Good deal on rats or not?

Hi all I just found a girl who will sell me a 1:3 ASF for $50 she said they are higher price cause they are het albino . I don't know what het albino means so I would appreciate some help here.

She will also sell me some female fancy rats for $ 5 buck a piece.
And I guess males the same price.
I saw pictures of hers and they look really healthy and she is a 2 hour drive from me about so its very do able.
If I get what I am wanting it would run me about $ 100 total.

Please refresh my memory as to how many females I should keep per pan in my rack. Hubby made the rack like Clay Davenports with home depots pans.
He said the pans were a little narrower.
Anyway just need to know how many females I can keep in these. I plan to place male in for breeding then pull and let females stay together to birth. I am going to try it this way and see how it works for me and go from there.

I am fixing to order my water bottles as soon as I get off here and then all I need to do is get the litter , food and then my rats.

Thanks all for the help and info I really really appreciate it. You guys have been a termendous help to me.

thanks rhsm

The price of rats varies from place to place. IF you are getting large heathy breeders, that are young, and not bred out older females, then $5 might be a great price.
I kept 3-4 females per pan myself.

$5 per regular rat is a good price. I would put about 5 or 6 females per tub. But if you do 5-6 per, that might be too many to birth and raise babies in.

How many snakes are you feeding? I also would save a tub for the male to rest in, and for raise up females....

Hi again I just wanted to answer this real quick.
Yes they are suppose to be young and ready to breed is what she told me and the photos I saw were of younger ones.

I am planning to have one pan of ASF and then a pan for my 2 males and then a pan for female babies and a pan male babies and then that leaves me with 2 pans for breeding females.
I had planned on putting 3 to 4 females per pan .

Does this sound about right?

If we need another rack in the future hubby will make it but we'd like to start out slow and see how it goes.

Thanks everyone really really appreciate all your help here.
rhsm

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rhsm

Hi again I just wanted to answer this real quick.
Yes they are suppose to be young and ready to breed is what she told me and the photos I saw were of younger ones.

I am planning to have one pan of ASF and then a pan for my 2 males and then a pan for female babies and a pan male babies and then that leaves me with 2 pans for breeding females.
I had planned on putting 3 to 4 females per pan .

Does this sound about right?

If we need another rack in the future hubby will make it but we'd like to start out slow and see how it goes.

Thanks everyone really really appreciate all your help here.
rhsm

---

Everything sounds good except the 2 males in one pan. 2 adult males will fight to the death if kept together. An adult male and a juvie male could be roomies, but 2 adults (after breeding with females) will fight.

How many snakes are you feeding with these?

There are no known albino ASF' strains in the US that I personally know feeder breeders are working with. They likely meant het for PED. (pink eyed dilute) They come out a lovely fawn / yellow color with pink/ruby colored eyes.

To me, I don't see how the hets for anything would cost more, I really doubt she has ANY normals that are not het. ;) It's very hard to keep track of things like that and purposley breed a certain gene out on purpose, especially a recessive one, if you catch my drift. It sounds like a marketing scheme that really doesn't matter. If you can, ask her for just normals. I bet ya you'd get the fawns (PED) and cinnamons anyways.

Depending on where you are, I would see if anyone else around would have a better price. Like Mike Cavanaugh lives down there don't he? :P Competition in the market is a good thing!!!!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rhsm

Hi all I just found a girl who will sell me a 1:3 ASF for $50 she said they are higher price cause they are het albino . I don't know what het albino means so I would appreciate some help here.

She will also sell me some female fancy rats for $ 5 buck a piece.
And I guess males the same price.
I saw pictures of hers and they look really healthy and she is a 2 hour drive from me about so its very do able.
If I get what I am wanting it would run me about $ 100 total.

Please refresh my memory as to how many females I should keep per pan in my rack. Hubby made the rack like Clay Davenports with home depots pans.
He said the pans were a little narrower.
Anyway just need to know how many females I can keep in these. I plan to place male in for breeding then pull and let females stay together to birth. I am going to try it this way and see how it works for me and go from there.

I am fixing to order my water bottles as soon as I get off here and then all I need to do is get the litter , food and then my rats.

Thanks all for the help and info I really really appreciate it. You guys have been a termendous help to me.

thanks rhsm

---

Personally I think that 5 dollars per fancy rat is WAAAAY too expensive. I pay 1.50 per rat regardless of size, and I get them from a fantastic breeder who has the best rats I have ever seen. I even got a hairless from him. So if I were you I would try to look around for a better option.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by aaramire

Personally I think that 5 dollars per fancy rat is WAAAAY too expensive. I pay 1.50 per rat regardless of size, and I get them from a fantastic breeder who has the best rats I have ever seen. I even got a hairless from him. So if I were you I would try to look around for a better option.

