feeding issue

[Gerardo]

I have 4 BPs and they eat just fine. The problem is finding the.right sized food for them. I only have 1 petstore to get LIVE rodents from. The thing is they are not consistent. Sometimes i have to buy up to 10 mice because they are out of rats. My question is can i produce my own rats without having too much for thesnakes to eat?

[Skilla6000]

You could always just buy a breeding group of say 1.6 for a start or get 2 breeding groups of 1.3, if all your snakes are different sized I would suggest getting 2 females per snake. So you could buy 4 1.2 groups.


now what would you do with that? If your snakes are all different seized you would want to introduce the groups at different times so as baby's are getting weaned you have more pinkies keep doing that and you should be good. Now what I would do if I were you, I would buy a few extra rodents and produce a bbut more then you need and freeze them off and sell them, that way you ccould make se money back to pay for needing and food.


Now the big investment in this, are you wanting to buy a rack or get one made for you? This is goin to be a big sum of money to drop just in rodents... Or you could just go with tanks but they're a pain in the but when it comes to cleaning. Hope I helped you out sorry for any spelling mistakes I'm on my iPhone. Gotta go to doctors now if you have any other questions just ask here and ill e glad to help.

[KMG]

I'm curious why you feed live? I don't have a problem with it. I just personally find f/t easy and ordering feeders in bulk has really turned out as the best option for me.

One day I would like to breed feeders but do not currently have the room.

[Gerardo]

I feed live because to me its faster than waiting to thaw out rodents. And yea the snakes are different sizes.

[Kaorte]

I feed live because thawing rodents takes time, and if there is a refusal..they go in the trash. It seems like such a waste of life I hate throwing away uneaten rats.

Live is just easier for me. If a snake doesn't eat, the rat goes to someone else or back in the bin for next week. No meaningless loss of life!

As for breeding, I breed ASF so I can't really help you with the rats, but you could start with one female rat per snake for a while and see how that goes, then expand if you need to.

I'm in the process of expanding my rat breeding. 9 tubs- 4 breeding tubs, 4 tubs for creating new groups/grow-outs, and one grow out tub for the remainders.

The most annoying part about rats is cleaning though. I feel like I spend more time with the rats than I do with the snakes! Haha

[Gerardo]

Im going to seriously consider breeding rats. I wish tjere were more stores that sold rodents.

[Lesserlove]

I feed live because thawing rodents takes time, and if there is a refusal..they go in the trash. It seems like such a waste of life I hate throwing away uneaten rats.

Live is just easier for me. If a snake doesn't eat, the rat goes to someone else or back in the bin for next week. No meaningless loss of life!

As for breeding, I breed ASF so I can't really help you with the rats, but you could start with one female rat per snake for a while and see how that goes, then expand if you need to.

I'm in the process of expanding my rat breeding. 9 tubs- 4 breeding tubs, 4 tubs for creating new groups/grow-outs, and one grow out tub for the remainders.

The most annoying part about rats is cleaning though. I feel like I spend more time with the rats than I do with the snakes! Haha

Why do you choose breeding ASF over just common rats? Curiosity lol

[Kaorte]

Regular rats get really big. My boa could eat them, but only my boa, and I don't need a bunch of frozen XL rats.

ASF are the perfect size for all of the kinds of snakes I keep (sans the boa, who gets leftover small rats and the occasional jumbo frozen)

ASF have huge litters and breed back to back just fine.

They don't really smell that bad.


The only negatives I can come across are that they are mean when they have babies, and they really like to chew.

*oh and they are legal and plentiful in my area. I have no supply problems.

[Gerardo]

So would you recommend that that i breed ASF instead of rats? My biggest male is 1000 grams but my other 3 are way below that.

[Kaorte]

So would you recommend that that i breed ASF instead of rats? My biggest male is 1000 grams but my other 3 are way below that.

Its really just a personal choice. If you want to give asfs a shot no one will stop you! I personally like them but there are other people who think they are the devils spawn lol.

It just comes down to what works better for you. Also be aware that asfs are illegal in some areas so check your local laws.

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