To Breed or Not to Breed, That Is the Question

[DPBallPythons]

I used to breed rats, but I stopped for one reason: the smell.

You must have some kind of ventilation, because it will stink up the place. I didn't mind the cleaning at all. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit I've heard that ASF doesn't smell, might look into that.

[Schaub]

I used to breed rats, but I stopped for one reason: the smell.

You must have some kind of ventilation, because it will stink up the place. I didn't mind the cleaning at all. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit I've heard that ASF doesn't smell, might look into that.

ASF's smell. I promise. From what I hear, its not AS bad as rats, but I don't know first hand. They still need ventilation and cleaning once a week.

[BPGuy]

Thank you for responding. It appears that the consensus is that, for my particular situation, breeding rats will be more of a pain than it is worth.

About two weeks ago, I bought three rats (one for each of my BPs). What I didn't realize is that one of the BPs was in shed. Of course, he wasn't interested in eating that day so I was "stuck" with the unused (uneaten) rat. We had an extra 10 gallon aquarium in the house so I washed it out, put some paper towels in it, and added the rat to it. It definitely was stinky even though I changed the paper towels daily. A few days ago (Sunday), I replaced the paper towels with wood shavings, which has helped immensely with the smell. I haven't done anything to clean the tank since Sunday, and still no smell. My wife is strongly opposed to me breeding rats and was mildy upset with me Sunday when I bought each of the BPs a new rat for dinner (instead of buying two and using the one left over from last week). Although my youngest son wants to keep the "extra" rat as a pet, I don't know how long that will last. So, for the time being, I'm not breeding them, but I am keeping one rat.