Breeding Rats

[Lobo_Reptiles]

I've looked on several different sites and found some good information but I still have a few questions.

My BP and BCI take 2 mice each, once a week and my cornsnake takes a fuzzy a week *would take more if I offered*. Do you think it would be cheaper to just buy? I wanted to move the two big guys up to small rats but they are $2.99 at the petstore I go to.

Pretty much I'm just asking if it is worth it or not. I plan on getting either another BP or another cornsnake at the Western NY Herp show this September so that will be one more mouth to feed.

I'd really enjoy any opinions.

Some real questions... could I keep the rats in a rubbermaid container? A big one with newspaper as substrate? I was thinking of getting 3 females and one male to start...good or no?

[tigerlily]

Do you feed live or not? If not then I would seriously consider purchasing from rodentpro.com. I was spending about the same and it was considerably cheaper doing it that way, and I was very happy with my order. If you want to breed, I would consider the hassle factor. Remember you'll be needing to clean cages and get food and all that stuff. You need to do a cost analysis. Add it all up and see if it's worth your time. Anyway that's my

[Smulkin]

If you want to breed, I would consider the hassle factor. Remember you'll be needing to clean cages and get food and all that stuff.

Christie is dead on there - i easily spend 3-4x the time maintaining rodents than I do the snakes not to mention the space they have to occupy.

[Python-77]

Yep breading rats in a total pain and IMO not worth it until you break the 10+ snake mark. I keep 17 snakes I have 5 breader rats and 3 breader gerbils that just barely get the job done in feeding. My one female pops out around 16-18 babies at a birth so thats another factor you will ahve to look at do I want to feed all these rats once weened and are you prepaired to kill and freeze them, since 3 snakes will not take down 16 rats before the get to large. Also the corn would probley have trouble with anything over a 3 day old rat pup if he is still on mouse fuzzies. Rodentpro.com.

[Lobo_Reptiles]

I went to Rodentpro, and the shipping absolutely murders me. I looked at just buying mouse fuzzies because they were out of stock for rats and it cost me over $40 >_<

[Ginevive]

I breed rats. Here are some numbers for ya to crunch!
I feed 5 BPs, once a week. There's also my BCI, but he eats thawed and I freeze my overproduced rats for him. We will count him out for this post, and the numbers will still work! Read on:
Buying live rats is necessary; three of my snakes will have nothing to do with f/t or even prekilled. So for my smaller-rat-eating snakes, that would be 5 times $4 per rat per week, which equals $20. Bigger rats for my adult BP would be $6 each! So if I bought frrom stores, it'd come to $26 a week for live rats.
I buy a 50# bag of rat feed, which costs $25 and lasts for 6 months. I buy bedding twice a month, if that. Bedding is $7 a bale. $14 a month for bedding.
All in all, the result is, it is much cheaper for me to breed my own. It costs me $40 a month to raise the rats... versus $84 per month to buy live! This is not even counting the large excess supply that I bred and sell to my local pet store.
So breeding rats can be economical. And if it takes me 15 minutes to clean out their cages every 5 days, so be it! But if you absolutely hate the presence of rats and their daily feeding/watering regimen (which takes me three minutes, 2x a day) then don't do it. And if your snakes are little angels who will eat f/t, then go that route!

[Ginevive]

Hey Hades, I noticed you live in my area. I am about 1/2 hour outside of Buffalo; are you near Bflo?