To breed or not to breed?

[ReptileMan27]

Well I know I have talked about this in the past but decided against it. I recently started thinking about it again and doing a little figuring. Right now I am buying 3 medium rats a week, they are like $3.00 or so each.. So thats atleast $9 or so a week for the rats. At some point im gonna need to move my BPs and eventually the BRB up to large rats which will cost more.. I started figuring how much it would be to care for the rats(food,bedding) vs buying rats. Well I know I can get big bags of aspen for like $6.00 at walmart, plus the pellet food stuff they recccomend is only $2 something at walmart also. So I figured for a big bag of aspen and 2 boxes of food, that would cost me like $10,give or take a little. That should last me a couple months or so. My plan if I breed rats is to kill and the freeze the babies when they get to the size I want, that way I dont need to keep a ton of live ones.

With all that said lol, I figured its saving me alot money, more work but not to bad I guess. What do you think I should do?..

[TailsWithScales]

I say breed them if you have the space, time and energy. If you don't have a large collection in the long run it can save you quite a bit of money.

[ReptileMan27]

Thanks :), I have 12 snakes currently. Right now I only need 3 rats a week for my 2 BPs and big corn but in the future when my other 3 corns,2 kings,and BRB get big enough they will need rats also..

[danthony428]

i say go for the breeding as well, if i had more snakes id probably do the same, and i may when i get more

[Elvia]

I say go for breeding! Alot more better than finding places to buy them over the net:typing: or store.

[Juggalo]

if you have the space go to it

[The Snake Guru]

Ain't worth the effort...IMO
With Rodent pro around it hardly pays for the bedding, food, and time put into it...and personally I hate the smell...LOL

But that's just my opinion.
~B~

[SnakeGirl]

My only recommendation: remember rats are smelly! :lol: If I had the right place to keep them where they wouldn't stink up the house, I'd breed my own too. I kept gerbils and such as a child, and those suckers would stink up your room in just one day . . . ugh! I could handle cleaning the cage twice a week, but that everyday stuff wore me out! ;) Other than that, I say go for it! :)

[ReptileMan27]

Thanks for the comment all :). I was not planning on a large scale rat breeding thing but rather just a pair of rats.. Also I was planning to kill the baby rats and freeze them when they get to the size I want.

[mcem]

If you can keep them in an area that you won't mind being stinky, then go for it. But I personally would never do it.

[ReptileMan27]

I was looking on rodent pro and calculating the cost with shipping of 60 medium rats and it would be $111. and some change.. Not to bad, I am only currently feeding 3 rats a week, the rest of the snakes are on mice for now.. So 60 would last me along time.. Might just do that..

[The Snake Guru]

I was looking on rodent pro and calculating the cost with shipping of 60 medium rats and it would be $111. and some change.. Not to bad, I am only currently feeding 3 rats a week, the rest of the snakes are on mice for now.. So 60 would last me along time.. Might just do that..

:thumb: See....at those prices, hardly seems worth the effort! LOL

~B~

[JenHarmon]

I only have 5 snakes but only one or two of them will eat the f/t rats so I've got a male and female rat that I'm trying to get babies from. I'm all for the rat and rabbit breeding. I have mine out in the garage and clean the cages twice a week and have not noticed any stinkyness (is that even a word?) from them. Now if I only do it once a week, it does get yucky. But I have the 2 rats, 2 rabbits and 2 guinea pigs. They aren't too bad really. Just waiting on babies. I spend about $7 a month on bedding (i get it from the feed store when I go buy horse food) and I do get the rat and guinea pig food at walmart and the rabbit food at the feed store. It's cheaper than buying live food every time i turn around.