Where can i buy rats so they can breed ?

[oreo]

I was told not to buy from petco or petsmart


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[TerrieL]

I've had luck with getting rats from other hobby breeders in my area. I found them on various reptile and feeder pages on Facebook.

[wolfy-hound]

Check for craigslist to see if anyone is selling live rodents for snake feed. Check at local feed stores to see if anyone is buying rodent feed or feed for rodents and if they can get you in touch.

If all else fails, you can buy live feeders and keep the females to breed. You can buy petco rats to begin with if you really have to but I've found there's almost always rodent breeders in an area, just staying out of sight.

The key to a successful rodent colony imo is culling to get what you want. Once you start breeding and have enough rodents, you weed out what you don't want and keep back what you do. Of course, we'd all wish for the best lines to begin with, but if you can't get that, you can design your own lines with culling.

[oreo]

Check for craigslist to see if anyone is selling live rodents for snake feed. Check at local feed stores to see if anyone is buying rodent feed or feed for rodents and if they can get you in touch.

If all else fails, you can buy live feeders and keep the females to breed. You can buy petco rats to begin with if you really have to but I've found there's almost always rodent breeders in an area, just staying out of sight.

The key to a successful rodent colony imo is culling to get what you want. Once you start breeding and have enough rodents, you weed out what you don't want and keep back what you do. Of course, we'd all wish for the best lines to begin with, but if you can't get that, you can design your own lines with culling.

it's ok to buy from petco or petsmart? i was told they have sickness most of the time


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[the_rotten1]

I'd like to know where you live that they actually have rats. All the Petcos and Petsmarts in my area have stopped carrying rats for some weird reason. It was a real hassle to find enough to start my colony.

I have bought mice from them though. The Petsmarts where I live only carry male fancy mice and the Petcos only carry female fancy mice, so my founding male stud was from Petsmart and I've gotten a lot of females from Petco. I did have trouble with a few of the female mice, but most of them have been healthy.

If you do end up getting rats from different stores and/or breeders (or if you get a few and then buy more later down the road, like I did) I would suggest keeping them separately, in quarantine, for at least a month. If any of them are sick you don't want it to spread to the healthy ones.

Big box stores also have a health guarantee. It's only 14 days for Petsmart and 30 for Petco, but if any die in that time you can get a refund.

Keep your receipts.

[TerrieL]

There is only one pet store where I live that still carries live rats and that is Pet Supermarket. Pet supply plus in the past had a nice selection of a variety of rats but stopped selling them ,saying they had problems getting healthy ones. Since I'm in there quite often and buy frozen feeders on occasion, they told me last week that their company is going to stop selling live feeder mice, and the frozen rodents will be coming in from a company that individually wraps them and boxes them at almost twice the price. I asked why and was told the corporate company is getting too much pressure from PETA. Not sure is that is really why or just what the clerk thought.

Anyway , like Wolfy-hound suggested, I have been able to find good sources of rat breeders from Craigslist. Recently, I bought a banana ball from a local BP breeder and when I picked up the snake found out that he was a big rat breeder as well. He just did not advertise the rats.
Good luck and happy hunting
Terrie

[Stewart_Reptiles]

If you find a breeder get some weaned to small rats for your colony (no adult, no proven breeder) then raise them to optimum weight of 250 grams.

I started my colony with small rats from Petco, I had no other option wen I first started 10 years ago, I have a prolific colony or both rats and mice (I produce over 5000 feeders a year.)

I recently added new blood in my mouse colony and went to petco for that as well.

Like any animal they need to be quarantined if you add new blood.