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  1. #1
    BPnet Veteran Meerna's Avatar
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    Small Scale Breeding

    I have 4 ball pythons at the moment but I was considering breeding rats for them rather than buying f/t like I have been. I've read through a lot of the posts here about breeding, but most of them seem to be for large scale breeding with a lot more rats. I have a small apartment with no extra rooms for rats (my snake racks are in my walk-in closet) so I don't want to have a large number and risk a smell. Would 1 male and 1 female be okay to start out? I'll probably get another female once my first gets pregnant so I can swap them out and keep the pregnant ones in their own tubs, but I don't think I should get any more than maybe 3 females once I get a rotation going. What do you think?
    1.0 Normal (Emrys)
    0.1 Fire (Calypso)
    0.1 Pied (Tessa)
    0.1 Albino Kingsnake (Nienna)
    2.1 Cats (Suki, Daisuke, and Kyo)
    0.0.2 Leopard Geckos (Chi and Pixel)

  2. #2
    Telling it like it is! Stewart_Reptiles's Avatar
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    Keep buying F/T it's not worth it, even 3 rats create smell and if to that you add 24 babies you can just imagine especially in an apartment.
    Deborah Stewart


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  4. #3
    BPnet Senior Member Tigerhawk's Avatar
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    Yeah with only four ball pythons. I would do a bulk order from someone like perfect prey. Just order enough for six months or so. Also get you a small freezer to keep them in and you are set. It's way simpler. Breeding is only worth it when you have thirty snakes or more. or like Deborah who was a million and one snakes to feed.

  5. #4
    BPnet Senior Member cchardwick's Avatar
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    I started out small and decided to expand with my rodents. The only way you know if you will like it is to buy a few rats and try it out. I'd suggest buying one male and one female, you'll need to separate them while the female gives birth and weans them before you put the male back in. Then you can euthanize the babies with CO2 when they are the right size and store them in the freezer until the next batch is the right size, otherwise they will grow too big for ball pythons. You can also feed a few live when they are of size, but in a few more weeks they will be too big.

    With the right bedding and setup they don't smell at all. I now use a combination of aspen shavings and pine pellets, a carbon filter in the room and an Air Wick plug in filter. I change the bedding once a week, if you want zero smell you would have to change it out every four days or so. I enjoy breeding rats almost as much as I do breeding snakes. And if you can find cheap or free bedding and food they can save you a lot of money, you can even sell your extra or trade them for snakes or other supplies. I feed my rats all of my leftovers from the kitchen! They also have a constant supply of Mazuri 6F rodent diet. At one point I used shredded paper from work, the bedding was free but didn't cut down on the smell as much and it was pretty bad after four days. Aspen is much better but a lot more expensive.

    If I were to start over and start small I would get one single level of an ARS rat breeding rack (ARS-5032) as well as a few extra tubs for bedding changes. It would cost you about $300. The system will water and feed the rats with zero waste. I started with aquariums and it was a lot of labor, the rack makes it so easy.

    http://arscaging.com/ars5032.html
    Last edited by cchardwick; 12-29-2017 at 04:07 PM.


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