Newbie questions

[zoomin31]

So I am gonna start breeding rats and have a few questions. I did try searching and was just a bit overwhelmed. I have twelve ball pythons right now most are in the 300 to 500 gram weight. I recently bought a 5 tub rat rack I haven't picked it up yet though. My questions are were is a good place to start looking for good quality rat? Do I need to try and buy several breeding groups from different people to avoid inbreeding? What would be a good number of rats for each tub 1.4-1.5? Would a couple of 40 gallon breeder tanks make good area to separate males from females while growing and to keep the population at bay? What is a good quality rat to try and aquire? And is that one rack plenty for the amount of snakes i currently have? sorry for the newb questions and thanks for any help that is offered.

[monk90222]

I think you are off to a great start. 5 tubs would be sufficient for the amount of snakes you have currently. I would use a 1.4 set up.
You will only really need about 12 wean or small rats a week, so be careful with over producing and getting overrun. You have to stagger your breedings to have two litters a week, I would keep only 2 males and about 10 females total. Leave one male in each of the top 2 tubs, then cycle females through weekly (when you clean) until they are visibly preggo. Then put the preggo girls in another tub to let them have their litter and not get preggo right away.
After a few mos of production, you have to think about holding back some girls for future breeders. Choose girls from mothers that had big litters and were giid mothers.
To establish my colony, I found a rat breeder that was willing to sell me a bunch of live small female rats. I then went to area pet stores and picked up some fancy male rats. I do that for genetic diversity. Also I buy smalls so I can have them on lab grade Mazuri food for a while before they breed for me.

Good luck and I hope my ramblings help.