Is it worth it?

[Snake_Tooth]

At this point in time, I have a miniature collection of ball pythons going, 7 in total. And my dad has recently put a down payment on another In the beginning, paying for rats was not too bad because I started off with only feeding two, but now prices seem to be going up, and my question is: is breeding rats worth the money saved by not buying packs of frozen rats???

[arialmt]

This should help. I got it from another thread.

http://www.metalmonkeyexotics.com/blog/?page_id=331

[sorraia]

I think it depends on what you consider "worth it". For me personally... it isn't worth it. Granted I only have 2 balls right now (soon to be adding 2 more), but I also just got out of breeding rats. You have to consider everything your breeding colony of rats would require, not just in money, but time as well. You'll need a place to put them, even a breeding rack takes up space. You need to keep them clean or they will stink and their health will suffer for it. You need to keep them fed and watered, if you use an automatic watering system you'll have to make sure it remains functioning properly so your rats neither drown nor run out of water. Not trying to discourage you, just some things to consider when determining if it is "worth it". For me personally, it isn't "worth it" right now, I personally would not want to deal with it. But someone else may feel very different (especially if they have a large number of snakes to feed!).

[PitOnTheProwl]

with 33ish snakes and some pac-man frogs it has been more than worth it for me.
I feed all mine live BUT I freeze off my extras and sell them off.

[Mike41793]

I only have 8 snakes. If i had the space id breed my own.

[Quantum Constrictors]

With 10 soon to be 11 snakes I found my self wondering the same thing.

So I got the prices of the LPS in my area and compared them to breeders prices. Only crappy thing is there are no rat breeders in my area so I would have had to pay shipping as well.

Turns out I would be paying about $150 a month for the 11 ball pythons.

So I calculated the cost of 12 rats, rat rack, food and bedding.

12 rats cost me $30

rat rack with water system cost me $170

Food cost me $25

Bedding cost me $12

So to get started cost me $237

That included about the first month of bedding and food.

So now that I have rats and rack I can subtract that from my months fees so now all I have to pay for is bedding and food.

Bedding is $12 a month plus food which is $25.

so $37 a month to keep the rats going.

$37 a month compared to $150. I am saving $113 a month now. Which means in savings that whole rat set up will pay its self off in 2 months.

Even better is that if I produce more rats then I need I can sell that over stock as pets at $5 each and make money.

[DooLittle]

We breed our own. For us, live rats for 9 snakes would be very expensive. A bag of Mazuri is like $25 and lasts quite awhile. Plus every now and them we sell a few cute dumbo rats, that pay for the mag of Mazuri. So essentially, our snakes eat for free, but for labor cleaning...

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[dragonboy4578]

I have just under 40 snakes right now. I feed everything from large rats to pinky mice. While I would save some money breeding my own food I just don't feel it is worth my time. I really don't want to take care of a bunch of rodents. I just find it easier to buy what I need.

[Mike41793]

but for labor cleaning...

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Thats what kids are for! Hop to it lil doolil! Lmao

[I-KandyReptiles]

I only have 5 snakes, but I also enjoy my rodents.

So while it WOULD probably be cheaper to just buy, I find breeding so exciting so I do it