First off, great post! Everyone should weigh things out and know what they are getting into before they start breeding rats. I enjoy breeding rats and having them around. That said, I think the numbers comparing cost of raising your own feeders to buying FT are apples to oranges. A lot of snakes just won't eat FT and even if they will, FT becomes extremely time consuming once you have more than a couple of snakes. When I first started keeping Balls I convinced myself that I could get them all to eat FT and I'd never have to buy/breed live. Well once I got to 10 snakes I was throwing out thawed rodents every week because animals wouldn't eat. Now with 60+ snakes and the potential of 120+ hatchlings next season, I have to feed mostly live and I supplement with FT where I can. Helps me to be able to keep my production down but I could never do all frozen.