Q: Breeding Feeders

[BigKenjDogg]

I'm just curious, does anyone breed their own feeders? Is it difficult?
If so, can you explain the process to me? Thanks

[SatanicIntention]

It's very very easy. I breed gerbils for a friend of mine, and by the time the first litter is eaten, there's a second litter already growing up and ready by the time the snake is ready to eat again. Very convenient. I have them gerbils in a 10 gallon tank I got at a resale shop for $7, and then made a screen lid. I feed them a variety of food such as the regular gerbil diet, veggies and occasionally dog food which is great for their teeth, to make sure they are healthy and fat. Also to make sure they are healthy, I recommend going to the vet and getting a fecal done on the parents just to make sure, the parasites they usually get are pinworms, tapeworms, and coccidia(protozoa). Pinworms aren't too bad, and can be diagnosed pretty easily by sticking a piece of tape to their little hiney and putting that under a microscope(done by the vet) I keep the father gerbil in there, and he has never tried to eat the babies, and he actually takes better care of them than the mom does, but he might be a rarity. I would probably recommend taking the dad out after about a week of being in with the mom, so she can be alone and take care of the babies when they come. I'm not quite sure on gestation period, but it seems to be only a few weeks after mating you see babies. The most I've seen out of gerbils are 8, but it can vary alot. Rats can have up to 20 at a time, and I have no clue about mice. Probably around the same amount. *This info is for breeding enough for one snake* If you need to breed multiples, I would invest in one of those Freedom Breedom racks or just have a couple 10-20 gallon tanks around if you could somehow build shelving for that. If possible, keep one mom rat/gerbil/mouse per 10 gallon to avoid fighting over the babies. This helps keep the stress level down. And with the dad rat/gerbil/mouse keep him in a tank/cage by himself so there's no eating of the babies, which is very sad to see a baby mouse's head being torn off. Females kept together will also do this, so try to keep it down to one female per tank as I stated above. I'm sorry this is such a long post, there's just alot of info. At least it isn't difficult to breed them. Well happy breeding and Good Luck.

[Marla]

I've done it before with mice and we've had pet rats (just one at the moment), and I can tell you that mice are 42 times stinkier than rats and I won't be having them in my house again (not voluntarily, anyway). It's not difficult. Basically if you leave a sexually mature male in with one or more sexually mature females for 24 hours, odds are very good you'll end up with some pinkies in da hizzouse. Steelsack does it; I believe Jeanne does it. I think someone else does as well but it's not coming to mind right now who that would be.

[BigKenjDogg]

How come people don't just feed gerbils to their pythons? Are they nutritionally inadequate? I mean, it just seems like they are the third option behind mice and rats, so I'm just curious.

[steelsack]

Yes I breed rats. Is it hard? Lord, no! You can check my photo album for pics of my breeding setup.....granted it's huge, but you get the idea. They are very easy to care for as they pretty much run themselves.
I purchased three pregnant females (one at a time over about a three or four month period). The first one gave birth to 14 babies if I remember correctly. Average litters have been between 9 and 15 about every two to two and a half months. They all live together, I keep one male stud (Willard) who was one of the first litter. I was moving the mothers to a ten gallon breeder, but the last time I did that, one mother got wierded out by the switch to such a small home and ate five! So I started just letting them stay in Rat Manor full time. No one has eaten thier kids like that again and the male doesn't bother the babies or the mothers. Of course the cage is monstrous so that may contribute to the peace. As the babies grow, I feed them off and freeze a few to keep the population and food consumption down. Right now I have four pups about the size of a large mouse and two females (had 3 but that made too much food for one bp so I killed one) and a male for breeding. I have a good stock in my freezer ranging from pinkie to adult as I am picking up a baby red tail this summer and want to be ready to feed it as it grows.
The process is simple......I basically do nothing! Keep an eye on the food dishes (cat food, dog food, veggies, table scraps, and man do they love cereal! I clean the cage around once a week, depending on how many are living in there at the time. Most of the smell will start comming from the hammocks which they absolutely LOVE. Jean legs cut off with rope running through to each end, keep a clean one so when one's dirty it gets washed in bleach solution and I can hang the other up right away.
Is it cost effective? Yes. Where I live an adult rat cost eight bucks :shock: , so they have more than paid for themselves already.
Only problem: How many snakes do you have? I just have the one bp right now and he has started playing with the idea of going off feed. He gave me a month with no munchies already, and then ate well for a month and now is slowing down again. So the problem can be too many rats and the freezer is full. This provides me with a wonderful excuse to get a red tail!
So to sum up, they are easy, they breed effortlessly, and are fun to watch and play with.
Hope any of this ramble helps!

[steelsack]

Oh, about gerbils. I thought about that, but after research I found they aren't swingers like rats are and pretty much breed only in pairs. So that means multiple cages which means more cleaning and more water bottles and food dishes and blah blah blah.
And they're more pricey than rats around here so I bagged it and went with the rats.

[Marla]

Also, gerbils just don't get as big as rats do, so eventually you end up needing to feed multiple gerbils or bump up to rats anyway.

[Ironhead]

Correct me if im wrong, but isnt feeding them dog food (other than wal-mart's old roy) not a good idea because of the dye that is used in the making of the food? Not that it is bad for the rodents, but passing it on to the snake could be harmful? I believe Randy P. is the one that brought this to our attention several months back.

[steelsack]

(other than wal-mart's old roy)

Wassup with old roy? They always have a mix of stuff mainly cat food....I use the dog food only when I run out of the cat food and need to get more. They seem to like it least and I'm not going to shop around for a rat approved dog food :?
I missed the thread about dyes.....the way you wrote it it appears that I may have unknowingly bought the proper dog food. I just thought it was cheap...........

[Ironhead]

Wassup with old roy?

Well if I remember right, old roy does not use the red dye that the other dog food's have in them, so the way I understood it, is that old roy is safe compared to the other foods.

My dog's would starve before they would ever put old roy in their stomach, but my brothers dog's eat old roy like it's going out of style.