Frozen Vs. Live Mice

[Lady]

My mice stunk to high heavens too so I just put it in a good sized plastic container and put a bunch of holes in it, that way it only stinks when you open it.

I have them in a container, with the lid propped open on one side.
It still smells very bad, ESPECIALLY when I open it to give them food/ change the water.

[CushtaMinge89]

Ugh... Yeah after you use up the ones you have, try switching over to small rats, that's what I'm doing too. Rats don't smell at all, I used to have them as pets a while ago. And wicked easy to take care of, the short time you'll spend with them haha.

[Daybreaker]

Oh okay.
I didn't mean to seem inhumane.
(I though that's how you froze them, my bad. My roommate complains about the smell mostly, but then she complains about how cruel it is to have frozen ones, and then she complains about feeding him live ones because they are alive. I can't wait until I move out she's a pain hahaha)
And something in me would rather feed him live.
Getting rats sounds like a plain though.
Do they breed on their own if you get a boy and a girl?
Or is their a plan to it?

~ Lady

Most use CO2 to gas the rats, then once they pass then you put them in the freezer.

For f/t in the freezer, maybe you could get a little plastic opaque tub to put feeders in so they're away and not touching the human food? But there's nothing wrong to feed live: just supervise the feeding and don't leave a feeder in with the snake if it's older than a rat/mouse fuzz. Like Gerardo said if it's convenient for you and your only snake I would pick up a feeder on feeding day and offer it. If the snake refuses you can euthanize the rat and freeze it for next feeding time or maybe even return it to the store.

I'm no expert at rat breeding since we only just started out, so I would check out the Feeders forums about rat breeding: there's many good threads there to get you started.

[Gerardo]

Well technically yes all you need is a boy and a girl rat to start breeding them but if you only have 1 snake then he/she will not be able to keep up with the rats. You will have way more rats then your snake can eat.

[Lady]

Ugh... Yeah after you use up the ones you have, try switching over to small rats, that's what I'm doing too. Rats don't smell at all, I used to have them as pets a while ago. And wicked easy to take care of, the short time you'll spend with them haha.

Yeah.
I'm going to make the switch as well.

[Lady]

Well technically yes all you need is a boy and a girl rat to start breeding them but if you only have 1 snake then he/she will not be able to keep up with the rats. You will have way more rats then your snake can eat.

Oh ok
Well for now I'll just buy them then.
And make sure they are all one gender haha

[Gerardo]

I read somewhere that if you have less than ten snakes then breeding your own rodents isnt really too convinient.

[Lady]

I read somewhere that if you have less than ten snakes then breeding your own rodents isnt really too convinient.

Ah. Makes sense

[CushtaMinge89]

Yeah, you'll end up with things of the little furry creatures unless you have it in with a local pets tore that'll buy em off ya, but still..

[Gerardo]

Yea rats grow FAST so you would quickly be overrun by rodents