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BPnet Veteran
Starting Out Breeding Rats/Mice
So after buying them feeders from the store (live) and getting the sticker shock of how expensive it is to do this each week, we have thought long and hard about breeding them ourselves.
Our plan is to start feeding them f/t before hand obvioulsy, if this works out good for everyone we will then go on to breeding our own rats/mice.
We have 6 BP's at the time, 3 eat medium rats, 1 eats a small rat and 2 eat 2-3 mice. (Although my one is large enough to eat a small rat he wont, and also wont eat more then one mouse in a sitting.....so in 3 days hes out hungry again!!!!)
My question is 2 things, should I attempt to feed the one's who are eating mice, rat pups or one's close to the mouse's size there eating now, I'd hat to breed mice only to use 2 per week.
And the bigger question, how many rats should I start out breeding?
Thanks so much.
I rack my husbands balls & show my rack on Ball-Pythons.net
~I make girls with balls look good~
Qiksilver "yes, watch your children, I'll convert them to satanism..."
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Re: Starting Out Breeding Rats/Mice
Don't know how qualified I am to answer this - but I "bred" mice (actually always picked up an obviously pregnant female when buying feeders) for about two months - and it just took too darn long for me to get them up to weight - and they stunk to high heavens!
I have 17 kiddos to feed each week, currently - so imagine my weekly feeder bill!
I picked up two young female rats about four weeks ago. I was advised to buy them young and raise them to breeding weight (about 250 grams) and then get them a boyfriend. Been feeding them on Becky's rat mix and giving them dinner leftovers (and loving on the sweetie pies!). I've got a trip in two weeks, so when I get back, I'll get them a boyfriend and hope for some nice litters to at least supplement my weekly feeder bill.
I plan to see how that goes and see how feasible it is for me to increase my rat colony (I'm in a 1 bedroom apartment).
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Re: Starting Out Breeding Rats/Mice
Try the rat's out and try breeding them I've had great result's averageing 12 babie's per litter , I've breed 72 babie's to date in two month's. That's with three female's and one of them only has ten per litter so she's hurting the average a little. It's cool and you save alot of money.
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BPnet Veteran
Re: Starting Out Breeding Rats/Mice
It won't hurt to try using rat pup sized mice to feed to the snakes that require that size, they will either take it or not and it may take a few tries.
Breeding my own rodents has always been cheaper for me, they will smell even with frequent cleaning. You could always start out by raising one or the other if your thinking of doing both. Just be aware that they won't necessarily multiply right away and you will have to continue buying until you've reached your sustainable level of "livestock". Sometimes I will still buy rodents at shows (mainly larger rats) to give my breeding groups more time or for offspring that needs time to mature and gain size.
I've posted this in a few other topics but I've recently started into some african rats which consume hardly any water therefore urinate very little and have little to no smell compared to a tub full of male rodents who will pee at any given moment. I wouldn't suggest changing over animals you may sell later as they can and will become used to a certain food type and not many people that I know of are using african rats yet.
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Re: Starting Out Breeding Rats/Mice
I would say try rats. Mice stink. Domestic rats are better. If you can get a rack system of some sort it would make a HUGE difference in the cleaning time, feeding and watering time.
I raise most of my own rats. But haven't quite gotten them up to being able to feed all of my crew yet. I have to have a minimum of 200 rodents per month(not counting the monitor lizards). So I have to have a large colony.
Wolfy
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Re: Starting Out Breeding Rats/Mice
I would also say go with the rats.
They seem, to me to smell less than male mice...
I have about 15 large breeder rats all in either 20 gall or 10 gallon tanks.
What a PAIN to clean....about 2-3 hours every weekend not to mention 15 water bottles/food bowls to fill daily and 15 tanks to clean and disenfect weekly.
Go with a rack system!! There are instructions on this site showing you how to build one, It is rewarding to finally sustain your own feeding of the BP's with homegrown rats!! (I am not there yet, but close!)
Good Luck and don't get attached to the baby rats, they are to cute!!
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BPnet Veteran
Re: Starting Out Breeding Rats/Mice
Thanks everyone, since everyone is saying the same thing I will try the mice eaters on rat pups or something of similar size. And yes, I only want to sart this when I can have the easiest set up possible, with 3 cats, 2 dogs, 6 snakes, a toddler AND a husband...the last thing I need is another head ache lol.
I rack my husbands balls & show my rack on Ball-Pythons.net
~I make girls with balls look good~
Qiksilver "yes, watch your children, I'll convert them to satanism..."
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Re: Starting Out Breeding Rats/Mice
Originally Posted by TheAudOne
And the bigger question, how many rats should I start out breeding?
Thanks so much.
A good estimate is one breeding female rat per snake. You will have extra, but extra food is never a bad thing ! Good luck!
-Evan
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BPnet Veteran
Re: Starting Out Breeding Rats/Mice
Originally Posted by Evan Jamison
A good estimate is one breeding female rat per snake. You will have extra, but extra food is never a bad thing ! Good luck!
-Evan
Oh awesome thank you, yeah I figured I cant have to many...well I guess I could..but were planning on freezing them any way. Not live everyone dont worry were going to CO2 them.
I rack my husbands balls & show my rack on Ball-Pythons.net
~I make girls with balls look good~
Qiksilver "yes, watch your children, I'll convert them to satanism..."
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Re: Starting Out Breeding Rats/Mice
As Robin said try to get your females young and give them a few weeks or so of good care before getting them with a male. You want the females around 5 months of age or therabouts which is roughly about 250 grams. They can get preggie and give birth earlier than that but it can result in problems for the young female and a smaller litter or one that doesn't thrive well for you. Try to get females from a store that keeps the genders seperated and look for what you would expect in a healthy kitten or puppy. Things like clear eyes, clean ears and butt, shiney hair, no scabbing or scaley skin, feet that aren't ulcerated (can be an indication of very poor husbandry or standing in their own filth). Rats have very little to no natural odor so healthy well cared for stock should have no smell other than a normal bedding smell. Stinky rats are not well cared for rats. Watch for a lot of sneezing or rats with excessive red discharge from their nose or mouth. If you start out with healthy young rats that will up your chance of success.
Becky's dry rat mix is excellent as well as using up all your kitchen scraps to suppliment their diet. I keep a rat bowl in the fridge and just love that instead of bones and scraps hitting the garbage can, it gets happily turned into fat happy feeder rats for our snake colony. Rats are very easy to care for and quite nice sociable creatures. Your breeders will soon come to know you and most are not given to a lot of biting (I cull out any that do bite excessively or show any signs of real aggression or lack of breeding/mothering skills).
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