Here's my pennies...based on what seems like a more-than-casual inquiry about huge-scale rodent breeding of both rats and mice. These are questions that must be considered along with how many racks to build.

What size building(s) do you have for breeding on this scale? Are the buildings well ventilated? Do they have running water? Do they have sinks and room for cleaning tubs?


-I have explored several options and I have found a location who will rent to me and they are 4 miles from my house. The location comes in two sizes at a very reasonable price for 650 sqft or 1300 sqft, I haven't decided what we'd get yet. They have sinks, water, swamp cooler, and electric and ventilation. This is who we will probably go with unless we just buy a property and build our own facility. We would like to do a test run renting first for about a year first



Do you have the skills necessary to build sturdy racks? To build watering systems? To maintain them? Or will you have to hire that work out?

-My boyfriend is an engineer and I'm pretty handy. I've built a couple racks already and I just had about 40 shipping crates delivered that were used for iron gates so they're huge and have the perfect wood for racks :-)

What kind of capital do you have to start this business with? Do you have enough to run it without any income-generating stock for several months?

- We have one business generating about $1000.00 per month. We plan on using that to help start up our second business (rodent breeding). We also have money saved up and are looking to have at least 12 months of rent saved before we jump into a lease. We also want all the racks built and ready to go.

How much time per day do you have to devote to cleaning, sorting, cleaning, feeding, cleaning, watering, cleaning, killing, cleaning, packaging and shipping your stock? Do you have anyone to help you? Will you hire help?

-I am an entrepreneur and I run my first business, which only takes me 30 minutes a day to do. I have plenty of time to be at the facility and had planned to spend 8+ hours a day at the facility if needs be and clean 6 days a week (I'm segmenting the facility into 6 parts so that I can clean one part a day and the facility gets cleaned once a week with the exception of mice and asf's which get cleaned multiple times a week) I'll also be going in on the 7th day and do a double check on everything. I also have a gas chamber with a large size (3 ft) CO2 canister with a valve.

Have you run any numbers at all to find out how much monthly overhead you will need to be able to cover...including the months before you produce marketable stock? Rent for buildings? Utilities? Bedding? Food?

-The swamp cooler is piratically free to run (about 40 a month in summer), we have our rent down, and we're speaking to several companies about ordering several tons of food and bedding per month/every couple months to get a good discount. Once I figure out how many racks/rats I need to reach my monthly goals, I can calculate food costs with a decent amount of accuracy using my current rats.

Do you have a plan for disposing of used bedding and dead (unusable) rodents? I've seen some moderately large-scale breeding colonies, and they produce TONS of waste that must be disposed of somehow.

- We are looking into that as well. We are looking into if we can use their dumpster or if we have to rent our own.

Anyhow...that's just the tip of the iceberg...questions and concerns that spring immediately to mind that one should work on when considering a business of this nature and on this scale.

-Please, if you can keep the list of questions and concerns going, that would be GREAT!!! I am really looking for someone who has more experience than I with this to give me things to consider like that so that I can be prepared!

As others have suggested, I would also suggest starting SMALL and getting a feel for it before investing heavily. Also, you might try to visit a large rodent breeding facility (if you haven't already) to get an idea of the tremendous amount of work and logistical concerns are actually involved.

- I have been breeding small scale for about a year now. I have watched several videos but I don't know of any large scale facilities in the area (I have also spoke to several snake breeders in the area who said there were none in the area so he has to order from another state). Personally I enjoy the rodents and have had fun the last year with my rodents :-)

Please let me know of other things I should be thinking of and any videos, articles, etc I should look at. Thanks!!! :-)