Questions about raising feeders.

[JeanTownsend]

I'm curious about raising my own feeders. I only have one ball python to feed, but I figured I could probably sell excess rodents, as pets or feeders. I'm only curious; I don't even know if I could kill them, but I would like to learn more.
The reason I am looking into it is because the local pet store doesn't always have the right sized frozen rats, so I have to substitute for multiple smaller ones. It's getting rather annoying, especially because the store is an hour away. Thankfully, we have other reasons to travel that far, so the trip isn't wasted. But I don't know of any other suppliers in the area. The ones I do know of have shipping fees, making it at least twice as expensive.
So, I have some questions.
Is the diet of feeder rodents the same as for pets? Could they be kept in the same building as rabbits, or would they pass diseases or something? What kind of setup do they need? How large, approximately, do rats grow in comparison to African Soft Furred? Right now, she's a sub-adult, so adult rats are too much for her.
I don't think I have specific questions about breeding that I can't do research into, but there aren't too many articles on raising feeders.
Also, something I definitely think I'll be doing is raising insect feeders, such as crickets, red worms, silkworms, and mealworms. I don't have other reptiles, but I could sell them for lizards or feed them to our chickens. Is there any specific diet different to their natural one when being used for food for reptiles?
Thanks in advance.

[Jnksnakes]

I use a Mazuri Rodent Breeder 6F. I buy it by the 50LB bags via my local feed store for $27 a bag (it's $35+ like $15 shipping on their website). I built a rack that I found on youtube via searching "DIY RAT RACK" and there are hundreds of options with the same general idea. I sell all my excess rodents and if they start to get too large (which they don't anymore because I have a large burmese python who can eat colossals) I just freeze them at the size I want them. Feeding them the Mazuri Rodent Breeder requires NO substitutions as far as food goes, they survive and grow properly solely off this food. Killing them is not hard. You could simply make a CO2 Chamber if you have access to purchasing CO2 And the money to build one. It requires no physical "killing". I prefer the free route of snapping their necks. Both are quick and easy. I don't know how many rabbits you have, But I have only 2 and keep them in the same room as my rats. If you have ANY questions, email me. (Message me for my email i'm not sure if it will be blocked out if I put it here).

[CALM Pythons]

I use Mazuri Rodent. As far as normal Norway Rats, a little will grow so fast that they will either be to big or they will reproduce so fast that 10-12 turns into 50-60 in no time. Having 1 snakw and not several will make this a hige waste of money. They eat well, chew up a lot too wasting it.. ive down sized tremendously, and now use ASF’s. I have to control the breeding by allowing a litter or two then pulling the male and feeding him off as soon as the female has a litter before she is prego again. . . honestly there just isnt a market to sell them either. Dont go into this thinking you can get rid of extra’s.. its just not so. Im down to 2 females now and I allow a couple Pups to grow up to be the next producers.. takes about 2 months to get them to a good breeding age. Then I feed off the ex-Breeders... its a lot of time, cleaning, watering, feeding.... Im debating myself about stopping once the latest one reaches 2 yrs old.


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