Ratville Rattery!!

[BallPython713]

I just wanted to post that last Friday (April 30) I purchesed a breeding pair of rats from my local petstore. As it turns out, the female was already pregant and I'm expecting babies in the next week! She looks like she ate a apple or somthing! I have them seperated so she wont get pregant again after she gives birth. I'll keep you guys posted!!

[steelsack]

I love buying pregnant rats......it's like legal shoplifting! Yeah, it's funny when they're pregnant because you can't really tell until a week or so, then like you said it's like they ate a whole apple.
Congrats on your expected litter 8)

[BallPython713]

Thanks! I'm lookin foward to it too.

[Ginevive]

Congrats on your rat purchase. The biggest problem I found with breeding rats is that you have to euthanize them before they grow too big to feed to your snake! And they grow really fast. But breeding my own has definately been worth it financially. I have one preggo female now, and one female being bred to a male as we speak (I am choosing not to watch the gory details, lol.) Free food for all snakes!

[BallPython713]

UPDATE!!! My female (Jill) has just given birth!!! The're soooo small. I knew it would be soon cuz last night I saw them moving inside and could tell that she was in labor. There's lots of blood but I don't think that she's eating them though. I'm soooooo happy. This is the cheapest way to optain rats that I've found. Especially since my petstore dosen't sell sm. rats.

[Smulkin]

Congrats! The supposedly pregnant female I bought had her litter of 9 last Thursday!

[BigKenjDogg]

How do you kill rats?

Here's my other question. Are rats pretty smelly?

[JamminJonah]

well there are a few methods for killing - put in a plastic bag and swing against a hard surface - or a really humane way involving dry ice- here is a link to one method-

http://www.alysion.org/euthanasia/index.html

here is discussion on this topic:
http://www.ball-pythons.net/index.ph...opic&p=674#674

Rats are not as smelly as mice from what I have read, and rats are WAY more intelligent.

[JamminJonah]

Rather than vinegar and baking soda however, I would use dry ice.

[BigKenjDogg]

Thanks Johnah. That's awesome. I'm thinking about breeding my own rats. Do you know how much more cost effective it is to breed your own (as opposed to buying them)?