Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I havnt really thought about the cost yet but since I know someone probably tried this before, I'll just ask you guys.

if you only have one BP or mouse/rat eating snake it isn't worth breeeding mice.
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 normal ball python (felix)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

Hi, its a good question. I asked myself that about a year ago and made up my mind, breed them.

I got 29 Balls and they can eat a lot. So i bought some used mouse breeder tubs complete($10 each) and got started. I put 3 female and 1 male in the small tubs and 5 females and 1 male in the larger tub. And they breed like mice...

I have 17 females and 5 males total breeding and they give me about 150 mice a month. I buy 40lb. bag of food(pellets) and big bag of bedding. And that's it. Clean them out every 5 or 6 days. Water(bottles) them every 3 days. They do the rest.

I figure my cost per mouse is about $0.06 plus my labor(about 2 hours a week for all the mice). Compair that to $1.35 each from a pet store.

Hope that helps... JohnZ

only got 1 bp, which I feed 2-4 mice per week (considering how much money I have in my pocket). Each mouse cost $1.57. I know 150 per week is way too many.. I'm trying to figure out a way to lower my cost and time. This isnt easy. btw.. do mouse have sex with their own brothers and sisters?

if you are like me & have a constantly growing collection I say buy frozen. I just bought a chest freezer from sears delivered for $200 when it gets here I'm ordering months worth of rats it will save me in the long run & i never have to worry about running out. I had like 2 or 3 snakes & was fine with buying from the store & breeding but after my collection got larger it takes alot more money. if i bought live from a pet store it would be like 50 dollars a week easily & breeding you have to care for the rats as well as your snakes.. i think it's less nerve racking to just buy frozen bulk..that's what made me switch. In the past I've heard alot of negative things about frozen rats but now it seems like so many people are all about it I felt comforatble just putting money together & making the switch. also i'm about to throw a post up about defrosting methods because I want feed back on the best way to do it

hope i helped a little.,lol

later

Hmm.. I only got one bp. Dont really plan to get another one unless I can put them together (but I cant since someone told me not to). In some way, froze seem to be more logical since I travel around each week to buy live. The only problem is that I dont get to entertain myself watching "nature in progress" aka the kill. I guess for now i'll just keep buying it.. damn $1.57 each

As stated before, this probably wouldn't really be worth the effort for a single snake, but with multiple snakes, it can save quite a bit of money. I think rats are preferable for breeding - they smell better, they seem to be friendlier, and their range of sizes match up well with different ages of ball pythons.

even though rats are more filling than mice, they are more agressive when they are being attack. Thats the only reason I have stayed with mice so far cause they are a lot dumber and helpless than rats.

I breed mice and rats.

I have been bit by mice for no good reason too many times to count. I hate the smelly little b^&$^%&d's.

On the other hand, I have been bit by rats a countable number of times (usually by nursing moms).

I believe a rat has the potential to inflict more damage if it were to bite, but mine just don’t seem to bite or go on the offensive like my mice do.

TomChambers