Anyone else love keeping feeders?

[Iguanalady]

Really...only 8 per litter? I have never had less than 10. Maybe our BC rats are gentic mutants! LOL. I had one litter of 15 once. The very first litter my female had when she was only about 3-4 months old was 14.

[Lisa]

I'm afraid I'd get too attached to the mouse and not be able to kill it to feed it to the snake.

[Linds]

I usually kill mine off once they get down to 8 per litter. My mice usually average 18 per litter, my rats average 14....

[Syst3m]

I just say 8 per litter becuase most of the mice/rat breeding web pages I see say 8. So its a good base point. I usually get 12-16 per litter in my mice. My rats are anywhere from 8-14.

I find it best to average the numbers on 8 per litter, That way you will always have extra food. But in truth 12 seems to be the true average of my mice and rats. But from what I read from people who breed for show they seem to think 8 is the average.

[AaliahReed]

We keep both rats and mice,
tho i have found that when the mice start to smell it means i am a bit late with cleaning, i also find they do eat the baby's on occasion,and the mice seem to take a whole lot more looking after than the rats,

[Blueeheeler]

I have 3 snakes that I feed regularly, on top of that I sell some of my feeders to other people in the neighborhood that have snakes to feed with the rats and mice that I breed. I find that is more than worth my time and effort. I know what and where my food come from for my snakes no ?'s asked. My neighbors have stopped going to the feed store for their feed, and they are completely happy with what I offer.

As for my set up I have 1 male rat to 3 female rats. The male is on the move contiunually as he visits all of my females, they are all kept seperate from each other. I have a nursery for the mom and her babies so they are seperate from all other rats before birth and until they are 3 weeks old them I move the babies to the baby tank and mom goes back to her tank. By the time 3 weeks is up I have another female ready to go into the nursery and so on, this is how I keep my breeders going. I had 2 mice, one of each, male and female but the male decided to go postal on the female so I froze him for food. YES all of my snakes eat prekilled food. I have found in the short time that I have had herps and feeders, all has worked out just fine and I have saved and made a great deal of money doing this. Granted I do not breed my snakes at this time but some day I do hope to breed my RTB and my Charcoal AnreyB Corn Snake.



The picture is of 2 of the snakes that I feed. The female is mine and Her name is Abee and the male is part of my extended family he is the husband his name is Sully. I hope to have them mate in 2004 when they are both old enough and better sized.

[escm]

two questions:

one: you guys who breed mice/rats, im assuming you feed your snakes pre-killed? If so how do you "do" a rodent nice and quick and painless?

two: (sorta off topic) where's a good place to pick up frozen mice/rats online? any recomendations? is it worth buying like 10 at a time (i.e. can I keep them in my freezer for a while?)



ok sorry that was more than two hehe...

[Iguanalady]

never keep a feeder frozen longer than 6 months

I usually break the neck with the corner end of a 2 by 4. I just hold the rat and place the 2by 4 over then neck and then press down hard and fast. Course mine are tame so you might get bit doing this with someone elses