aldebono- I totally see your points, and I will say that most most of the posts on those forums that diss feeder breeders also claim that the animals environments were nasty / smelly and that the animals didn't have anything to "play with" in their tubs... i.e. chew toys, houses, etc. I don't know if they would have the same comments for a feeder breeder that provided clean cages and did give the rats some mental stimulation.

I also agree that you have advantages over pet only breeders. Like you said, being able to "do something" with the undesirable rats that is useful rather than hold onto them forever is a very big advantage.

I am not sure what I'll do in the future, but I'm sure that I'll try breeding a litter or two for feeders and to select good pets at some point. As I like both snakes and rats it seems like a natural combination to me.

As I don't have a lot of snakes (currently 3, planning on topping out at 8 at most), I think I could breed on a small scale that would allow me to keep the rats in enclosures similar to what pet rats are kept in and spend time with them, etc.

I really admire those of you that do keep lots of rodents in quality conditions... It's not easy task to keep my guys not smelling, etc. and I can't imagine doing that with, like, 50+ rodents.