The only risk you run with buying from a fancy rat breeder is that her animals may not be the best for breeding. I would have to say most likely she would not sell you a male and a female. The goal of rat breeders is to produce pretty rats, not high production rats, and I would have to say they work hard on their pedigrees to get that "perfect" rat. They find it very insulting if you use their rat for a feeder breeder. Chances are, she will not sell to you. It's just the way it is.
Second, there are a lot of feeder breeders down in tenessee. Perhaps someone around here would offer to sell you a pair to get you started.
Third, why not check out petsmart or petco? I got 2 of my female's from there, and they produce litters of 15-16 each time. One girl is around 400 grams. She is a large Non fatty female. She turned out great, is a great mom, and I love her to death.
Also, I would like to mention, dumbos are extremely, overkill, cute when young, if you like rats at all, you may find it hard to feed them off. We have both, they grow the same, just the cuteness factor really goes into high gear when you have dumbos around.
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=52894 check out that thread. It's a great run down of what your looking at.
5 snakes means 5 rats per week * 26 weeks (6 months) = 130 rats
To buy at the pet store = 130 rats * $4 = $520 (avg.)
To buy F/T from a .com = 130 rats * $0.92 = $120 (avg.)
($0.69 each rat + $0.23 ) ($0.23 is what is costs to ship each rat total = $30)
To breed = $146
I assumed 12 breeder females (to produce 10 feeders per week) and 2 males * $4 = $56 + Monthly Food/Bedding = $15 * 6 month = $90 (and you have to buy/build housing for all of them = $??)
Take this to a year: 260 rats
Buy F/T = $192 (since you could buy the whole year at once the per rat cost goes down)
To Breed = $236 (getting closer but still not worth it)
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