Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am setting up my colony at this point. I am probably going with atleast 1 rack setup with 10 tubs.

My question would be do most people that breed have some sort of system that allows them to raise up the younger offspring, kill off the older adults, and use the younger offspring that are being raised to continue to keep the colony numbers at the minimum levels or even grow?

My collection defenitely warrants breeding my own to save some money, my problem is I have several older animals that feeding a 4-6 week old rat just wont due. At the same time I would hate to have to separate males and females just to raise them up to be a bigger meal for my animals. How does everyone do it? Do you leave a colony of 1.3 setup until their offspring are of breeding age and then kill off the 1.3 setup and start anew?

thanks,
Rob
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0.2 Normal Adult ball pythons
0.2 Normal Adult ball pythons (on breeding loan)
0.1 Sub-adult
1.0 Normal ball python
1.1 Bell Line Pastel Ball pythons
1.0 Adult Het Albino Ball Python
1.0 Het Pied Ball Python
1.0 Het Carmel Ball Python
1.0 66% Het pied Ball python
0.2 50% Het albino Ball Pythons

Interested in a breeding loan? Email me....

You never want to kill off your breeders unless they are not producing anymore, or to old. You will need to find some way to house the males away of the females. The males grow alot faster then females so if you want a full grown feeder pick them. It takes myself to grow a nice large male in 3 months. When I say I mean large/jumbo sized. Boa plastics and freedom breeder has nice holding racks that you might want to look at. They are top dollar but in the end they will save you money. If you rotate your colony everytime they breed you will have so much dead time between litters that you may even have to buy feeders as well.

>>I am setting up my colony at this point. I am probably going with atleast 1 rack setup with 10 tubs.
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>>My question would be do most people that breed have some sort of system that allows them to raise up the younger offspring, kill off the older adults, and use the younger offspring that are being raised to continue to keep the colony numbers at the minimum levels or even grow?

When I need older rats I just wean them as usual but, instead of freezering them I put them in a tub to grow them up a bit. It doesn't take that long to get them to good medium size and I think is more efficient than taking them to larges in months. I wouldn't reset a breeding group each time or you are wasting experienced breeders that will do a better job. I do retire my breeders to the freezer, but only when it is time and I already have a group reproducing to replace them. Otherwise you get all sorts of lag time that is not worth waiting out.
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Sonya