I'm feeding my snakes for free!

:D Happiness. :D

I'm breeding my own feeders, and by selling excess I pay for the food and bedding. So the only thing I'm giving is time, which I"m happy to do. I like raising rodents.

I've currently got 4 snakes. They eat 2 fuzzies, 2 hoppers, 1 small mouse and 1 small rat, total each week.

I have 1.8 mice, 2 females per tub, the male rotates every two weeks. And 2.2 rats.
Production is 2 litters of mice every 2 weeks. Which is way more than I need if you do the math. And I figure I'll get 2 litters of rats every 12 weeks, my female rats are prego for the first time right now so I'm guesstimating time frames. My bp eats f/t so 2 litters frozen at the right size will last till the next 2 litters are ready.

I've got one person who buys all my excess at a dollar a mouse and in the future 2-3 dollars a rat. At least 10 dollars worth a month which covers my consumables since I buy bedding and lab blocks in bulk.

True my initial setup cost me and it took me a long time to find someone willing to buy in bulk from me, but I'm really happy with how it's working out now. :banana: :D

Cool! Where and how did you find someone to by from you?

congrats! I wish I was able to raise my own feeders.. Then I'd have the perfect excuse to get another snake or two :D

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Originally Posted by rwreptiles

Cool! Where and how did you find someone to by from you?

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I posted an add on my local craigslist pet section called "f/t mice" that said:

Do you hate paying shipping on your F/T mice orders?

Stop paying it and buy straight from me. I breed my own mice then vacuum seal and freeze my extras. Quality mice, fresh and local.


Let me know if you are interested.
I will need to know how many you want to buy, what size(s), and when you'll need your next order of mice.
Bear in mind I am a small time operation so I need a little time to produce the mice you request.

I got lucky and someone responded saying they would buy basically all I could produce.

I had tried offering live mice on craigslist because it's hard to find baby live mice in seattle, I figured there would be a market, but it's too much of a hassle to sell live. They only want to buy one or two at a time and all the arranging and waiting for people got to me. Too much work.
Then I decided to sell some of my last mousefactory.com order since I was overproducing mice and didn't need the extras in my freezer, people snapped up the frozen ones just as quick and of course bought in bulk. So I figured hey, I'll just offer frozen, the more you buy the lower the price.
I only produce so many though so I didn't advertise any more once this person started buying. I actually had to up the rotation of my male to produce the number they want, which is no issue since my females still get a break before the male comes around.

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Originally Posted by mainbutter

congrats! I wish I was able to raise my own feeders.. Then I'd have the perfect excuse to get another snake or two :D

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That was my excuse for buying my fourth snake, Mitsuko, the red tail boa. This was before all the selling and I was like, I have an empty tank, and the mice are here anyway, so I want another snake! :D

Anytime you can either break even or come out on top is a good month.

I think we all want to have the hobby pay for itself, so this is good.

Congrats. :)

Bruce

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Originally Posted by Bruce Whitehead

Anytime you can either break even or come out on top is a good month.

I think we all want to have the hobby pay for itself, so this is good.

Congrats. :)

Bruce

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Yep! I really don't mind and actually enjoy the time I put into it and actually the money wasn't a biggie either, I love my hobby and can go without things like expensive coffee and new shoes. But I'm a poor college student so any money saved it really great.

Now my problem is telling myself to keep saving and not get more snakes. :P

Sweet! It can be done. I usually can pay for my rats' feed with the funds that I receive for selling my hatchlings. Breaking even is a good thing. Making money is great! But I am in it for the hobby.. breakin' even is just a nice bonus :)

Im tired of buying f/t all the time. Im just now getting into african soft furred rats. I've never bred rats before so this will be a different experiance. Im picking up my first trio after christmas.

That is great news it is always nice to have something pay for itself. I originaly was going to start with about 150asf rats to breed. But I have had a change of mind and am now starting with 35females and 5 males. I am going to only start by putting three trios together though, to see how fast they produce and what I can realy use. Goodluck with your snakes and breeding colony:)

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Originally Posted by Ginevive

Sweet! It can be done. I usually can pay for my rats' feed with the funds that I receive for selling my hatchlings. Breaking even is a good thing. Making money is great! But I am in it for the hobby.. breakin' even is just a nice bonus :)

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My thoughts exactly, I didn't mind spending money to have the privelage of owning these animals. But breaking even... a gift for sure.

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Originally Posted by Darkice

Im tired of buying f/t all the time. Im just now getting into african soft furred rats. I've never bred rats before so this will be a different experiance. Im picking up my first trio after christmas.

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Good luck with them. I've never seen an ASF in person but I love the regular rats I have. So I'm crossing my fingers for you and hopping you get nice ASF's rather than the really agressive ones I've heard of.

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Originally Posted by MDB

That is great news it is always nice to have something pay for itself. I originaly was going to start with about 150asf rats to breed. But I have had a change of mind and am now starting with 35females and 5 males. I am going to only start by putting three trios together though, to see how fast they produce and what I can realy use. Goodluck with your snakes and breeding colony:)

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Starting slow is a good plan. I started with only 1.1 mice and kept adding more till I found the right balance. It's not just about producing enough but also producing often enough to have all the right sized available most of the time. I use a little more than 1/3 of the mice I produce and sell the rest. And like I said I was extremely lucky to find someone to buy from me, there just isn't as big a market as one would think.

Congrats. My little colony is going pretty good now too. I've got 2.5 breeders. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how many females to keep in production.
How do you kill your extras? Gassing?

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Originally Posted by snakelady

Congrats. My little colony is going pretty good now too. I've got 2.5 breeders. Right now, I'm trying to figure out how many females to keep in production.
How do you kill your extras? Gassing?

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Yeah co2. And not just extras. All my snakes will take f/t so I kill large groups when they're the right size, that way I don't have to worry about having the right size next feeding day.

I also use cervical dislocation if I'm just p/k-ing one or two in cases where for some reason I don't have one in the freezer.

And my boa and my king hunt live really efficiently so they occasionally eat that way.

i'm doing the same thing, i started off breeding rats for my BP's. I had 1.1 breeders when i started know i have 2.16 and I sell what i don't need and i'm more then breaking even.

I never have enough rats to sell extra! LOL :8:

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Originally Posted by NorCalPythons

i'm doing the same thing, i started off breeding rats for my BP's. I had 1.1 breeders when i started know i have 2.16 and I sell what i don't need and i'm more then breaking even.

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

I never have enough rats to sell extra! LOL :8:

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I think it has something to do with numbers. Too small a colony and you never have all the sized you need. Meduim colony like I have and NorCalPythons has and you can break even/ make a little cash selling extras. If you can find someone to sell to, it's easier if you're willing to ship which I"m not. My guy actually comes and gets them from me where I work.

But when the colony gets too big the upkeep costs go up and you can't sell enough to break even unless that's all your doing. Because lets face it if you have a really large colony you either have enough snakes to make it worth while (hence the snakes eat the animal, so you can't sell) or your only breeding to sell (like rodentpro or mousefactory). But if you have enough snakes to make a really big colony worth while you're saving money anyway.