Small Rat Breeding Setups

Small rat breeding setup


This method is ONLY good for a snake that eats FT.

This method is not for snakes that only eat LIVE feeder rats

You want to breed your own feeders, you have 1 snake, but you don’t want to be over run with rats either.

If you have 1 snake, I still recommend either buying bulk F/T from online suppliers. This is not only economical, but saves you a lot of time, smell and frustration. Breeding rats is costly. Please look at Lord Jackels review “Should I breed, how many to breed?” and it shows very clearly that breeding rats is only saving you money when you own many snakes.

Quote:

---

5 snakes means 5 rats per week * 26 weeks (6 months) = 130 rats
To buy at the pet store = 130 rats * $4 = $520 (avg.)
To buy F/T from a .com = 130 rats * $0.92 = $120 (avg.)
($0.69 each rat + $0.23 ) ($0.23 is what is costs to ship each rat total = $30)

To breed = $146
I assumed 12 breeder females (to produce 10 feeders per week) and 2 males * $4 = $56 + Monthly Food/Bedding = $15 * 6 month = $90 (and you have to buy/build housing for all of them = $??)

Take this to a year: 260 rats
Buy F/T = $192 (since you could buy the whole year at once the per rat cost goes down)
To Breed = $236 (getting closer but still not worth it)

---

If you still insist on breeding your own feeders because your snake eats F/T readily, then this is going to be much easier! If your snake only eats live, I do not recommend this.

• Minimum Rat Breeding Group

At the very minimum, I recommend buying 4 young rats. 2 males, 2 females. They MUST be separated by sex!!!

٭Rats are social animals and need to have a partner at all times! If you remove each animal by themselves, they can quickly take a down turn in health. Rats do appear to suffer negative effects when not with a partner. For their physical and mental health, they need to be with other rats.

With this set up, you can use either a rack or tubs given they are big enough for adult rats to live in comfortably.

You’ll need at least 5 different spaces for these animals.

Housing:
2 tubs for the nursing mothers
1 large tub or cage for the males while not breeding females
2 tubs for any weaners that you need to grow up to a larger size
CO2 Chamber ( I do NOT recommend any other form of euthanasia)

Bedding: Pine pellets ($6 for 40 lbs) or Aspen shavings ($12 for 4 cubic feet) for nursing mothers
Food: Mazuri 6F ($25 for 50 lbs) or Harlan 2016 or 2018 for nursing mothers

If you plan on just feeding weaners, you can CO2 the animal at 4 weeks of age. They should weigh anywhere from 60-80 grams avg. This means you do not need the 2 holding tubs.

• Breeding Process

Once the females reach 5 months of age, or 250+ grams, they are old enough and big enough to breed with minimal risk. If you’ve taken the time to buy young rats and socialized them, you’ll have a much easier time dealing with the mothers and her young when cleaning or moving.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2.../DIY/table.jpg

Day 1 - Pair up one male and one female into each tub. Both females are being bred at the same time.

Week 1 (day 7)- Check on the little love birds!
Week 2 (day 14)- Is momma getting big yet?
Week 3 (day 21)- After the 3 weeks, you will remove the males from the tubs and put them into one large tub/cage to keep each other company.

Week 4- Both mothers should be given plenty of nesting material. Shredded aspen works very well. They should have their litters during this 4th week.

Week 8- After 4 more weeks, the pups will be weaners and need to be removed from the mothers by sex to grow up, or be euthanized with CO2.


With this process, your 2 females will have anywhere from 9-16 pups average. You can CO2 the litter, and you’ll have 18-32 weeks worth of food in your freezer for 1 snake etc.

• Prepare ahead of time and give yourself at least 2 months in advance to produce more weaners.

Hope this helps those of you willing to pay for quality. This is still more costly than buying bulk F/T or from the pet shop, especially in initial setup cost, but it does guarantee quality food for your snake.

That was SO helpful! Thanks Connie!!
I have 10 snakes and am breeding mice now in the slow process of trying to switch everyone over to rats. My two largest female BPs take a small rat each already, and my 2 adult corn snakes shouldn't care as long as it's a rodent. I'm hoping my juvi corns will take rat pinks/fuzzies and my thriving pig of a rescue BP will hopefully take hoppers. Because I plan on breeding corns in the future, and since I'm doubtful that my young normal female BP will switch, I will be keeping one trio of mice.

