Little food question.

[BallPythonGuy007]

So I've been driving back and forth to the pet store, which is a good 25 minutes away, for about 9 months. This sucks. So I was thinking maybe I can breed rats or something because only one of my snakes eats live. If I breed one time that's like 5+ rats, or 5+ weeks of food. Question is, what does it take? What about gestation period, time it takes babies to get large enough, etc.? And another thing, is it faster with gerbils, or hamsters, or even Guinea pigs? Please don't hate on me because it was just a question.

[CptJack]

Here is your problem with breeding food for live feeders.

They grow. It takes 3 weeks for them to gestate, how big it takes them to get to size depends on what size you need, and then they keep growing the four (six, seven, ten, however many babies) weeks between the first meal and the last one. If you're feeding, for instance, pups now that first pup will be ready at 2-3 weeks. Unfortunately, the fourth will then be bigger than your snake can handle. If you end up with a larger litter and don't cull down, the ninth and tenth will certainly be. If you're feeding larger rats, you'll have longer to wait and unless you're feeding VERY large rats now, they're still going to outgrow your snake. Then there's the gap for gestation and growth where they're too SMALL and you have to go out and buy more food, anyway.

This is why most people who breed rodents for their snakes have multiple snakes and multiple litters, or pre-kill and freeze themselves. The practicals don't work for a single snake. You're either going to end up with more rats than you can feed when they're the right size, or with 6 weeks or so gap of having to go to the petstore anyway, with a week or two of 'in house' food. Or, realistically, both. Too many rats AND going to the petstore to buy food for 6 out of 8 or so weeks anyway.

No, nothing else is going to be any faster, and they probably will be more expensive. You might do better with mice, but only in as much as they won't outgrow your snake and you can feed multiples. Downside? You have to wait for them to get to size and that's still a good 6 weeks or so.

[BallPythonGuy007]

I understand completely and that's why I was wondering because if it was too fast or too slow it wouldn't work and many other aspects so thank you. I think I'll just buy 4 rats in varying sizes and keep them to reduce the trips

[Spikeanoid]

I tried breeding a couple of times. It sucked. Cleaning up after reptiles is not so bad since you care about them, but add rodent care into the equation and its a mess. Now you have to worry about what goes into your snakes food - if your rodents are malnourished your snakes will eat that malnourished rat. I've long since switched to f/t and buy in bulk since I live 1 hr from the pet store.

[CptJack]

Yeah. I honestly think you have to legitimately like the rodents and rodent care to be able to make it at all worthwhile for any but the biggest snake keepers; the pain in the ass factor is high.

I wouldn't mind having and breeding mice or rats and having the snakes eat the culled babies from litters/the breeding program, but I'd never be able to do it as the sole means of feeding my snakes. I just don't have enough snakes to make it worthwhile, and I don't really want to breed on any kind of scale or regularity. I just happen to like rodents along with reptiles.

[Paul's Pieds]

the previous time i kept reptiles i had about 40 pythons and a few other snakes and about 20 lizards. feeding purchased food would have been so expensive. so i bred my own. i had the space to do it. so i would like to point out the other side of the argument, the pros. feeding them is cheap, i used to buy bags of pig feed for £6 ($10) for 25 kilo (55lb) and supplement it with leftovers. occasionally a bag of carrots or apples, horse feed quality, helps the rat diet no end. if your breeding colony is big enough you will always have the right size. I made about £100 ($155) a month selling my excess rodents to the pet shops. this more than covered the cost of the rat feed. Another method is having a 'dustbin' pet. For me it was my group of tegus. No rat is too big for an adult tegu, but if you have a boa, a brum etc they will eat your large ones.

hope that balances things