Mice or Rats?

[Jay_Bunny]

I wouldn't say I have limited space but I definatly don't have a lot of it. We have a two bedroom townhome and once we actually roll up our sleeves and get everything organized we should have enough room to do what we need to as far as snakes. In the second bedroom we have our snakes (minus those in quarantine), gliders, and breeder mice. The mice currently live in tubs and tanks and will soon be moved into only tanks since the tubs I'm using are only big enough to house two mice.

Well I was wondering. Do rats take up more space than mice? I was hoping to make a rodent rack soon so my mice wouldn't take up so much space. I'm realizing though that as my ball pythons get larger, they are going to need larger prey. They are all around 200g, some less, some more, but around there and they all eat one mouse per week that is around 20-25g. Is this too little? And would it be a better idea to switch them to rats? What are the pros and cons to keeping rats as breeders? Monthly cost for food, bedding, ect. I'm hoping to start pricing things for a rack soon so I want to know if I'm going to be building a rat rack or a mouse rack because if rats are easier then thats what I'm going to go with.

[littleindiangirl]

I only have experience with the regular rats, and they don't take up much space in the rack system. Mine is 6 tubs high, I used the concrete tubs. I believe they are 16 x 21 x 6. Water tub on top for the water lines, and food goes onto the top of the hardware cloth. I use pellets, keeps the smell down, absorbs well, use less bedding per tub. The space total must be a foot print of 2 x 3. LOL, I'm not very good at judging size from memory, but that sounded right.
1 bag of food a month,
1 bag of equine fresh every two weeks,
1 bag of aspen lasts about 2 months for nursing mothers.
Just for my 6 level rack, my grand total for a month is around $37.

[Beardedragon]

so far, my 10 mice eat as much as my three rats do in a day. So food is going to be down with the mice, and they also drink less, so its less water changes. Ive added Vanilla to their water and i have 0 smell, unless i stick my head into their tank i do not have a problem. You do not need to switch to rats, just feed more mice. If you search the forum there are a few threads that show much much this amount of grams should eat in a sitting.... ect

Mice also give birth more often, so thats a plus. Once you have alot of snakes you'll need alot more space for rats than you would mice.

Well, this is my .02 on mice

[McAdry]

We breed both asf and noramal rats for our snakes feeding requirements. As for space Asf should really take up about the same amount of spance and get slightly larger then mice meaning you will need to feed less of them to each snake also they smell better. Normal rats don't take up all that much more space get much bigger again meaning you have to have less of them to feed your snakes so in the long run depending on how many snakes you own either are a better choice in my opionion. We have found mice to be more canablistic and have had no sucess rasining them as well as in my opinion they stink if you have one or fifty they smell bad. We have at any one time from 20 to 30 asf's and 30 or more rats and the smell and the sucessfull breeding is well worth it. I say if you can get your snakes to eat asf's or rats change over it's well worth it.

[Jay_Bunny]

I found cement mixing tubs that measure 26"X20"x6". (I'll have to double check) How many mice could live comfortably in a tub that size? How many rats? I'll be looking at the DIY threads and try and find out how to build a rack with these tubs.

[SatanicIntention]

In those cement mixing tubs, I've kept more than 50 per tub and they have done fine. Cleaned more often of course, but if housing is in shortage, then they do fine bunched together for awhile. I often get 200 mice at a time and feed off about 65-70 a week depending on the snakes' moods, who's in shed, etc. I have over 40 Ball Pythons now, if that helps.

Either mice or rats, the snakes do just fine. 50-60g of whatever is all they need per week, so if you do mice, then do 2 or 3, if you do rats, do one weaned to small/small a week. My adult females are on 4, maybe 5, mice a week, during breeding season(normally 3 a week) skipping a week here and there and they are BULKY. Can't even get a hand around them.

I also have 2 tubs of 1.5-1.7 breeding mice and they produce regularly. The females get rotated every 4-5 litters or if they are looking ragged.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

A rat rack will not take much more space than a mice rack, both are the best way you can keep your colony if you don't have much space available to you.

Here are the PDF if you need help on breeding racks

http://stewartreptiles.com/Articles/...eding_Rack.pdf

http://stewartreptiles.com/Articles/...eding_Rack.pdf

I breed both since I have a need for both, I do not really calculate how much I pay each months for food and bedding, I write down all my cost each year and than divide by the number of feeders produced so I know how much a feeder cost me to produce.

Last year each feeder cost me $0.37 cents to produce (This of course does not include the price of the rack which I consider fix cost)

[Jay_Bunny]

I suppose I'll stick with mice for now and start breeding rats when I have more snakes. I only have 3 producing female mice right now and I want to build a rack to make more room since the tanks and tubs are taking up a lot of room. So, with mice, a 1.5 would be ok for tubs that size? I don't like to overcrowd and since they will be living in the tubs their whole lives I want to make sure they are not being crowded.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

a 1.5 would be ok for tubs that size?

Not it would be overcrowded and lead to cannibalism of the babies (If you refer to my tubs)

I keep 2 females in each tub.

[Jay_Bunny]

Not it would be overcrowded and lead to cannibalism of the babies (If you refer to my tubs)

I keep 2 females in each tub.

Whoops. Meant the cement mixing tub I found at Lowes. I'm checking your rodent racks out now.