New System

[tomfromtheshade]

I have been learning a lot from you large scale breeders and I have been trying to perfect a system that allows me to raise the maximum number of animals from pinks to weaners.

So, I am in the process of designing my rodent building. Keep in mind that I raise rats for a little different reason than some of you guys. I raise rats to keep my burms and boas well fed AND to offer high quality fancy rats to (what I hope will be) every non-chain pet store in a 20 mile radius.

I am building new racks out of the large mortar tubs from Home Depot. They are five levels and each level will hold 1.7 rats for a total of 5.35 rats in total per breeding rack.

My new nursing racks are the 20"x15"x5" bus tubs. They are 7 levels high for a total of 7 tubs per rack. I am building 5 nursing racks for every breeding rack. This will allow every female to raise her litter undisturbed.

At 3 weeks the male weaners are removed from the nursing tubs. Holdback males are placed in a yet to be designed rack and the rest of the male weaners are sold off to local pet stores as feeders or fancies.

The female weaners will now have at least another 21 days to grow and develop in the nursing tub while their mother is back in the breeding rack being bred back. During this time I will be able to observe them and carefully choose which animals I want to hold back. I will be able to observe the female pups until the are about 7-8 weeks old before I have to make any decisions about who I am selling and who I am keeping.

At 7 weeks old the females will be grouped into their own breeding racks where they will continue to grow until 16 weeks of age when the male will be introduced.

I know that this system seems a little intense and maybe impractical, but this allows me to hold back females without having to dedicate any grow out tubs.

This is just a quick overview. I know that this wouldn't work for you large scale guys, but I anticipate producing about 3500 animals per month with this set up in my new building.

This will be enough for me to feed all of my snakes, supply feeders to all of my local snake owning friends, and have enough really awesome stock to supply every pet store in a 20 miles radius.

I have gotten pretty lucky in my rat breeding so far. I just opened a nursing rack tonight to check on some newer babies to find that I have my first BLUES! They're het for dumbo and I am hoping to have a good colony or two or three of blue dumbos going.

My manx rex dumbo project is coming along nicely and would really look great with a shade of blue in there!

Its late. I just wanted to share my updates with everyone.

[suzuki4life]

rodent breeding is super fun.....once you clean, feed and water them...

then you get to deal with guys backing out on orders, not having money for orders and expecting you to give them credit, too many or not enough animals for demand, ever increasing food bills and searching for cheaper supplies(constantly) disposal of waste costs, taxes, licensing etc etc etc....


trust me, its fun.

[tomfromtheshade]

rodent breeding is super fun.....once you clean, feed and water them...

then you get to deal with guys backing out on orders, not having money for orders and expecting you to give them credit, too many or not enough animals for demand, ever increasing food bills and searching for cheaper supplies(constantly) disposal of waste costs, taxes, licensing etc etc etc....


trust me, its fun.

Man, you know that there ain't nothing else to do in that town. LMAO! You're probably the coolest guy in town with the rats and the bikes LOL.

As much friggin' work as it is I am having fun with it. Because I enjoy it, its not like work to me. I'm taking a little different angle than you man. I'm just trying to make a little pocket money above what it costs me, feed my burms and boas for free, and see what kind of crazy designer rats I can make along the way.