Feeder Business

I posted something similar to this a while ago but now my mind is really turning it this way and that, trying to figure out if I should give it a shot. I want to start a feeder business. I would breed rats and mice as snake feeders, but I would also breed different types of insects, other rodents (gerbils, hamsters) guinea pigs, and possibly rabbits. I would provide both live and frozen feeders for those who keep exotics (snakes, ferrets, lizards, ect) and those feeding raw/whole prey diets to dogs and cats.

When my roommates move out I will re-claim a second bedroom and the snakes and rats will move in. There will still be a lot of space left in the room that I can use to breed the other types of feeders. The gerbils, hamsters, guinea pigs, and rabbits won't be bred in large numbers, but the rats, mice, and insects will.

I was wondering if its worth it. I already have one pet store that said they'd buy any extra feeders I produce with my rat breeding, and I was going to talk to another one. My colony is no where near large enough to start producing for pet stores, but I'm slowly growing it up. I have 4 breeding females and plan on getting more females as soon as I get more racks built. There was a man that works at the pet store that wanted me to breed gerbils for him since he didn't want to breed them himself and he couldn't buy them often because of the price. (He has a ball python that will only eat gerbils.)

So, I'm already working on the rat colony. I'm going to be getting some mice to raise up to become breeders tomorrow. I just want the feeders to pay for themselves and provide me with a little profit. I was hoping to breed these following feeders.

Rats
Mice
ASFs
Gerbils
Hamsters
Guinea Pigs
Rabbits
Crickets
Mealworms
Superworms
Roaches

Yes it will definably turn a nice profit.Right now I'm breeding rats,mice,crickets,super worms and wax worms.If you do plan on doing the bugs make a shelving unit that will hold the plastic tubs so it saves space and is organized.Ive found that the rats are what make you the money,depending on the market around you for them.:gj:

Can you give me some details on breeding waxworms? You can PM me or post here. I'd really like to know how to breed those.

The waxworms aren't hard. They require more labor and equipment than the mealworms, but it doesn't take much.
Hamsters, well, good luck with that. They're usually not the best mothers. Plus, if you're breeding syrians, they'll take a lot of space to breed. You could always use wet nurse rat mothers for the syrian babies, they'll care for just about anything.

I don't know how profitable it will be. The guy I get my rats from when I need some to supplement my own breeding said that the money he makes from selling his (and he sells up to 100 a week to one person and about 20-30 at a time to me when I need them) just covers his costs on feeding his rats, and he makes no profit.

That would actually be nice if they could at least help cover their feeding cost. I am going to be breeding a lot of those species for my ferrets as well, as all three of them are switching to a raw/whole prey diet and they need a variety of food sources. Mice and rats probably get boring after a while.

I picked up a few new breeders today. I'm setting up their enclosures now and they will be in QT for a while. I got a new female rat (agouti hooded), 3 female mice, 1 male gerbil, and 1 female gerbil. (I'm breeding the gerbils for the ferrets and for a man who has a ball python who only eats gerbils.

You should look into quail as well. The button quail can be kept in fairly small cages and supposedly breed like madhouses. They can start to breed at 6 weeks (usually not until a little later, but it's possible) and can be fed on turkey or game pellets. They also don't get very big (about 8oz and 5" tall). You could probably feed the birds as well as the eggs. They're also cute as hell... Lol. The only thing is that it can be a pain to get the mothers to nest on their eggs, I guess you have to put them in a seperate box with soil (or coconut fibers) and give fake vines and such for them to nest in. I don't know much more than that about them, I just started looking them up.

We have considered button quail since ferrets like quail meat, but we are going to wait until we have a house before breeding them. They are on our list though. While we live here, we are going to focus on the smaller species.

Have you consider how much space all this will take?

Also have you considered what your landlord will think? Weren’t you already breaking the contract by having ferrets, dog, cats, snakes, sugar gliders, rats etc?

Those are things to take in consideration before venturing into a new business that will be based from your home.

Technically the animals are not allowed, but we are hoping to move in the near future. I have a two large rooms that I can use to house the animals. Currently I house them all in one, my living room, but my roommates are moving out this week (Yay!) and I will get my other bedroom back.