That write up answered most of my rat breeding questions, but I still have one: I have gotten rid of all but that last trio of mice and currently have about 30 weaners/small adults growing up to be fed off. I want to get rid of those mice before I start on rats, but I also want to get my four rats at a young age to raise them up together (by sex, of course) to breeding age. About when should I get those four young rats so that I can start them breeding once most of the surplus mice are gone and I've started the switch for all snakes?? Currently I use up 2 XL/jumbo, 2 large, 1 medium, 1 hopper/small, 1 fuzzy and 1 lg pink/sm fuzzy mice each week, the last three sizes every 5 days.

Sorry for the length... :oops:

:gj:all of your advice seems to work too well connie! i remember asking advice from you and started with 13 rats. now i have 200+ and i only have 10 bps to feed!:taz::D:gj:

Connie:

Great post. Plain and simple. I am learning so much from these threads.

Thanks!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Argentra

I have gotten rid of all but that last trio of mice and currently have about 30 weaners/small adults growing up to be fed off.

I want to get rid of those mice before I start on rats, but I also want to get my four rats at a young age to raise them up together (by sex, of course) to breeding age.

About when should I get those four young rats so that I can start them breeding once most of the surplus mice are gone and I've started the switch for all snakes??

Currently I use up 2 XL/jumbo, 2 large, 1 medium, 1 hopper/small, 1 fuzzy and 1 lg pink/sm fuzzy mice each week, the last three sizes every 5 days.

---

Oh wow, that involves math somehow! Haha, I would get the young rats as soon as possible as it doesn't seem like you have months worth of mice left, but merely weeks.

Females really need to be 5 months of age for breeding, and when they arrive in stores like Petco, they are usually 6-7 weeks of age. So you'll have possible 3 -4 months before they are ready to breed.

If you weigh them, they should weigh over 250 grams to breed.

I hope that answered you question! Forgive me if not, it's a Monday. ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

Breeding rats is costly.

---

To keep my costs down I bought 2 females, 1 male and raised enough up for breeding stock. It does take alot longer to get started but it drops the startup cost quite a bit, also you can buy all the cages/etc as you need more.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Somed00d

To keep my costs down I bought 2 females, 1 male and raised enough up for breeding stock. It does take alot longer to get started but it drops the startup cost quite a bit, also you can buy all the cages/etc as you need more.

---

I wasn't so much talking about initial start up costs, but total costs like I described in the beginning.

It just costs more to raise your own rats if you have only a few snakes to feed.

The cost of housing and feeding your rats overall costs more than just buying bulk FT online or a live rat weekly from pet store.

That's been my point in this whole thread. ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

Oh wow, that involves math somehow! Haha, I would get the young rats as soon as possible as it doesn't seem like you have months worth of mice left, but merely weeks.

Females really need to be 5 months of age for breeding, and when they arrive in stores like Petco, they are usually 6-7 weeks of age. So you'll have possible 3 -4 months before they are ready to breed.

If you weigh them, they should weigh over 250 grams to breed.

I hope that answered you question! Forgive me if not, it's a Monday. ;)

---

I know... math is evil! :D

I will be getting my rats from the reptile store where I got all my mice. Since they go by size there, I plan on asking for weaned rats and weighing them to get a rough idea of age by weight. 250 is the goal before putting the males in. :)
And I suppose you're right with the time span. I'll see if I can find some plump, healthy looking rats when I go in tomorrow to pick up the PK smalls for my big girls (they kill them for me since I don't have my CO2 chamber sealed up yet). I have two open mouse tubs since I fed off my other two trios that I can house the pairs in. :)

Thanks!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Argentra

I know... math is evil! :D

I will be getting my rats from the reptile store where I got all my mice. Since they go by size there, I plan on asking for weaned rats and weighing them to get a rough idea of age by weight. 250 is the goal before putting the males in. :)
And I suppose you're right with the time span. I'll see if I can find some plump, healthy looking rats when I go in tomorrow to pick up the PK smalls for my big girls (they kill them for me since I don't have my CO2 chamber sealed up yet). I have two open mouse tubs since I fed off my other two trios that I can house the pairs in. :)

Thanks!

