Buying breeding stock questions

[barbie.dragon]

So there is a guy that breeds feeder rats (as a business) and I was interested in obtaining rats from the guy to start my own colony.
Should I just buy live rats from him (as feeders) or let him know that I am interested in obtaining breeding stock?

[Southern_Breeder]

You can let him know what your doing but Id put money on it that he sends you 95% males still.
Breeders dont tend to sell their females.

[dillan2020]

His feeding stock and breeding stock are probably one in the same. but I bet if you told him you wanted to breed yourself the breeders he would sell you would be higher in price. So I would just buy extra feeders and keep the ones you like.

[xbikez]

Agree with dillan2020

[barbie.dragon]

Do you think they'll more likely to sell me females if they were not breeding size? Or is it a thing for everyone to just sell males?

[Melody]

The place were I get my rats from doesn't sell their breeder females. They do however have separate bins where their feeders are sold in small, medium, and large. Some of which do contain females but it just depends. I just bought a smaller pregnant female I fished out of the feeder three days ago so it doesn't hurt to try your luck, you just have to be able to spot them out

[decensored]

Usually they sell any live rats as males, and Cull the females to avoid people breeding their own. I'd talk to the breeder and tell him that you are interested in starting a few colonies. It may cost you a little more to buy females but otherwise I can almost guarantee that you will get males. Unless you buy a bunch of weaned, weaned are usually mixed sexes.

[barbie.dragon]

Yeah I went to a reptile store today and they only had males... I guess I should find a private breeder...............

[MootWorm]

You could always toss an ad up on craigslist. I've had pretty good success with that. The only bump I've hit is one female had to be put down a month after I got her. But she was free, so I didn't take a loss.

[satomi325]

Ive gotten a few fancy feeder females from East Bay Vivarium that I held back to add to my colony.
They let me pick out my own feeders and I just fed off what I didn't want. The cool looking girls were saved.

They do have fancy rats specifically labeled for pets, but are $6-12.

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