Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Kiros.. suspected female Bosc.

If so congradulations. She is awefully chubby.

Only for her growth period..I plan on cutting her food back when she stops growing so quickly...which shouldn't be until next May at the earliest.. *chuckles* She gets fed very well because I don't want to stunt her growth in the least..and I can afford it since I breed my own food for her.

How much does it take to breed mice/rats? Like the benefits between buying and breeding your own. I've tried to breed before but the smell was horrible and it took so long I gave up on it.

With some advice I think I can rethink/redo it once again.

First off.. unless you have an animal that needs something as small as a mouse pinky.. don't bother with mice.. they're a pain in the a**. Rats are much easier, better parents, and smell much less if you keep on an approrpiate cleaning schedule. I clean all my cages every 10 days or so. For me, breeding the rats has been much cheaper than trying to buy the food for both my boa and my Bosc. The rats get fed a cheap dog food, mixed with sunflower seeds, cracked corn and cheap puffed rice or wheat cereals. As long as the dog food has about 20% protein you're fine. The brand I use is 21%. I buy a 20# bag for like $3.50 of the stuff... $2 for 8 lbs of black oil sunflower seeds, $3 for 5 of cracked corn, and the cereals are like.. $1.19 apiece and I buy 2 or 3 of those and that lasts me about 2 months give or take a few days.I have a breeding colony of 14 rats... mostly adult females.. I have 3 males to keep the colony going and I produce enough to feed both my Bosc and my boa. And probably a few other snakes if I had them.