Very thoughtful post, I've been a rodent breeder for many years (rats, mice, hamsters) mostly for myself (I used to have way more snakes than I do
currently & bred some, but also worked with local rescue/re-locations), & long before all that I actually had pet rats (while in college)...so I can relate. For
a while (some years back w/ max # of snakes too) I did rodents as a side business & they fully supported my snakes, but yeah, it's a LOT OF WORK.