Small Rat Breeding Setups

[littleindiangirl]

Small rat breeding setup


This method is ONLY good for a snake that eats FT.

This method is not for snakes that only eat LIVE feeder rats

You want to breed your own feeders, you have 1 snake, but you don’t want to be over run with rats either.

If you have 1 snake, I still recommend either buying bulk F/T from online suppliers. This is not only economical, but saves you a lot of time, smell and frustration. Breeding rats is costly. Please look at Lord Jackels review “Should I breed, how many to breed?” and it shows very clearly that breeding rats is only saving you money when you own many snakes.

5 snakes means 5 rats per week * 26 weeks (6 months) = 130 rats
To buy at the pet store = 130 rats * $4 = $520 (avg.)
To buy F/T from a .com = 130 rats * $0.92 = $120 (avg.)
($0.69 each rat + $0.23 ) ($0.23 is what is costs to ship each rat total = $30)

To breed = $146
I assumed 12 breeder females (to produce 10 feeders per week) and 2 males * $4 = $56 + Monthly Food/Bedding = $15 * 6 month = $90 (and you have to buy/build housing for all of them = $??)

Take this to a year: 260 rats
Buy F/T = $192 (since you could buy the whole year at once the per rat cost goes down)
To Breed = $236 (getting closer but still not worth it)

If you still insist on breeding your own feeders because your snake eats F/T readily, then this is going to be much easier! If your snake only eats live, I do not recommend this.

• Minimum Rat Breeding Group

At the very minimum, I recommend buying 4 young rats. 2 males, 2 females. They MUST be separated by sex!!!

٭Rats are social animals and need to have a partner at all times! If you remove each animal by themselves, they can quickly take a down turn in health. Rats do appear to suffer negative effects when not with a partner. For their physical and mental health, they need to be with other rats.

With this set up, you can use either a rack or tubs given they are big enough for adult rats to live in comfortably.

You’ll need at least 5 different spaces for these animals.

Housing:
2 tubs for the nursing mothers
1 large tub or cage for the males while not breeding females
2 tubs for any weaners that you need to grow up to a larger size
CO2 Chamber ( I do NOT recommend any other form of euthanasia)

Bedding: Pine pellets ($6 for 40 lbs) or Aspen shavings ($12 for 4 cubic feet) for nursing mothers
Food: Mazuri 6F ($25 for 50 lbs) or Harlan 2016 or 2018 for nursing mothers

If you plan on just feeding weaners, you can CO2 the animal at 4 weeks of age. They should weigh anywhere from 60-80 grams avg. This means you do not need the 2 holding tubs.

• Breeding Process

Once the females reach 5 months of age, or 250+ grams, they are old enough and big enough to breed with minimal risk. If you’ve taken the time to buy young rats and socialized them, you’ll have a much easier time dealing with the mothers and her young when cleaning or moving.



Day 1 - Pair up one male and one female into each tub. Both females are being bred at the same time.

Week 1 (day 7)- Check on the little love birds!
Week 2 (day 14)- Is momma getting big yet?
Week 3 (day 21)- After the 3 weeks, you will remove the males from the tubs and put them into one large tub/cage to keep each other company.

Week 4- Both mothers should be given plenty of nesting material. Shredded aspen works very well. They should have their litters during this 4th week.

Week 8- After 4 more weeks, the pups will be weaners and need to be removed from the mothers by sex to grow up, or be euthanized with CO2.


With this process, your 2 females will have anywhere from 9-16 pups average. You can CO2 the litter, and you’ll have 18-32 weeks worth of food in your freezer for 1 snake etc.

• Prepare ahead of time and give yourself at least 2 months in advance to produce more weaners.

Hope this helps those of you willing to pay for quality. This is still more costly than buying bulk F/T or from the pet shop, especially in initial setup cost, but it does guarantee quality food for your snake.