I treat the adults a bit like pets and keeping the healthy and friendly makes for much healthier babies which are destined to feed my snakes. Currently don't really have any snakes big enough to eat retired breeders or jumbo male rats...so I don't tend to feed off adults. So I tend to keep the retired breeders around as pets but I only have on trio of rats producing food for my snakes, which is all I need. (though they are being rather too productive, as I have lots of rats in the freezer, more than I feed off before next batch of babies are to size. Guess this means I need more snakes LOL )

That and rats are intelligent and inquisitive, and much easier to handle if they are not terrified every time the cage door opens. Not to mention greatly avoids being bitten when trying to grab that live crawly to feed the ball python who refuses to eat anything other than live, no matter what.
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PHLdyPayne

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