Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The pet store near me that sells rats for cheap is closing and i have decided to breed my own. I want to know how many adult rats do i need to so that i will have pups every week with some left over that I can raise up to feed as small adults. Or if anyone knows a sight that can give me all of this info that would be great too.
Thanks
Andrew
3.0 Ball Pythons
0.1 Guyana Redtail
0.1 Tangerine Hondurann

>>The pet store near me that sells rats for cheap is closing and i have decided to breed my own. I want to know how many adult rats do i need to so that i will have pups every week with some left over that I can raise up to feed as small adults. Or if anyone knows a sight that can give me all of this info that would be great too.
>>Thanks
>>Andrew
>>3.0 Ball Pythons
>>0.1 Guyana Redtail
>>0.1 Tangerine Hondurann

If you want to time litters you may have to use more room than if you take them as you get them. You can take a couple groups and move a male back and forth to better time breedings. How many pups each week? How big and how fast?
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Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

I need 4 fuzzy pups and two between pinks and fuzzies. But i need to know how many groups and how to time it. Also how often can a femal have babies.

np

a female rat can produce a litter once every 20-24 days. each litter can be anywhere between 8-18. It's best to get young female rats to start, instead of full adults (if too old they won't breed much or at all). Typically 8-12 weeks old is the best age to get the females. Males can be older or younger.

If you know you can sell off excess babies then I would go with two colonies of 1:2 or 1:3. You could have just one male and move him back and forth in the colonies or have two males to save the trouble. As new colonies can take up to 6 weeks or more to get settled in and breed, it will be hard to stagger the first litters. If your snakes can eat frozen thawed, t hen you can freeze extra of the sizes you need so they are useable when between litters.

Rats wean at about 3-4 weeks so you can separate some into another container to grow up more for the larger sizes you need. If you find you need more later on, you can raise up daughters to add to the breeding colony.

If your snakes will eat frozen I would just suggest that you find an online place and buy them in bulk. I found that it wasn't worth the effort to maintain even 1.2 rats when I was feeding 4 snakes. If all you needed were pinks and pups it wouldn't be so bad but having to raise them so they will get large enough for your Boa and your ball is a hassle. Be prepared for a lot of tank cleaning or a lot of complaints about the smell. You will find that you are spending more time maintaining your rats than your snakes.

Steve Schindler

This weekend i will be getting 8 professional rat breeding cages along with a metal shelving unit to put them on, and 6 breeding pairs of rats. The two empty cages will be to seperate the boys from the girls after they have been weened.
Thanks again
Andrew