For the past year, they have come in to do repairs once and gave us 48 hours notice. The man doing the repairs struck up conversation about his ball python and ferret when he saw I had a ferret and my racks of snakes. He was a really nice guy and a few months later asked me how they were doing. Other than that, they have not entered my home unless I've asked for repairs. I'm already having them ok the dog. I just need the letter from the vet stating his breed and such. Caged animals don't seem to matter to them. When my roommate moved out of his apartment, he had signed no papers stating he had ferrets. He never paid any fees or additional rent so according to the office, he had no pets. When he moved out, there were ferret poop and urine stains both upstairs and downstairs and you could smell ferret in his apartment. When he moved out he was simply charged for the replacement of the carpet and that was all, which they would have done had they known he had an animal. Pitbulls are against the rules here, breed restrictions and all. There are at least two living right up the street from me and they walk them in plain site of everyone. A lady the other day walked two huge dogs right by the office and the pet policy is one dog, under 30lbs, so I think they say certain animals are not allowed, but I don't think they pay much attention or even care.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

Technically the animals are not allowed

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There is no such a thing as technically when you sign a lease, you either break the rules or you don’t!

If your landlord was to find out that you were residing on his property with so many animals and that this was a breach of the lease agreement, he could

A# Make you get rid of every single one of them

B# Evict YOU and all your animals

This is serious, all it takes is one person to complain to your landlord, like your future ex-roommate for example!

And if something like that was to happen imagine how hard it would be to find a new place to live in!

I'm just gonna say this and then will leave the matter entirely alone. First....it's quite probable that the guy who does the repairs neither knows nor cares what the details are of any given lease. He does his job and so long as he doesn't see any blatant, major property abuse, he wouldn't say anything to the landlords.

This is coming from someone who owns properties and rents them out. If I, as the property owner, were to ever find out that one of my tenants were breaking the lease in this manner, they would be given two weeks to remove every single animal AND get the property thoroughly cleaned and sanitized and repaired as needed....OR...they would find themselves in eviction court.

It's easy to feel like you're skating safely when the ice is smooth...but you never know when you'll hit that thin patch and the whole lake crumbles beneath you.

And that is why we are trying very hard to find another place to live. We don't want to live here.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

And that is why we are trying very hard to find another place to live. We don't want to live here.

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Understood....but our point is not that you need a new place to live...but that maybe you should seriously reconsider the thought of getting yet more animals to add to your collection UNTIL you get a new place to live.

Sorry....I said I wouldn't continue to meddle. :oops: Good luck with it.

I agree with waiting until you have your own house, things can get rough, and re-homing so many animals would be hard.

I know and I appreciate your concern. I really want to get out of here. We both do, but it just seems impossible to find a place that suits our needs. We have found dozens of homes for rent but none allow pets or have very strict pet policies. We found one that didn't mind our animals, but it was very expensive and we'd need to have roommates (something we will never again have). It just seems impossible to get a new place.

I'd be curious as to the smell. If your planning on breeding large amounts of animals there will be a smell regardless of how well you clean.

With that many feeders yea, you will have a smell. A small barn would be recommended.

The smell would be ungodly!!!! & un healthy to live with ! Rats stink mice smell worse.i only breed enough for my own use & think im going eclusivly with asf's,because of the smell!

I've noticed that most places don't really "notice" the pets. We've lived in one place with a "no pets" policy, but when the landlord stopped in for repairs, she just loved up the cats. Our current place, we weren't supposed to have any dogs, but, out of five apartments, there are three that have dogs (ours is one, and we've got two pups), and again, when the landlord stops by to pick up rent, he plays with our pups, and he even stops by to let the one lady's dog out when she goes on vacation.
Go with your own gut, but, usually they'll freak out quite a bit more when you start getting into the creepy crawlies and the rodents.

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Pitbulls are against the rules here, breed restrictions and all. There are at least two living right up the street from me and they walk them in plain site of everyone.

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Actually, pitties are usually banned, however, the breeds that closely resemble them usually aren't. A LOT of people mix up pits with numerous other breeds that look pretty much like them. As long as they can prove that they're not pits, they're fine.

No, these look like purebred pits to me. Actually, some good news. My fiance just got news today that he got his job, so we might be able to look around for a house to rent that will allow our animals.

http://www.pitbullsontheweb.com/petbull/findpit.html

Hopefully everything works out with finding a new place, good luck. :)

Ok, so maybe they were not pitbulls, but the office still would not allow them. We are going out today to look for "for rent" signs and calling around.

