Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I just had some questions about rat breeding. First, Where would be a good place to get them from? (Petsmart,Petco,Reptile Shop) and what size should get you get them at? (small,medium,large) Also, what temps do you keep them at? Is it ok to leave them together the whole time? Should I keep them separate and introduce at a certain age?

Thanks

Breeding rats can be quite a bit of fun. Or it can be labor intensive and loathsome. I have raised rats and rodents on a fairly large scale and have tried a few methods. First and foremost, I would highly recommend an automatic watering system. Filling water bottles can become cumbersome rather quickly. Of course, this depends on the size operation that you intent to have. If you have a dozen pens than water bottles will be just fine. If you decide to attempt a more grand undertaking, you will definitely want the automatic watering system. Also, I highly recommend a rack system. Similar to how you accommodate ball pythons except the rack is wood with wire tops and the bins are cement trays, busboy tubs, or kitty litter pans (most typically). Remember convenience is a very important factor. Temps are quite easy, not too hot and not too cold. Heat will kill your rats like the plague. If heat is an issue where you live, consider industrial fans (like you see in auto mechanic shops, a wall unit a/c, or letting water from a sprinkler run down the exterior roof of your rodent shed/house. The sprinkler/mister method works wonders to reduce temperature within an enclosure. Feed good quality feed. I would not use dog food. Keep food on your rats all the time. When they don't have food they can get bored and get the munchies and maybe make a snack of their offspring or a cage mate. Keep it fun. I use to raise a plethora of varieties such as hairless rats, dumbo rats, African soft furs, silky mice, mini possums, black mice, etc. Or go all out and just set up a bunch of white (lab style) rats and go industrial. Whatever your preference. Just remember the basics. Lots of water and lots of food. Best of Luck!!
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Hi,

You can easily have a small rat group to feed your snakes. I would recommend 1 male to 3 to 4 females. PetSmart has great rats to start a 1.4 group with. I would not feed the rats you buy from them to any snakes because it is known that the supplier for PetSmart and the stores themselves use pesticides to keep them pest free. I would recommend that you do not breed any rat until the females weigh about 200 to 225 grams each. Once you start getting babies....Feed away.

Good Luck,
Bill
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1.1 DH Pied/Lavender Albino (RDR)
0.1 Spider Lavender Albino TSK/VPI
0.1 Lavender Albino (TSK/VPI)
0.1 Lavender Albino (TSK/RDR)
1.0 PinStripe Het Lavender Albino (RDR)
1.0 Spider Het Lavender Albino (TSK)
0.3 Het Lavender Albino (TSK/VPI)
1.0 Albino 100% Het Pied
0.1 Pied 100% Het Albino
1.0 Spider Albino (TSK/Next World Exotics)
0.1 Spinner Het Albino (TSK)
1.1 Kids (12) and (18)
0.1 Spouse (24 Years Married)
1.0 Chocolate Lab
0.1 Mexican Fire Leg Tarantula (Tarantula Inc.)

Depending on how many rats you need a week you can determine how many pans you need.

For feed a collection of ~ 150 snakes almost exclusively out of an 8x10 "barn". Occasionally we buy mediums to feed the bigger girls when they are building because we have no room for grow outs. But this is what we do and you can take from it what you would like.

We harem breed 7-8f per 1m they stay together for 21days then the females are removed and put in individual brooding bins. Then the next set of females is moved in with the males. The females give birth and we pull the pinks down to 12 and feed or freeze the excess. The next week we pull pups down to 8, feed the excess. The 3rd week when the female is ready to return to the rotation the pups are able to be weaned and are fed off while some are kept for breeding. Then do it again. The secret to success is consistency.

Feed a high quality diet rodent diet (we feed Zeigler), keep them in fresh water and clean bins and make sure to change out your females every 8 litters or so. Males are changed every spring so we have young virile males for summer and we don't lose production.

Every thing is kept in an outside shed with ventilation of a screen/hardware cloth door and a vent fan. In the summer we have a big fan that blows across the racks to keep them cool and we will spray the outside of the shed and roof if it gets really hot. We are in FL.

We used to feed Mazuri and keep males and females together all the time but we have almost doubled our production using the new food and harem breeding methods. We pull 100-120 smalls every week.

Hope it helps. Good luck with your rodents!