for you rat breeders out there

[gncz73]

hi everyone i just bought a new house and it as an out building in back of the one Acre lot and i'm thinking of breeding rats and mice in there it heated. but my questions are as follow.

1: how many female's to male's for rats and mice?


2: with all the breeds out there which would produce the largest litter?


3: where is a good place to get those lab box's?


4: where is a good place to get rodent pellets?


5: does anyone have plans for a rodent rack?


6: how many unit's would i need to feed 30 snakes?

[Smulkin]

1. Depends on how much room you have for the babies - our colony was unintended at first but now has passed self-sustaining and is nearing the point we'll need to consider freezing some for future use.

2. No clue there - we've non-specific breeds that just spawned off regular pet-store stock - litters seem to range between 8-13 in those who havent bred too young.

3. Not sure we use various sized aquariums

4. Food-wise?

5. n/a

6. By units you mean pregnant females? Colony total?

(I know it's limited or little help - as we've stumbled into it and learn more constantly)

[gncz73]

thanks any and all help is nice

[RobertCoombs]

hi everyone i just bought a new house and it as an out building in back of the one Acre lot and i'm thinking of breeding rats and mice in there it heated. but my questions are as follow.

1: how many female's to male's for rats and mice?


2: with all the breeds out there which would produce the largest litter?


3: where is a good place to get those lab box's?


4: where is a good place to get rodent pellets?


5: does anyone have plans for a rodent rack?


6: how many unit's would i need to feed 30 snakes?

1. I set my rats up 1.3 mice 1.5
2. swiss webster mice have large litter size and I have heard Winstar rats do as well but my rats are mostly mixed background
3. vision cages has the boxes out now and the tops are supposed to be on the way .. big apple herp has some lab style cages allready but a bit pricey
4.I use mazuri 6f rodent chow an I get it from a local feed store ..its a purina company so any purina affiliated feed store should be able to get it
5 I dont have plans for a rack but I built my rat racks around buss tubs at first and since have moved to the black mortar tubs sold at home depot stores the mouse tubs I like can be found at either reptiletubs.com or the mouse emporium(cheaper from the mouse emporium) I use 1/2" flattened expanded metal for the screening , 1x4 pine for level frames, and 2x4 pine for legs
6. that is going to depend highly on how productive your colony is I would start with about 20 or so breeding groups and thin out or add from there , If your in a fairly metro area it is going to be easy to unload the extras if you have many

[gncz73]

i found some of those lab boxes on kingsnake for 15 each so i ask how much shipping would be and he tald me 114 so thats 10x15=150+114=264 anf thats for ten used lab boxes at least they look used.


http://market.kingsnake.com/detail.php?de=305065&cat=22

[Ginevive]

Here's a few tips. I am not a huge-scale breeder, but I do have a succesful little thing going in my home.

Don't buy large, nonpregnant females from self-breeding pet stores! They are often castoff nonproducers who are being sold off, or they're old and close to death. Your best bet is to buy subadult gals who are sequestered from the males, and then grow them up a bit and then breed them; you know they are not old ladies then.
Sometimes I cheat a little bit. I will search around local pet stores, looking for obviously pregnant females (both mice and rats.) You will often find them in pet stores that stock both males and females together. This is a great way to jumpstart your operation; you can even go a step further and buy a male frrom the same cage, and leave him in with her, and then he will mate with her as soon as she gives birth.
I keep mine in 10g and 20g tanks; they are all castoffs that can no longer hold water. I do plan on keeping some in a few tall rubbermaid containers as they produce more. I am just getting back into breeding mice/rats.
I know it sounds sad, but my best local source for rats is petco. The guy who works in the rodent dept. is very knowledgable and breeds rats himself, and he knows to deparasitize them and not use cedar bedding.

[gncz73]

thanks for the tips