---

I think they were asking about current ASF pricing.

I also believe that those prices are high, contact Mike and see if you 2 can work something out! I paid like $3 or $4 each for my asf and i paid around $1.50 for my adult breeder rats.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by monk90222

Everything sounds good except the 2 males in one pan. 2 adult males will fight to the death if kept together. An adult male and a juvie male could be roomies, but 2 adults (after breeding with females) will fight.

How many snakes are you feeding with these?

---

Simply not true, at least in our colony. We routinely keep 2-3 males in one cement tub, and have had 4 in one tub at times for a day or two at a time with no problems, regardless of if one of them recently bred.

As for pricing, if they are quality female rats, 5 bucks a piece is fine. The ASF's seem very expensive, I would talk them down or find a different supplier. IMO, an ASF should be no more than 5 dollars as an adult.

Also, I would not birth more than 2 in a rack our size (not sure how this compares to yours)--ours measure ~26x20x6. Just to breed, 4 females would be probably be fine.

Also, if you have not ordered your water bottles yet, I suggest you use a watering system instead. I recently made the switch and it was the best decision we have made, apart from building the rack in the first place. The noise factor is a lot of it for us, but not having to fill bottles all the time is definitely a huge perk.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ThyTempest

Simply not true, at least in our colony. We routinely keep 2-3 males in one cement tub, and have had 4 in one tub at times for a day or two at a time with no problems, regardless of if one of them recently bred.

.

---

Didn't you just start breeding rats?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by frankykeno

I think they were asking about current ASF pricing.

---

Yes but she mentioned fancy rats as well, I was just giving my input...

price on the normal rats is a tad on the expensive side and the asf are waay over priced. i dont think they should be that expensive anywhere in the U.S.
i pay 3 dollors for an asf from my breeder. and if i buy a 1.5 group for a new colony he usually throws in the male for free. you can usually get small deals like that from a good breeder, and if your a returning customer. That is just my thought and experience in where i live. hope this helps

I would have to agree with ThyTempest on the male rat issue. I always kept a large cage with 7 males in it, I would remove one or two for breeding and when his job was done he went back in the big cage. I never had male rats kill each other, mice though will.
A male rat kept alone will get depressed (yes depressed) he will stop eating and grooming and slowly fade away.
That is what happened when I left the males alone, together they play and have rattie fun.

And I have had rats for the last 11 years, 6 of those breeding.
If your rats are killing each other there is something wrong, as rats are social and want to be with other rats.


And also for the ASFs I'm not sure how that is for price, but the rats I pay $3.00 each for young breeders.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JamieLynn

And I have had rats for the last 11 years, 6 of those breeding.
If your rats are killing each other there is something wrong, as rats are social and want to be with other rats.
.

---

Wow I really must have something wrong with my rats. There is this thing in the animal kingdom called dominance. I think I saw something about it on animal planet once.....:gj:

my regular rat males will fight at first but they settle down pretty fast and ive never had 2 males kill eachother.

with asfs you dont want 2 males together at all.

5$ for an asf is way too high around here they are 2$ tops all day long
regular rats are around 1.50 here also

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by monk90222

Wow I really must have something wrong with my rats. There is this thing in the animal kingdom called dominance. I think I saw something about it on animal planet once.....:gj:

---

I dont keep rats anymore myself (i had 2 females) but i do know multiple rat breeders and rescuers.

domestic Norway rats are extremely social. 98% of the time they need the company of other rats. There is the occasional exception (of either sex, not just males) that will not allow a cagemate in their area and they will fight draw blood. Like i said, these are really rare instances. There are hierarchy scuffles (lots of squeeking and boxing but no blood), but once they figure out who is in what place they become complacent and enjoy the company of their cagemates.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by monk90222

Wow I really must have something wrong with my rats. There is this thing in the animal kingdom called dominance. I think I saw something about it on animal planet once.....:gj:

---

Both sides are right. I have lost a male rat when he was introduced back into the males cage, after literally hundreds of introductions and growing up with the same males. We believe it was an accident since there were no real heavy marks on him, but still the same.... he died.

He had just come out of the breeding tub, and in the morning he was dead. I felt terrible, and now I never let the males out of ear shot, and they are closely monitored all day after being reintroduced.

If the reaction is not normal, the males are all bathed and kept by themselves for a few days, then reintroduced into a new cleaned tub.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by monk90222

Didn't you just start breeding rats?

---

We started breeding mice last May, got rid of them by the end of the summer. Started breeding rats by late September, and started ASF's in November.