Thanks both of you. I DO have to have mice pinks and fuzzies for my corn snakes, so the 1:3 group has to stay...

Also, for the cages, I was thinking have a wire-mesh bottom and tray underneith for ease of cleaning (spray it down occasionally), but I was thinking maybe have wooden sides and top... Now though, I think I'll see if my husband and I could design our own 1/4" hardware cloth cages of the proper sizes, all the way around, and build a wooden stand with roof for the cages to be on. And this would be outside most or all of the year in Florida (thus the roof), so the smell isn't AS big of a deal.

Of course, the rats will have shredded paper for bedding in there and for nesting, and I'll have a wheel or two in each cage for health purposes (keeps them healthier).

I THINK I'll be getting 6 females and 1 male at first, just to jump-start the breeding for my snakes (I need 5 if I give them a week's break between litters, but six will make sure I have enough babies to feed the crew. And thanks for the advice to get my own females ASAP that are handled well - I really do want nice rats, and I don't want to have to use tongs all the time when switching them back and forth with the male...

Now, if I take one or two females out of the group to put with the male, will there be a problem when I put the one of two back with the other 3-4 females? They would be separated for a week to make sure they could get pregnant, so... ??? I want to make things as easy as possible to make sure that all animals are well cared for and that I don't over-produce or underproduce.

If I think of anything else, I'll let you know... loL!

~Krystie

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