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BPnet Veteran
Where Did You Buy Your Breeding Rats?
So I was wondering where everyone has bought there breeding rats at....I know there just breeding babies for us to feed off...but some thought goes into it for some people I'm sure.
Thanks alot.
~Audrey
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: Where Did You Buy Your Breeding Rats?
Nothing "just" about it Audrey . I think most of us that breed for feeders are doing it not only because managed correctly, it can be quite cost effective but also because we like knowing the feeders are of higher quality that we can likely find in most pet shop feeder tanks. Rats are also a lot of fun to raise and quite easy to manage. Some of us have a certain color or coat pattern that appeals to us and even though as a feeder it doesn't really matter, it's just nice to raise rats that appeal to you visually I think.
To that end (and I speak only for myself) I usually keep an eye on a variety of pet stores when I'm looking for "new blood" for our rat colony. I also specifically watch our own litters for rat pups that carry certain looks I like or come from a pairing that I want to keep that genetic line going - those pups when weaned don't go to the grow out tubs.
Buying a healthy young rat for a future breeder is pretty much like buying a puppy or kitten - clear eyes, clean ears, dry butt, shiney coat, etc. You look for a young animal in good health from a store that cares for their rodent stock appropriately. Try to buy females only from pet stores that seperate the genders over 5 weeks of age. Recently I picked up a young female rat who it turns out was preggie from the store. Even though she did successfully birth 8 young, since she was far too young to have been bred, her young are on the smallish side for feeders and it was hard to keep weight on her while she was nursing them.
Just basic animal husbandry....healthy parent stock, cared for well, gets you offspring that grow to feeding size more quickly and in top condition. Considering your snake gets all it's nutrition from this one source, the better the quality of your feeder rats, the better for your snake.
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BPnet Veteran
Re: Where Did You Buy Your Breeding Rats?
I know exactly what you mean, even though we dont breed our own yet, I do buy them and give some atleast a week with us, making sure there healthy looking and acting...and then give them a few days with us to eat and drink. I was just wondering if some people buy theres on-line or perfer large pet stores like PetSmart etc.
Thanks alot
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: Where Did You Buy Your Breeding Rats?
i bought my breeder rats from a well known reptile breeder who also breeds his own rats. the rats at my local petsmart are often sickly and the rats at the local herp store are generally in dreadful condition and megacolon runs in their colony.
that said, do be careful where you get your stock because it really is important. once you get a good group started you can hold back the best babies and build your numbers.
- Emily
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Re: Where Did You Buy Your Breeding Rats?
I started with a couple from the reptile feeder bins. I actually played "rat god" by picking up each rat out of my bin of feeder rats that were to be fed off that evening. Each one was looked at and asked. "Would you like to be a future breeder?" And if they bit or scratched or jumped I went "No? Okay, I pronounce you Snake-Poo-To-Be." Then I laughed manically, and picked up the next one. Yes, I am aware that I seem to be disturbed.
In short I picked the best looking healthy rats. I got some from PEtsmart, and kept back some nicer looking rat pups that grew faster, were fatter and were from larger litters. Now I counted last night and I have 47 adult rats for breeders. I need either 3 more to fill the bins properly, or 8 more to fill the last empty bin as well.
Whites are supposed to have larger litters, but I haven't particularly seen that. All my chocolate colored females are a bit bitey, mostly when they have babies. I think that my chocolate females are all related though, so it must simply run in the line. They also give birth to large healthy litters.
Shrug. Treat them like any pet you would purchase to breed. Get large healthy individuals and treat them well.
Wolfy
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Registered User
Re: Where Did You Buy Your Breeding Rats?
i got my breeders from the petshop i work at part time . we have a customer that breeds fancy rats and brings us a lot of them . i pick through them and get the best looking out of the bunch . at this point i am starting to pull females out of my own breeding colonies for future colonies . the males i still look thru our feeders for unusual lookin critters . i always try to use unrelated males with my own females . yesterday we got a real nice himilain(sp) in but my boss beat me to him i did beat him to a nice siamese though
Mark
reborn herper
0.4 ball pythons
1.1 pastel ball pythons
1.0 het orange hypo ball pythons
0.1 bci
0.0.4 paulsoni
0.1 coastal rosy boa
1.1 mexican rosy boas
1.0.1 kenyen sand boas
0.0.4 house geckos
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BPnet Veteran
Re: Where Did You Buy Your Breeding Rats?
I really like to look through through the rack at a local petstore and pick out the weanlings from the tubs that are still with mom. I got 2 that way and they were both from large litters of 10 or 11. Most of the rats and mice I have bought in the past never made it long enough to breed because they all have pissed me off by biting me
~Jake~
Too many boas to list and a few balls as well
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Re: Where Did You Buy Your Breeding Rats?
I started off with two pair's a friend hooked me up with. Now I'm trying to stay with just albino's and tan color's. I currently have 2.5 and out of those five 2 female's don't breed yet they'll probably be breeding next month.
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Re: Where Did You Buy Your Breeding Rats?
I got a couple of my breeders from a local pet store that keeps them in very good conditions and the rest from a forum member (thanks Charlie!). I am 3 litters in to breeding and am holding back ones that I like the look of and that have good temperaments. I take the breeding process and the feeding process pretty seriously. I don't discount what these rats are giving up so that my snakes can be healthy and I feed them the best food and take care of them to the best of my ability.
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Re: Where Did You Buy Your Breeding Rats?
All of my original rodent colonies came from a good herp friend (lab mice, deer mice, and rats. I just got a small group of swiss-websters from him last week ). He was my supplier until I started breeding my own, so it only made sense to go to him to get my starter colonies. He raised up a bunch for me for a couple months while I was putting together the rodent shed. I have added a little new blood here and there, but I'm very selective as to where they come from, and I quarantine new rodents for at least a couple weeks before adding them to my colony. You can't be too careful....
-Evan
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