Good Deal or ridiculous??

[KRK Exotics]

An ad on craigslist near me. What do you think good deal or hes getting the best of it???:

My offer is this, You pay for the feed and beding and I'll do the all the work and cover the equipment costs (racks, water bottles, etc.) and we both have all the feeders we need. It would be more ideal if you were a frozen thawed feeder because it would be easier that way but we could work something out. My current operation is 6 females and 2 males but that is easily expanded to whatever # is needed. I feed a 50/50 mix of Lab block and (non red dye) dog food and use pine bedding. I already have the rats and the one rack

Lab Block = $35 (im working on that)
Dog food = $12
Pine bedding = $15
Total $62 and that lasts 8 weeks or so

So for about $30 bucks a month or so you get quality feeders. If you have more then one snake eating a small or medium a week your already saving. The end $ amount would depend on how many feeders you need and how many breeders we would have to have.

Let me know what you think

[suzuki4life]

personally if you go through that much food in 8 weeks you are something very wrong with only 8 rats....

[Michelle.C]

One 30lb bag of lab block lasts my ten rats around 2 months. I just freeze the other half of lab block that I'm not using.

Seems like you'd be putting a lot of trust in someones honesty and abilities. Personally, I'd breed myself or order frozen on-line.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I know prices vary however I can tell you that with 3.72 breeders I spend about $120 a month.

So with the number of rats you have I cannot see you spending that much for 8 of them even for 2 months.

[suzuki4life]

I know prices vary however I can tell you that with 3.72 breeders I spend about $120 a month.

So with the number of rats you have I cannot see you spending that much for 8 of them even for 2 months.

you run 3 males to 72 females? If so, poor males. work work work.

[mr. s]

you run 3 males to 72 females? If so, poor males. work work work.

That's pretty much the story of my life!

[Stewart_Reptiles]

you run 3 males to 72 females? If so, poor males. work work work.

Males don't have more than 9 females each at all time, it's all about the rotation

I have 3 extra large tubs in use at this time for breeding and put 9 females in rotation each week (3 per tubs), pregnant females are also removed as needed hence why here is never more than 9 females in each tub with 1 male.

To produce a minimum of 100 rats weekly (calculating an average of 10 babies/ females) without interruption it takes 72 females and a precise rotation.

Hope that clarifies the numbers a little.

[suzuki4life]

so you have a total of 75 rats?


I run 1.8,6 tubs per, no nursing racks,over 20 racks currently
I also have smaller racks 1.4, 6 tubs, over 30 racks still in use.

I have always understood the idea of nursing racks and rotation and its great for small scale stuff. But if you figure the space your are taking up with a nursing rack plus the loss of litter potential with the cool down times, plus the man hours involved. It doesn't make sense on a large scale unless you are aiming to offer larger rats quicker. I only offer pink to small sizes.

I have tried it, doesn't pan out for my application needs.

[tomfromtheshade]

This is the rotation.

You need eight groups of breeding rats. Eight is the magic number.

Try not to run more than 1.7 per group. If the male has to nail more than one per day he can miss one over the course of the week. Getting them all nailed on the first heat is essential.

Put the male and females in the first group together on day one.

Put the male and the females in the second group together on day eight.

So on and so forth until you are putting the groups together, one group per week for eight weeks.

Now, as the females from the first group get pregnant you move them to birthing tubs.

Under this cycle you will be betting one group of 28 day old babies every week.

If you want a constant production of babies THIS is the method to ensure that it happens.

This is how I run things, but then again, I am now producing fancy rats more so than feeders.