Reptile & Amphibian Forums

A few years ago I started breeding rats but it only lasted 5 months (population explosion then froze em). I was thinking about starting up a small colony and was wondering for those of you that breed rats do you ever sell off your surplus to local pet shops for a little return revenue? If so what is the return on the different sizes of rats?

From my experience your better off advertising elsewhere, petstores can be helpful but for the most part they already have them, breed them, or only buy from one guy. Good luck tho

Is it common practice to sell off some surplus to cover the cost of breeding? I only own two reptiles at this time but one is a boa that eats the largest rats I can buy and they tend to get expensive. When I breed rats before i had two boas a ball python and two kenyan sand boas. I would like to start breeding again because I prefer feeding Prekilled rats that haven't been frozen. Buying live rats are quite a bit more expensive than F/T. I wonder how long before it becomes cost effective to raise rats on my own, break even, or possibly make a profit.

Forget about making a profit or breaking even. It's just not going to happen unless you have an agreement already set up with a pet store that has a demand, even then it will probably just be store credit.

Breed them to ensure you have a ready supply of healthy feeders at a decent cost, don't expect to make any money on it.

I'm not looking to profit from breeding but thought if I could get a little something back while doing it that would be nice. What would people suggest for starting a small colony, how many rats, tubs, ect... Thanks for the replies.

I gotta disagree with the other two's more pessimistic outlook. Here we buy from anyone with good looking animals. Smalls get $1.50, Mediums $2 and Large $2.50 with the rare jumbo at $3....usually 50 cents more for store credit vs cash.
I have sold to most of the local stores and all are willing to do either store credit or cash, they don't want to buy from wholesalers as the costs are a good buck more a peice.
Generally I can sell enough animals to pay for the bedding and food and sometimes more. Making a profit...probably not, but it sure can break you even and you basically feed your own snakes for free.
That said, I don't see why you would want to raise them for only a couple of snakes. I do it since I need tiny pinkies for baby snakes. It just makes more sense then.
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Sonya

I'm not mean. You're just a sissy.
Happy Bunny

But a lot would depend on your local pet shops. If you really want to breed rodents then...

FIRST, I would check around and see how the market is. Ask them if they'd be willing to buy a few here and there. My experience is pet shops are always looking for rodents that could be feeders OR pets. Most of the rodent suppliers in my area have black, white and black hooded. Nothing else. My colony has many more colors and I have no trouble selling off my surplus "pretty ones".

Second, get colors!!! Just as easy to breed pretty colored ones as plain ones!! Plus with various colored ones if/when the colony gets larger, it's easier to tell them apart.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

I got plans for a 6 bin rat rack and it will cost me around $130 to build including the watering system. That will be plenty of bins for the small colony I'll need. I look at it like this, experiance breeding rats, snake food any time I need it, good way to network with local pet shops, will have food available when I get my set of Dumerils sometime this summer, sell enough off to help with the up keep of breeding. Thanks again for the replies