Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello to all and thanks in advance for your help.

I was wondering...I am trying to save money because my wife is having issuas with the cost of rodents in the pet store and I have no freezer at this time. however she does not mind if I keep them to breed for my snakes and lizzard. I have 6 ball pythons and one adult water monitor. How many rats would I need to produce a steady supply of medium sized rats?

again thanks for your help and poiters.

Paul

Hello Paul, Keeping rats is fairly easy to do. They usually produce on a regular basis in my experience. Really depends on how many rats you need per month to feed your snakes. Once you get a setup going it will take a little time for the rats to get settled in and start to produce but once that happens then they usually produce about every 3-4 weeks as long and the conditions are right. I would take an average of 8 babies per female rat per month to help figure the number of rats you might need. If you have extras then either freeze the babies/weanlings or sell to the pet store. Get 1 male and a couple females and put them in the right size box and let them start producing for you. How that helps.

Mark