Ok, I'm going to join the wide world and say "I've had it!" with breeding mice. They give me one, maybe two good litters then after that they either eat most of the babies or only drop two or three sporadically. And we're getting tired of cleaning every 3 days to keep the smell down.

So, I've been looking into rat breeding but must ask some questions of all you breeders out there first:

1- Here is a picture of my current mouse setup. That is all the space I have for rodents. Period. The space dimensions are 6'x2', racks are 22" long with the breeder tubs in sideways (tubs are about 26lx15wx10h)



I need to know if this is enough room for a small rat colony. Would I be able to keep, say, 1 male in his own tub, and 3 pairs of females two to a tub? How many rats should I have to feed 7 snakes (the baby corn is still too small for rat pinks)?

2- I currently have 8 snakes, 4 corns 4 BPs, of varying sizes(from an 8g corn to a 966+g BP). I believe the corns would switch to rats with little trouble, since they'll eat whatever rodent is dangled in front of them FT or PK, and the two adult het BPs were being fed PK rats before...but my normal and pastel BPs have never eaten rats or FT food before. What order should I take to see if they'll switch to FT rats? Should I get them on rats first then FT or FT then rats??

If switching doesn't work for the two BPs, and they refuse to have anything to do with rats, would it still be worth it to breed rats for the other two BPs and the corns?

In the end, I want to be totally 'self sufficient' with feeders and not have to go to the store each week to get supplemental food. Currently, since my mice aren't producing regularly and I have to give 2-3 adult mice to the female het BP alone, this is a regular thing and not very cost effective.

I eagerly welcome any and all ideas in this matter. Thanks!