Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have thinking about raising rats, but i am not sure if it will be worth it, cost wise. I have two 06 balls, an 06 red tail boa, an 05 ball, and a 00 red tail. Next year i will be breeding my older ball python. Please give me your opinion on this and also any info on breeding and raising rats.

Courtney

not worth it actually , unless you really want to raise rats for fun........and to stink your home up a little bit......

.......IF you do ..start with a couple 20 gallon long tanks and some rat lab cages or 10 gallon tanks......put 1 male and 4 female rats into 20L and when they are ready to drop, place them into a 10 gallon/lab cage to rear the young to the size you need........use the other 20L for holding babies after weaning ....

.......best bet would be get them eating frozen and buy bulk .........
-----
...............
.........
................actually no babies left......
wow........
...................

for 4 snakes and a clutch of babies next near, raising your own rats may be cost effective for you. It really depends on how much you typically spend on rats to feed your current snakes.

One thing I don't agree with on the setup the other poster indicates for rats, is the cage size. I can see squeezing 5 adult rats into a 20gal tank may be fine if you have 100's of snakes to feed but for a small breeding program, giving space makes the rat lives much better. Not to mention the small cages would need to be cleaned 2-3 times a week.

I use large roughneck rubbermaid containers which are roughly 4' long. A little big but this gives the rats plenty of room to move around and raise their young inside. I use 1/4" wire mesh over the corners (inside) to prevent the rats from chewing through the 'foot' indentations, about the only place they can find purchase to chew on. I just staple gun the 1/4 wire mesh on, bend the staples on the other side to prevent sharp edges and cover with a bit of ducttape.

For your group of snakes, a 1:3 group of rats should be enough. Getting them all on frozen thawed (the snakes that is) is a good idea as you can store appropriate sized rats in the freezer as needed, since it will be difficult ot have the correct size of rat available consistantly. With a full grown snake needing jumbo rats (I am guessing) and two yearlings, which probably eat rat pups and the other in between these two, you will be spending alot of time growing up your rats. A second rubbermaid container will be good to use as a weaning/grow up cage. Just feed off females before they get to be 4-5 weeks old in this cage, as then they may be bred. As the males are the ones that reach 'jumbo' size, these will be the ones you need to allow to grow for several months. If you find you are having too many babies, you can always toss your male into the jumbo grow up tank for a few months...till you start using up all your 'stores'. Or sell your extras locally for a bit of extra money.
-----
PHLdyPayne

The only thing I would add is don't put 1:3 in the same cage...otherwise you will have 3 prego females at the same time and there is no way 3 snakes are going to be able to potentially 40 rats before they get too big to feed. I would recommend several 10-15 gal tanks (rubbermaid, whatever) and you rotate the male every 4 weeks...this would space your babies out and give each female 8 weeks before she saw a male again.

I actually have 5 snakes and i want to make a business out of breeding the ball pythons. Plus, I have a friend with 6 snakes who will buy them from me. I have a rack that was planning on building to house them in. I think in the long run i would be saving money and it is hard to find rodents consistently.

if you're going to breed them breed them well........don't rotate male.......breed them to full potential......

by best turnout was when I used a 2 foot square wire pen and put 1.10 in it and placed females into lab cages to rear the litter after they were really pregnant.....litter size should be around 15 per rat.....but you'll get anywhere from 2 to 22 babies per......

.after 6 or so months sell off the breeders and replace them with young ones........

.........

fat rats breed less well........skinny rats breed better......do not overfeed and do not spoil them ....treats and good food and good snacks only stop baby production........I have about 8 females......and they live with the male....and I have't had good production for a couple months now.....I think I got just 2 litters last 2 months......they are spoiled......yet not fat........I gotta have a talk with them soon.........

.......
-----
...............
.........
...........
...................