what number of snake does it become cheaper to breed food

[NatoRey]

my petshop sells bags of 5-10 and 15-30 and the most expensive is the rats (not jumbo or large just rats)
30 rats for 39, is this expensive?

[Jen]

any chance you could put up pics on your rack and info on how you built it? I have 1 colony of mice (1 male 2 fems) currently, just regular mice and am soon to set up a supermice colony (1 male 5 fems) so along with grow out tubs i would probably be best off making myself a small rack

Hi hornet, not to hijack but you would be better off having 2 tubs with 1 male to 2 or 3 females rather than 1:5. The most we ever put at the vivarium was 1:3 and even then we were getting much better pregnancy and littler sizes from 1:2. 'Supermice' would also be much better off at 1:1, or even having 1 male who is a stud for the singly housed females. From professional experience (not just personal) if there are too many babies or multiple litters at different stages of development, both the females and the litters suffer. I have 2 large lab boxes with 1 male to 2 females of what could be considered 'supermice' and am getting up to 30 pups from the 2 females - they are going into estrus at the same time and littering together.

[Waterrat]

I have 1 snake and breed mice, but I didn't have to buy tubs - they are in lab boxes - and I have enough lab feed and proper lab bedding to last me a few years from where I used to work. You may be able to pick up feed/bedding rejects from labs in your area. I also don't 'knock them on the head' as it were, I use what I consider a much more humane method - and unlike CO2 its free with no set up. Google cervical dislocation or pm me for details if you are interested.

Jen, the restraining method of the animal (as described) causes much more stress than a clean, sharp whack on the neck. I don't like that system at all.

[Jen]

Er, no. My job was basically culling mice for 18 months. With the correct technique, you go from picking up the mouse to a humanely culled mouse in a less than 5 seconds, and there is no blood or smashed out brains to deal with.

[NatoRey]

Jen, the restraining method of the animal (as described) causes much more stress than a clean, sharp whack on the neck. I don't like that system at all.

how do you do this? with a tool or a sharp swing onto a bench?

[Waterrat]

I let the mouse run free on a bench and when the angle is right I hit it with a special tool (a small, thin saw blade held up side down).
If I was to go, I wouldn't mind to go this way. New surroundings, you look around, sniff the air and ........ you're in heaven (not me! I'll be in hell). LOL


Here we go, from saving money to killing techniques. Lets get back on track.

[scottyo998]

any chance you could put up pics on your rack and info on how you built it? I have 1 colony of mice (1 male 2 fems) currently, just regular mice and am soon to set up a supermice colony (1 male 5 fems) so along with grow out tubs i would probably be best off making myself a small rack

can do mate. Its built out of just any old wood that we had left over from a previous project. It's bolted together and has some support beams across the back to hold it up straight. It's basically as simple and as cheap as it could be while still doing the job. Then we got the tubs from store like cheap as chips (you know the sort) and then we cut the lids and put wire mesh on the top, and then made a spot for the water and food (see the picture). The growout box is basically the same thing, just larger. It was all easy, cheap, and we have had great success with it (averaging 10 per litter everyone 12 weeks).
Hope thats answers the question. if not, shoot away

[chickensnake]

Whilst on the "mice topic" what is the largest mesh that can be used for the lids for them?
Would (approx) 1cm squared stuff be ok?

[Echiopsis]

Ive bred mice and rats for a few years and really should have from the beginning. It can be labour intensive (im feeding about 50 snakes i think) but its well worth it. I tend to smack their head on a hard surface though the cervical dislocation method is a lot cleaner but takes a bit of practice.

I feed a mix of mice, rats and day old chooks to keep up and use a lot of the mice feeding the monitors.

[Morbid]

I breed rats and only have 1 snake. Soon to be three though... Either way I bred rats in the past when I only had 2 snakes. Rats in my opinion are the best to breed. They honestly smell the least and produce the largest varity of sizes (unless you need rabbit sized prey) and the largest liters. They also make the best/smartest pets. I only breed one pair. I raise them to 4 weeks, then kill and freeze them. After I have a bunch building up. I start selling them. This is why I breed fancy rats. I have one blue bumbo Rex and one hairless blue dumbo. So I have sell them as pets (usually 7$ a rat) then if I can't find pet homes I sell them for 1-2$ each, and even then if I can't sell them by 5 weeks I kill freeze them. Start looking for homes before they reach the size you need uncase somebody wants a smaller size for food. If you get to many separate them and stop breeding for a while. There gestiation is only 21 days..

There easy to kill with just a stick. (a drum stick works well) and it separates the vertebra if you apply it on the back of the neck if you lay them down. Sadly/luckily it's super easy because they are naturally so tame.

[JoshuaAtherton]

You are all sick!
=D

Nah, I'm thinking about breeding quail's and dwarf rabbits.

[Emilie]

my petshop sells bags of 5-10 and 15-30 and the most expensive is the rats (not jumbo or large just rats)
30 rats for 39, is this expensive?

the pet shop here takes about $22 for a medium sized rat. Albeit he also charged me $250 for a bearded dragon, which I later on realised would have cost me half that if we went to the petshop 10 minutes further away. So yes we have started breeding rats too. Now it`s up to my mum to kill some off for my snake cause I will not do it

[Bez84]

lol sounds like a good way to hone my ninja skills

I let the mouse run free on a bench and when the angle is right I hit it with a special tool (a small, thin saw blade held up side down).
If I was to go, I wouldn't mind to go this way. New surroundings, you look around, sniff the air and ........ you're in heaven (not me! I'll be in hell). LOL


Here we go, from saving money to killing techniques. Lets get back on track.

[CodeRed]

Whilst on the "mice topic" what is the largest mesh that can be used for the lids for them?
Would (approx) 1cm squared stuff be ok?

The 12 mm square mesh is too big. Hoppers and weaners can escape. You need to use the 5 mm stuff