Well, now we have one person saying the rats aren't as good as breeders, since they were bred as pets.
Then the next saying they got females from Petsmart, which is Pet rats, and they do great.
I don't know about you, but I have breeders still(even though I don't produce enough for my snakes, and most of the adults haven't produced in a while) and I prefer to have different colors and I like rexes and dumbos. If I have to have rats to breed for my snakes, I'd rather get pretty interesting rats rather than just plain albino white rats. I'd rather keep a strain of nice handable rats, rather than not. I treat my breeder rats very well, and the feeders are treated well, up til they are fed to snakes.
I haven't seen any difference in production from rats I got from Petsmart, from a pet rat breeder and from out of the feeder bin at the reptile store. If I was looking to get a possible future breeder, I always pick cool looking rats, colored prettily, with rex coats, whatever. I like to keep the most tame females for breeders.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to breed your rats. It's more expensive than buying frozen. But you can assure you have quality rats to feed. And let's face it, rats are interesting to have around. I certainly enjoy mine.
I never lied to anyone I bought a rat from. Not once. I can understand not mentioning that you keep reptiles if you go to buy a rat as a pet, and MAYBE as a breeder. But if the breeder doesn't want you to breed it, I'm honest, and I pass on that rat. It's just me.
I think if you want to try it, you should do exactly what you're doing. Read up on it, and research the money and the care. If you like dumbos best, than use dumbos to breed with. They are really no better than other rats, but hey. Nothing wrong with being able to admire your breeders for their good looks.
Good luck. There's a lot of good advice here for you.