Cheap set-up

[quercus]

I was thinking about breeding rats for a short time to get a stock pile in the freezer. Possibly breed rats for a few months out of the year, just enough to feed one BP. Once my freezer has enough to last me for a few months I would cease breeding the rats until my supply ran low and then restart breeding again when needed.

A few questions: Does this seem like a good idea? Rats at the local pet store are expensive. $9.00 for large and $7.00 for med. Frozen from petsmart are even more about $12.00 for two small frozen rats. With these prices, food and bedding should be a little cheaper than buying feeders from a pet store. As mentioned, I only have one snake at the moment.

If breeding seems like the more logical thing to do, what is a cheap one colony set up going to be like. Would a ten gallon aquarium suffice or is that too small? I can buy a storage tub if need be. Breeding then freezing for one snake seems laborious, but with my local prices I can't see paying that much for rats.

[Jay_Bunny]

I wouldn't use a 10g tank for a few reasons. A: Ammonia buildup in tanks is horrible for rats. B: A 10g tank would only hold a single female and even then, once she starts having babies and those babies start running around the tank, there isn't much room for them. I would get a big tub and use the DIY guides on this site to make a rat tub out of it, using the wire mesh. Better ventilation and you have the option of having more room for momma rat and her offspring.

If you breed rats, the gestation is roughly 3 weeks, you wean babies at about 4 weeks, and then you want to give momma some time off (2 weeks or so). You don't HAVE to, but it is good for her if you plan to keep her for breeding long term. So one female should give you 1 litter every 2 months or so. An average litter has about 8 babies in it (if you are being conservative. I had a female drop over 18 babies in a single litter, though she was a bad mother and not many survived) So you estimate about 8 babies every 2 months(ish).

Tubs are cheap to make and provide better ventilation. I'd stick with those. Those prices really are outrageous. I can get a medium rat here for a little under $4.

[Denial]

invest in a rack system. You can build one for under 150 especially if you only make it about 4 levels high. You can also get them pretty cheap. Boamaster has 7 level racks for 300 with water and everything already hooked up. Saw some in person last weekend and they looked great.

[snakesRkewl]

These racks each cost less than $60 in materials to build, cages and tanks suck for breeding in...

[SlitherinSisters]

Your plan sounds like a lot of work. You'll need to make a CO2 chamber to kill off all the rats before you freeze them. And if you only freeze one size you'll eventually have to start feeding multiple prey items to keep up with your BP's growth. Besides all that, if you only breed the rats while you need them and let them sit for, say a year or so, you're probably going to have to replace your breeders because they get old and stop producing.

I think the best plan for you would be to get more snakes and breed rats year round

Here is something really simple I made to hold my breeders/juveniles. You don't have to build anything and the basket things are to hold food. It works, but makes a mess under the tubs with dust and small bits of food. You can easily hook up water bottles rather than a watering system. I'm getting rid of these and moving to only racks, but I've been using them for three years.

[jasbus]

Short answer:

NO.

You will not save money by breeding your own for only one snake. Find a breeder, buy direct, save money, save yourself a huge headache. Most breeders will sell you a dozen frozen for next to nothing. Figure a dozen is roughly a three month supply. $30-40 a dozen times 4 times a year equals $120 roughly.
Or, $10-$15 a month. You can beat that. Even if you have to drive 50 or 100 miles to a breeder, just buy a six month supply....
Now, if you enjoy breeding, then by all means, do it, but you will not save money...

[snakesRkewl]

Stephanie said it best:
The only thing to do is buy more snakes to justify the rat breeding

[jasbus]

Stephanie said it best:
The only thing to do is buy more snakes to justify the rat breeding