Quote Originally Posted by mdb730 View Post
I'm friends with a commercial rat breeder and can tell you the "fancy" pet rats are bred for colors/pattern and features like dumbo ears or hairless in the same commercial breeder tubs the feeder rats are bred in. When they produce too many "fancy rats" and not enough "pet" rat orders the same expensive "fancy" rats are mixed in with my cheap feeder rat orders. At this facility rats are bred 6 to a tub with pregnant females put in maternity tubs to maximize production. All the weaned rats are placed in big grow out tubs, I understand almost all commercial breeders operate this way to produce enough to supply the reptiles industry, zoos, and falconers.
That's ultimately what it comes down to. Supply and demand.

You want a reliable, affordable source of meat for your snakes? Then "factory" rodents it is, because otherwise people are going to charge far more due to the increased operating costs that would come with making the rats' lives more comfortable, while also decreasing production and therefore fewer rats for everybody. Such is the principle for our own meat as several have already pointed out.

It's unfortunate, but unless you've got the money to support more humane businesses (which, especially in the past year, most people do not), that's just the way things are.