---

LOL, thanks! I suck at math! If you can get just weaned rats, it's really just so much easier to deal with the moms. No claws in your hand, no slices of skin missing when you pick them up lol. Ouch, even my tame ones have some killer toenails. :D

Woops one sec

I attempted to do some math, to see what you’re really spending on raising rats rather than ordering FT online. (I rounded up just to cover any incidents and averages from my own colony)

Raising 4 adult rats to feed 1 snake

Food
4 rats to feed
.83 lbs ea wk /rat
3.32 lbs eaten /week
13.28 lbs /month
50 lbs /bag
3.77 months/ 50 lbs bag
3.18 bags /year
$25 * 3.18 bags = $79.50 /year

Bedding Pellets
40 lbs /bag
3 scoops /tub
36 scoops /bag
12 tub changes /bag
5 tubs /week
2.4 weeks /bag
21.67 bags /year * $6 = $130.02 /year


Raising your own feeders
$209.52 /year

Aspen l x w x h (Aspen is cheap and has been given very generously. This is an optional number)
4 cubic feet /bag
.083 cubic feet /tub (12" x 6" x 2")
.42 cubic feet /week (for 5 tubs)
9.5 weeks /bag
2.4 months /bag
5 bags /year * $12 = $60 /year

Raising your own feeders w/ lots of aspen
$269.52 /year


Buying FT Bulk online
.99 each small rat
20 /bag
2.6 bags /year
$51.48 /year FOR 1 SNAKE
$38.16 shipping /box

$38.16 * 2 (for shipping once every 6 months) = $76.32 shipping /year

Buying Bulk online

$127.80 /year


Everyone is welcome to double check those numbers. I checked and double checked, but I very well could have missed something. :oops:

Good work, there. It's MUCH cheaper for me to raise my own feeders, mice or rats, because I don't really pay for bedding or food. ;) Can't go into details, but let's just say I get some killer deals from a friend.

And I know all about the claws thing. :D Not only have I cared for flighty lizards and birds, but I have had pet rats that hated having their claws trimmed. :)

First off, great post! Everyone should weigh things out and know what they are getting into before they start breeding rats. I enjoy breeding rats and having them around. That said, I think the numbers comparing cost of raising your own feeders to buying FT are apples to oranges. A lot of snakes just won't eat FT and even if they will, FT becomes extremely time consuming once you have more than a couple of snakes. When I first started keeping Balls I convinced myself that I could get them all to eat FT and I'd never have to buy/breed live. Well once I got to 10 snakes I was throwing out thawed rodents every week because animals wouldn't eat. Now with 60+ snakes and the potential of 120+ hatchlings next season, I have to feed mostly live and I supplement with FT where I can. Helps me to be able to keep my production down but I could never do all frozen.

That's one of my problems with FT as well. If a snake refuses (and I have two who regularly like to do so), that's one or two rodents tossed out! If you feed live or PK (as I do) then you just save whatever they don't eat for next week. :)

Oh, and I just picked up my rats tonight and had to get some large pups since they didn't really have anything between that and adults. Two are 30g and the other two are 32g. Is that too small to be on their own?? I'll be giving them some baby food tonight just in case... They're awful cute, tho. :)

I just got my 2.2 rats a couple of weeks ago. I know financially it's really not going to save me anything because I only have one BP but I love my rats! Lol, to me it's a win/win because the rats I have are awesome and further on down the road they'll be giving me some babies to feed to my snake (hopefully snakes by then lol). I already have just about everything I need for a CO2 chamber and I think I will go with your advice and do the euthanize and then freeze thing.
Thanks! :gj::gj:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by anendeloflorien

I already have just about everything I need for a CO2 chamber and I think I will go with your advice and do the euthanize and then freeze thing.
Thanks! :gj::gj:

---

Good to hear. :)

Just as a recap:
This method is ONLY good for a snake(s) that eats FT.

Rats just grow too fast and within a week your prey will be too big for your live eating animals.

If your snakes only eat live, this set up simply WILL NOT WORK! For that, I recommend 12 female rats,ASF or Mice in that they don't get too large for your snakes that only eat live.

This is a great post Connie.

It is pretty common to see people asking about how to breed rats for their 1 or 2 or 3 snakes, and how to do it. Has anyone thought about stickying this?