Quote Originally Posted by littleindiangirl View Post
I always read people saying they want to save money by breeding their own rats, but their animals often only eat live, and they have only a few snakes....

Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it doesn't end up saving any money breeding domestic rats for a few snakes unless they truly can sell the live extras and make some money back.

If you dont have a buyer that will pay just as much as it costs to raise the feeders, then it's still a loss.

When your breeding domestic rats, they grow too large and too quickly for BP's, and even having only one female, the babies would be too big within one maybe two weeks.

You'd be better off with mice or ASF's if that is the case since they would never grow too big, and you can get away with only 3 breeding rats and always have live rats on hand.

Breed animals because you want to breed them, not for this idea that it's saving money when you only have a couple of snakes.

I agree with you on several points. Personally, if I did not breed BPs, or only had 2-3 odd snakes, I would not breed rats. They do outgrow the snakes pretty fast.. unless like me, you need rats of all sizes for different-sized snakes. But yeah.. when I had fewer snakes, I was producing too many rats, and had to either practically give them away to the pet store, or freeze them, where they would pile up in my freezer too fast. On the flipside, if I had not bred so many rats, I would have not had enough feeders for my snakes.. which would lead to me having to pay retail anyway!

I also agree that if someone does not have a driving force to breed rats, besides just feeding snakes, it is not a good idea to breed. I enjoy seeing the babies, their color patterns.. the habits of the adult rats, and the satisfaction of producing litters. It is not just a rat-factory to me that is sheer drudgery to own and clean. Great point!

Owning a boa constrictor is another big reason that I breed rats. The used-up breeders are the perfect size for him.. so they don't go to waste either.