breeding Rats

[Ozone]

Hey
i have 3 balls 1 subadult and 2 babies(5,3 months old) how many rat familes i must have to feed my snakes 1 rat each every week? i will need 3 rats every 7days , large mice size at this moment.(25 days old?)
now i have 2x 1.2 i must add more femilies ? 2x 1.3 is better?
what is the minimume cage size for rats?
sometimes my rats eating her babies!!
what can i but on substrate to stop the bad smell of the ourates? ammonia realy suck!
when they going to large mice sized (25days) i will kill them and put it on the freezer
any sugestions?

[Jeanne]

Hey
i have 3 balls 1 subadult and 2 babies(5,3 months old) how many rat familes i must have to feed my snakes 1 rat each every week? i will need 3 rats every 7days , large mice size at this moment.(25 days old?)
now i have 2x 1.2 i must add more femilies ? 2x 1.3 is better?

You should be producing enough babies and being able to have the amount you are wanting with what you have. First, I d not reccommend housing a male with your females all the time, I feel it stresses them out and can cause them to eat thier own babies cause the male is constantly trying to breed with her. Also, a few other reasons the mothers could be eating babies is : she is not going to make a good mother (if she has eaten 2 or more litters, it is time to quit using her for a breeder, most likely, she will never change that.. if you are housing them all together all the time, are you sure there is enough food available to them all? Are there any dominance issues between them? You only really need one male rat, he should be kept alone except for when you introduce the female to him for breeding, then once you know she is pregnant, put her back in her orginal housing. In reality, if you want, you could always keep one male (in a cage alone) and keep just your females together. I bet it would alleviate alot of your problems.

what is the minimume cage size for rats?
what can i but on substrate to stop the bad smell of the ourates? ammonia realy suck!

If you were to go by my suggestion on housing the male by himself, you could then keep 2 females in something equal to a 20 gallon long. Making the need for only 2 cages for your sets of females, and one for the male. However, at some point you are going to need more housing for thier young, you need to be able to separate them into male housing and female housing, eventually, you are going to need to grow some of them up as your snakes get bigger. As far as bedding, you can use carefresh, yesterdays news or aspen (NEVER use cedar or pine type beddings), you will have to clean the cages weekly, no fail to eliminate most of the odor from rodents, but you will never get rid of it unless you cover it up in a room with airfreshner plug ins.

Raising rodents gets to be a task in itself, so be sure thats what you want to do. I quit raising my own because of all the work, and it was just easier and cheaper to order frozen rodents and feed f/t.