In my opinion, I would not do it while you are still living in the apartment. I would imagine that breeding so many animals it would really start to stink in a small apartment. If you landlord found out, then he / she could evict you. Then you would be putting all of your animals in jeopardy. This, in my opinion, is very irresponsible.

I suggest that you wait until you do get a house. Then you could put them in an outbuilding; such as, a garage, shed, or barn. You could install a heating / cooling unit for extreme temperatures, and a ventilator.

Hope this helps.

I once lived in a tiny little loft apartment with a no pets policy. I was all by myself in a strange new world and got a kitten to keep my company. Landlord didn't officially care the cat was there until there was some drama played out between him and my family.


Long story short, the landlord used the cat and my neighbors dumping of trash (I lived in the top level of a house, the guy below was a real trashy guy lol, no pun intended) as the reason to start an eviction process.

I was already on my way out of that dump and never had to look back at the potential eviction, but that's my point.

A landlord may not mind a small animal, and can even enjoy or talk to you about them, BUT!! if you don't pay rent on time and are somehow breaking some other big lease agreement... when it comes down to it, you ARE breaking the lease agreement, and it's one more nail in the coffin to get you kicked out of their property by eviction and possibly pay damages.

Don't forget to put up an ad in your local classifieds stating your looking for a pet friendly home to rent for you and your fiance. State what you can afford in rent. I got a lot of calls from renters with houses and rooms. Online and newspaper btw.

just one thing to say...

You have to produce a LOT of feeders to actually turn a profit. Knowing that you would even consider attempting to do such a thing in a rented home that does not allow pets demonstrates that you need to do a LOT more research and thinking about if you should even keep your current rat breeders. Let alone a breeding business with multiple species.

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A landlord may not mind a small animal, and can even enjoy or talk to you about them, BUT!! if you don't pay rent on time and are somehow breaking some other big lease agreement... when it comes down to it, you ARE breaking the lease agreement, and it's one more nail in the coffin to get you kicked out of their property by eviction and possibly pay damages.

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Yes, good point. In Pennsylvania at least (maybe all states, I don't know) there's the pay to stay law. If the only reason you're being evicted is because of non-payment of rent, if you pay, that voids the eviction. However, if they want you out, all they have to do is tack up an eviction notice stating that you are late on rent and that you have pets and you need to be out, you're screwed, no pay to stay.

As long as they can help but a dent in the amount I pay for their food, then at least that helps. I'm not looking to make a lot of money. I guess business was a bad word to use because that's not actually what I'm doing. Basically, I'm breeding animals for my own use and selling the surplus.

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Originally Posted by Bettacreek

http://www.pitbullsontheweb.com/petbull/findpit.html

Hopefully everything works out with finding a new place, good luck. :)

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Whoot! Guessed it right. lol :cool:

I just put up an ad. We shall see what happens.

I wouldn't even think about it while you are a renter, uness you rent a full house with a garage, or a farm with a barn.

That's what I'm planning on doing. I used to have about 10 different types of live food going here for fish, then I slowly stopped using them for my fish, but kept selling them for others. I've since stopped culturing most because I shipped mine out in a box to avoid squishing, while others would ship in envelopes, which, people bought because they could save $1. I still sell the ones that I personally use, I just don't do any extra culturing. Try it that way first, if you find that you want to expand it to breed extra species or start up extra colonies to produce much more than what you use yourself, then go ahead.

It will probably be a while till I get my colony up to the point that I can supply a lot of other people. I only have four breeding females, and four hold back females.

Rats smell worse than you think. I don't notice the smell when I am in the rat room but once I come out all I can smell is rat, it sticks to my clothes. I try to do all my rat room maintenance before my morning shower. Everything in my rat room has a certain odor that will not leave. I have 30 adults and 20-60 young at any one time. I also have a carbon filter that helps keep the smell at bay but it is loosing the battle. I clean my rats every 3 days.

Now asf's are a different story. They have a smell too but not nearly as bad. I can leave my ASF's 5-7 days before they need cleaning.

oh yeah one tip to keep smells down is low humidity. invest in a dehumidifier unless you live somewhere very dry.