Breeding rats - Page 2

Skits · 03-07-12, 07:43 PM

I had micedirect come at my reptile show last year so if they are here this month, I'll pick up a few. But I was thinking that breeding my own rats would be less of a hassle. I already have cages and rodent food with the rodents I have. I was looking into having two females and a male, and if I have let's say 15 babies a month, I would be set with my snakes. I'm planning on getting a couple of more snakes over time anyway, so it would be great to have some extras in the freezer.

exwizard · 03-07-12, 07:53 PM

I guarantee you this. It is so convenient to just dip into your own stock whenever you need any snake food. Just a heads up though. Keeping and breeding rats is a lot of work. If you get into this with your eyes wide open on that it will be worth it.

Skits · 03-07-12, 08:07 PM

I know it must be, I've had litters of hamsters and rabbits already before though so I kind of know how it all is like. But I'm really looking forward to having my own stock on hand. Hopefully once it's all started, my dad won't be too worried about me bringing home a few more snakes.

exwizard · 03-07-12, 08:15 PM

In addition to the daily checking to make sure they always have food and water. Regular cleaning is imperative. This really should be done at least once a week and if your populations are higher vs the housing space, then they should be cleaned at least twice a week. If you have the occasional flood, those tubs need to be cleaned out and fresh bedding put in immediately.

Breeding rats is a lot of fun though, especially when you can play around with the genetics of selective breeding to see what you can produce. The process is similar to that of snakes but the results come so much quicker. My hat off to you. Its been very rewarding for us and since we're on a little bigger scale than what our snakes can consume, we're able to supply others in the metro with what they need as well.

Skits · 03-07-12, 11:01 PM

That too of course, haha. And that's true, might make breeding them a little more fun.

insignia100 · 03-07-12, 11:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by exwizard

The problem with having your order shipped from Rodentpro, is that the cost of shipping negates the savings incurred on the feeders themselves. I do have a snake friend who goes to Kansas City every other month when they have their reptile show and Rodentpro always has a huge amount of frozen feeders right on site so he picks up a bunch in bulk and resells what he doesnt need to other snake people in the metro.

It depends on where you are. The local pet shop in my town is very expensive. I can order 100 fuzzy mice, pay for shipping, and still only pay half of what it would have cost at our local pet store.

KORBIN5895 · 03-08-12, 05:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by insignia100

It depends on where you are. The local pet shop in my town is very expensive. I can order 100 fuzzy mice, pay for shipping, and still only pay half of what it would have cost at our local pet store.

I am in the same boat. An adult mouse is four dollars here. I can get five hundred adult mice shipped in from rodentpro for eighty dollars in shipping. The cost of the mouse us like sixty cents? Now divide eighty by five hundred. It still comes out to less than a buck each.

takagari · 03-08-12, 06:35 AM

There are a few rodent sellers. and being in montreal you should have no trouble.

Check reptilescanada classifieds. Lots on that site all the time.

mykee · 03-08-12, 02:18 PM

It's NEVER cheaper to buy rats than to breed your own. Whether you have two snakes or 100 snakes, breeding your own stuff is always cheaper. I've been breeding rats for close to 11 years now and I can get a rat to adult size for $0.45 (on premium rat food), consider they sell for anywhere between $3-$6.

Skits · 03-08-12, 02:50 PM

I buy an adult rat for my boa for 9$. :O And they aren't usually even big enough. I'm going this weekend to pick up a pair of breeding rats, and a pair of mice as well. It will be well worth it, and saves the trouble of having to order them.

exwizard · 03-08-12, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skits

I buy an adult rat for my boa for 9$. :O And they aren't usually even big enough. I'm going this weekend to pick up a pair of breeding rats, and a pair of mice as well. It will be well worth it, and saves the trouble of having to order them.

When we got started, we acquired 45 breeder rats at one time. The numbers went up from there. At one point in time we peaked at 600+ rats. While we dont have nearly that many now we are still over 300 between the 2 colonies, which by the way, we are transitioning right now to combine both colonies into one. If you start with just one pair, its going to take you a long time to build your stock up to being self sustaining, but I guess slow is good. That way youre not overwhelmed with the amount of work involved.

KORBIN5895 · 03-08-12, 08:55 PM

Hey Gary. Why don't you keep the colonies separate so disease doesn't take out your whole breeding stock.

Skits · 03-08-12, 10:48 PM

I would love having more of a stock, but right now I'll want to start off slow. I'm going tomorrow I believe, to pick up 2-3 females and a male. I should have enough to feed my snakes with those alone for now, soon we'll start building a snake rack and I'll be getting a few more snakes so I'll start growing my colony once I start building the rack. Also I can't imagine having 300, even less 600 lol! I'm already up the walls with the pet rodents I currently have. But then again, feeders would be different.

exwizard · 03-09-12, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KORBIN5895

Hey Gary. Why don't you keep the colonies separate so disease doesn't take out your whole breeding stock.

I will answer that question, but first I want to give you a little history about these rats since we sold out of our stock we had in the van last fall at the Des Moines Reptile Show.

That day was busy yet we still had lots of rats left over but 2 people bought out the rest of what we had; one guy who owns a pet store in Nebraska and another guy from Missouri who wholesales rats to different pet stores. This guy traded us Euryale, our '08 female Dum for a bunch of these rats. Both these deals pretty much cleaned us out weaner and above except our breeders. The next 2 weekends were spent acquiring rats from 4 different sources to replace the ones we sold or traded. I guess all of this stressed out not only our breeders but the new rats as well and shortly after that, an RI bug was going around our colony. We had to bear the loss of a lot of breeders and a lot of babies were lost as well.

Later, we bought out another entire rat colony from someone else. Lauras mom said she would be willing to take this colony in and take care of them and help with their breeding. This has been really good for her and Im glad we did this. That having been said, we moved this colony all at once over the course of about 45 miles. The trip, relocation and setting up was stressing on them as well apparantly because they too developed an RI bug that spread throughout that colony resulting in a lot of losses.

The rats we have now in both colonies survived this RI and are stronger now than before.

Now, Laura works 8-10 hours a day and I work 11-15 hours a day. When we come home, we are tired but yet theres still so much to do at home including taking care of the rats and mice. Lauras mom is retired and is having a blast with these animals. She proposed to take on our rodents and add them to what she has there at the South Colony. This move will be good for everybody involved, but this transition will be a gradual one so as to not traumatise the rodents here and also to make sure they wont be too much to take on all at once there.

This, plus the fact that its been challenging to coordinate both colonies in terms of what we have and what we can sell, are the reasons why we are consolidating to the South Colony. The mice will be last to go there but eventually, they will go there as well.

I hope all this answers your question.

Skits · 03-10-12, 02:36 PM

Just wanted to share that I bought my rats today!

Both are very sweet. We got a male and a female only, mainly because my dad thought we were buying frozen rats and didn't bring much money. I set them up with some toys and hammocks and hopefully I can get some babies soon. They are about 4-5 months old from the looks of it.