my parents my pet food. I have a workers permit and the pet store i used to voluteer at for two years said that as soon as they need a weekend caretaker, they'll hire me(as they need a full time worker right now).

I also have two adult leopard geckos, and a bearded dragon. I am selling my pair of leos soon because I am going to work with bps.
So the weekly food costs about 15 bucks every week. i know i can feed my corn snake rat hoppers, so i want to maybe buy a pair of rats to save a little money.
My mom says i can only do this rat thing out in the "shop", which has no heat/AC, and I was wondering since the summer is coming up how hot is to hot and what is a good temp.

Also forgot to mention my mom says i cant get the spider female until i get the job lol.

sorry for such a longggg post. But i would like to hear everyones thoughts on that

If you comfortable your rats will be. Typically between 70 - 85 is a good rat temp any thing above or below that and they will sweat or have to huddle to keep warm.

hope that helps..

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

If you comfortable your rats will be. Typically between 70 - 85 is a good rat temp any thing above or below that and they will sweat or have to huddle to keep warm.

hope that helps..

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thanks freaky frog

can i house a pair of rats in a 91 qt tub?
whats the minimum size and the size too big for one pair?

and also, it would not be a rack system just the tub, i was thinking of drilling holes and zip tieing the mesh to the top

what size of the female rat should i buy and the male size

one more thing, what are my chances of them successfully breeding

thanks!

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can i house a pair of rats in a 91 qt tub?
whats the minimum size and the size too big for one pair?

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Remember rats chew so plastic needs to be 100% secure.
91qt sounds a little big for a pair a pair can be housed in a 29 gal long tank with no problems

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and also, it would not be a rack system just the tub, i was thinking of drilling holes and zip tieing the mesh to the top

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sound good the more ventilation the better

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what size of the female rat should i buy and the male size

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at least 3-4 months old

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one more thing, what are my chances of them successfully breeding

thanks!

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100% rats are easy they do all the work. :gj:

You need to make sure that the area will not get to hot or too cold ideally so you might require a fan during the summer and a oil filled space heater during the winter.

Ideally you want to have 1.2 Get 2 young/small females and raise them up to proper breeding weight (250 grams), once they reach that size buy a male. And remember to always quarentine new rats.

You will need to have at least 3 to 4 tubs.

1 for the 2 females

1 for the male (you have to remove him when your females are pregnant, so you don't have back to back breeding)

1 for the babies when they are weaned, if you keep them past 5 weeks you need to separate the males from the females so you will need 2 tubs.

Keep in mind that rats grow very fast and that BP do not really need anything larger than a 4 weeks old rat which mean you could get overstock with large rats in no time.

Make sure not to drill holes on the sides of the tubs otherwise it will be the starting point for them to chew their way out.

You can do something like this using a 66 quarts tub

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p...uarantine2.jpg

okay,
well the pet store i buy from has all sizes of rats

and i can always sell rats that are too big for my snakes back to the pet store

with that picture, how do you feed the rats?

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Originally Posted by atp151415

with that picture, how do you feed the rats?

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With that you need a bowl which means there is a lot of waste.

Your other option is to build a small rack this is a 6 tubs version but you can make a smaller one with 3 or 4 tubs.

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p...rs/RatRack.jpg

With this rack the rats eat through the hardware cloth (No waste)

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Originally Posted by GA_Ball_Pythons

With that you need a bowl which means there is a lot of waste.

Your other option is to build a small rack this is a 6 tubs version but you can make a smaller one with 3 or 4 tubs.

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p...rs/RatRack.jpg

With this rack the rats eat through the hardware cloth (No waste)

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ya, i was considering on building one exactley like that, just half the size, because i have lots of wood at my house i could piece one together with

just so its all nice and neat and i dont want to get to tricky so id just use the water bottles

what do you think about that idea?

would the chances be higher of breeding if i bought a proven breeder female?

well rats are actually really easy to breed, it wont make much diference if you buy a proven breeder, just that her breeding live with you will be shorter... and buy at least 1.2, 1.3 being much better, if u only have a male and a female he can make lots of damage due to too much breeding

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Originally Posted by Dcommander

well rats are actually really easy to breed, it wont make much diference if you buy a proven breeder, just that her breeding live with you will be shorter... and buy at least 1.2, 1.3 being much better, if u only have a male and a female he can make lots of damage due to too much breeding

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cool, thanks for the tip man

your welcome :D

Just in case, i would not buy from petco. I know you help out at a petstore but im not sure what it is called. I bought a 1.2 trio from them and had Zero breeding and got rid of them after three months.

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Originally Posted by atp151415

what do you think about that idea?

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Sounds good to me, a rack make it much easier on cleaning day and it is also a space saver, if you need the DIY here it is http://stewartreptiles.com/Articles/...eding_Rack.pdf

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Originally Posted by atp151415

would the chances be higher of breeding if i bought a proven breeder female?

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If you buy females that are older, chances are they will be too old to breed, they will likely only have a few litters or poor size litters.

Rasing some females to proper weight is always recommended.

sweet
hey bd, the pet store i buy from is not petco, trust me id never buy from petco

the pet store i buy from has there own rodent breeding colonies

so what rat size female and male should i buy?
small, medium, or large?

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Originally Posted by Dcommander

well rats are actually really easy to breed, it wont make much diference if you buy a proven breeder, just that her breeding live with you will be shorter... and buy at least 1.2, 1.3 being much better, if u only have a male and a female he can make lots of damage due to too much breeding

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Make lots of damage? :confused:

hey Gaball pythons

did you get those litter pans from walmart or target?
thanks for all the help

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Originally Posted by atp151415

hey Gaball pythons

did you get those litter pans from walmart or target?
thanks for all the help

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Neither since I could not find Jumbo pans anywhere, here is where I got mine from (shipping is only 5 dollars for your entire order)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002Y1SJ6

sweet

thanks everyone for being so helpful

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Originally Posted by rabernet

Make lots of damage? :confused:

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well my first attempt on having a colony was with 1.1 and he tried to breed her all day long, she lost a bit of weight and the she started to fight him (real fighting) when he tried to breed her, it ended on her being killed while she was perggy :'(

I have to comment on my failures and successes with pet store bought rats. This was back when I just started and didnt know better.

I bought my first breeders from a mom and pop store, they had their own colony and raised feeders and pets. (although there was no difference between the two) I bought 2 males and 4 females.

In all, these rats were sickly, inbred, heart aches, produce small animals, high white/risk rats. I didnt know a darn thing about rats back then, and I refuse to buy from that store anymore. The conditions they keep the rats (and other animals) in is sickening.

Petco, we got 2 females from. They are large (400 grams) have large litters, very sweet and have no high white markers and produce awesome feeders.

Petsmart, again, we bought one male, he is the kindest male rat, never abuses the girls but still gets the job done.

These may be diamonds in the rough, but our petsmart and petco do take good care of their rats, and it's still best to buy them young. I prefer buying from other rat breeders, but if I must, I will take petsmart and petco over a small petstore any day.

Just my .02 cents

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

I prefer buying from other rat breeders, but if I must, I will take petsmart and petco over a small petstore any day.

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The thing about buying from a small mom & pop kind of store is each one is different. Yes, some petcos and petsmarts will take better care of their animals than others, but you will see an even wider variation in independent stores. Most petcos will have approximately the same genetics as most other petcos, and the same for petsmarts.

There will be some mom & pop stores that have fantastic breeder colonies. But the problem is knowing which one is which. You can get an idea by seeing what condition the animals are kept in, but no guarantees.

Overall, I agree with Connie. The best place to get rats to use as breeders would be from other breeders.