Surprise preggo rat, oh what to do?

[lusciousdragon]

I bought some small size feeder rats to feed to my 2 year old ball. I give her 1 rat per week. I bought numerous ones all at once because it is a long drive to the only pet store that sells live and I haven't been able to get her to eat frozen yet. They have a nice tank with screen lid and I have given them a comfortable life in that time period, except that they are simply terrified of me. Poor things . I have had pet rats back when I was a teenager and just adored them. That has been over 10 years since then.
So today I get down to my last rat from the group. I grab her out of the tank telling her how sorry I am. I've known this rat for weeks. Then I see that her stomach is way big! Oh no, got a pregnant girl. Stood there in shock for a second, she tried to bite me which startled me, so I dropped her on accident. Then caught her back up and put her back. She looks fine and uninjured. Gave the ball a couple of mice that are for the baby balls I have.
So now I have this pregnant mama and I just can't see feeding her to my ball in this condition. My husband will soooo not let me keep any rats beyond these that we picked up thinking this would work best in not having to make the long drive once a week. We have since decided not to do that, and just make the drive once a week or switch my girl over to F/T. He complains about the stink from the rats/mice as it is. I clean out the cage every few days.
So anyway, I just didn't know what to do and have to decide. So I thought I'd voice it here.
What I was thinking, is maybe let mom have the babies and maybe keep one as a pet? I doubt my husband would notice. But then I'd have to feed the rest of them to the snakes still. The babies to the baby balls and mom back to the big ball. I wonder if I'd be able to do that or not. I live by "ahimsa" which means nonharming. I am finding it difficult to not harm things when I have to feed things to other things. I understand that they have to eat, no problem there, circle of life and all. But having them grow up and take care of them then become attached to them feels different.
Do any of you that breed the rats/mice ever have a hard time letting them go when the time comes? Do you ever get attached?

[PghBall]

To tell you the truth, I bought my rats for the purpose of breeding and feeding to my snakes. I never got attached to them as pets and therefore, it doesn't bother me to feed them off, even the little hoppers. I look at it as nature and a necessary evil.

[steveboos]

I used to breed rats for about 5 months, the work load was just too much for me and i only had 6 snakes. I am one who has no issue feeding off rats or mice or anything for that matter. I did have some rats that were strictly pets, NEVER TO BE FED OFF. Those i always played with and socialized with, but others were strictly feeders, also some of them were pretty mean too and had bitten me numerous times, so i really didn't care.

I can understand you not wanting to harm the rats, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I remember i sold off about 7 or 8 of my adult rats to a gentleman for his Retics and i didn't realize it until i was taking them out of the tub that half or more of the girls were pregnant with huge babies. I was shocked and felt bad for the babies, but it's only going to be more nutrition for the snakes that eat them and i could not take care of the 20 or 30 babies that were coming out.

In your situation, i would feed off the female before you have babies, but if she is small and this is her first litter, she might only have 2 or 3 and heck she might even eat them, which is fairly common. Then again she might be like one of my females who had 13 her first litter. Either way you would have to take care of the female more since she will eat more and drink almost 3 times as much and you will have to feed off the babies ASAP before they get old enough and start impregnating each other, then you have a real mess on your hands.

[suzuki4life]

If you want to breed sounds like you have a willing female. If not, let her nurse her young a bit and use them for your smaller snakes. THEN once they are gone or weaned, feed mom to a snake.

I don't normally get attached. I do respect certain traits and genetics and try to save them whenever possible. I have produced manx and striped rats. These rats did not stay with me. They were found homes elsewhere to be cared for. A good adage is: a diamond to me belongs on a saw blade. But the Hope diamond belongs in a museum.