Breeding Rats For Food.

[Jewly]

Hi all,

I had been planning on breeding my rats for pets and selling them back to the pet shops to fund my frozen rats for my snakes but I've now decided to breed for food. A number of pet shops told me they would give me $5-$6 for each rat but when I came to sell them, I was only offered $2-3 which doesn't make it worth it. I ended up taking that for my first lot just to get rid of them because by that stage they were far too big for my snakes to eat.

I have one female about to pop any minute and I'll probably take half the babies and cull them when they are a couple of weeks old and I'll let her raise the rest and sell them as pets. I'm doing that because I just couldn't take all of them off the poor mum and leave her with none. I also don't want to have to cull them myself but I have found a very experienced person who will do it for me. It's not the killing part that bothers me, it's the fact that I hate mucking around with gas and I'd be worried I was going to blow myself up or cause the poor babies to suffer if I didn't do it right.

I'm also doing this cause I'm so sick of having to search high and low for frozen rats cause a lot of the pet shops run out all the time.

How many others breed rats for their snakes?

Cheers,

Julie

 

[Dave]

I'm about to breed my rats now.. The shop near me sells rats and mice for terrible prices..

Guess how much a pinkie mice is?

2 dollars :shock:

 

[Shanno]

i breed rats and mice it is a lot cheaper.
i will post some pic of my set up in a few days

 

[Jewly]

I'm about to breed my rats now.. The shop near me sells rats and mice for terrible prices..

Guess how much a pinkie mice is?

2 dollars :shock:

OMG that is ridiculous.

How many rats do you have?

I have 2 males and 3 females at the moment. I held back one female from my last litter cause she is just gorgeous. She is silver and white and I have a plain brown one (she's about to give birth) and I have a brown and white one. I will also keep back another female from this litter so I can have 4 females and that way I can have 2 pregnant and 2 resting at any one time.

 

[Dave]

4 females 2 males..

both males are white with striping down the middle, one brown striping other grey, I have one BIG female that is the same and the other 3 are brown. I've just put them together

OMG that is ridiculous.

How many rats do you have?

I have 2 males and 3 females at the moment. I held back one female from my last litter cause she is just gorgeous. She is silver and white and I have a plain brown one (she's about to give birth) and I have a brown and white one. I will also keep back another female from this litter so I can have 4 females and that way I can have 2 pregnant and 2 resting at any one time.

 

[Justdriftnby]

I have found it to be alot cheaper in all, problem I have found is keeping up with large 250g+ rats for my bigger snakes, We have 6 female rats serviced by 2 males, also have 8 tubs that contain about 300+ mice at the moment(uding babies, Will have mass kull next weekend.

 

[mis_gmh]

i currently have been breeding. I have 3females and 1male. Females are beautiful, they are white(albino), bright orange hooded with ruby eyes and a brown hooded with patches all over the white so hopefully ill have some nice babys out of these. So far ive only bred my albino and ive kept 2 berkshire male and female.

Also if anyone could give me some advice as my albino had babys 9weeks ago and has been with my silver supersize male since but she isnt showing any signs of pregnancy. Is this anything to worry about? They have definately mated but im woried she cant have babys anymore. I was told they can have babys every3 weeks.

kind regards
laura

 

[Jewly]

One of my males is cream with the red eyes. Not sure who impregnated the female that is about to pop cause I put her in with both males but it will be interesting to see the babies.

Sorry can't give any advice about your albino girl. When I put my girl in with the boys about 3-4 weeks ago she must have got pregnant within days cause she's about full term now and getting so big. I have all my girls in together but when they're about due, I put them in a cage on their own that I call the 'Birthing Suite'...lol

Here's a good site about rat reproduction...

http://www.ratfanclub.org/repro.html

 

[melgalea]

jewly, ur in brisbane, u should buy your rats of barry (centralian11) he is amazing, i have been going to him for a very long time now, and have never ever once had a prob with any of his stuff. plus they are heaps cheaper then a pet shop. u should check him out on this site. cheers
mel

 

[Jewly]

Hi zoocam,

I've heard he's good so I'll check him out.

Thanks

 

[mungus]

Yep, breeding them is the way to go.
Been breeding my own mice for a few years now [ due to breeding my snakes, they need heaps & heaps of fuzzies etc ].
Just started breeding my own rats.
Mate gave me 5 females and 1 male [ all females were already pregnant..............lol - top mate ]
All had gave birth to between 10 -12 babaies.
Only lost 1 baby [ ended up with 56 weaners ]
No female ate their young.
Just bought 50 large weaners [ live ] for $90.
I grow them to the size I want then cull them, cheaper this way than paying adult rat prices.
When you only have 1 or 2 snakes to feed, buying them from pet shops wont hurt the hip pocket as much,
but when you have a couple of dozen hungry snakes, a $ here and there adds up very quickly.
Cheers,
Aleks.

 

[Miss B]

I started off with 10 rats (8 female, 2 male) about six weeks ago.

Now I've got around 100 of the little bastards, with several more litters on the way :shock:

Had to do a mass cull over the weekend, freezer is now well and truly stocked. A $30 bag of Bio-mare cubes lasts bloody ages, and I get an endless supply of shredded paper from a relative. Breeding rats is ridiculously cheap.

 

[blackthorn]

On last count I think I have 19 females(about 5 of those are yet to breed, but almost old enough) and four males. Most of the females are housed in pairs, and I just cycle the males through the female's tubs.

Also have two mini colonies of mice, one colony of super mice and one colony of normal females with a male super mouse. Both have about 7 females to one male. I mostly cull the mice as pinkies or fuzzies for all the hatchies.

 

[cooper123]

how long does a rat last in the freezer?

 

[Snake_Whisperer]

I started off with 10 rats (8 female, 2 male) about six weeks ago.

Now I've got around 100 of the little bastards, with several more litters on the way :shock:

Had to do a mass cull over the weekend, freezer is now well and truly stocked. A $30 bag of Bio-mare cubes lasts bloody ages, and I get an endless supply of shredded paper from a relative. Breeding rats is ridiculously cheap.

Hey Miss B, are Bio-mare cubes the same as "lab blocks"? I have been trying to streamline my feeding, at the moment my mix is far too involved trying to ensure proper nutrition. Where do you get them from?

24 females, 6 males, 60 babies at the moment. I guess they breed more over the summer!! I have about 8 months worth of snake food in the freezer now so guess i may start selling 'em off!

 

[Crazy_Snake08]

I'm getting into breeding rats as well now. I can't keep up with the prices!!! And like you say JEWLY, whenever you go to the pet shop, they're always out of the size you want or there are harldy any left which means you have to go back after a short while (depending on the frequency at which you feed your snakes and how many you got).

If anyone else is pursing this, Here's two links that GRUMPYTHESNAKE got for me about breeding racks and set ups, etc.
(1) http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/general-herps/rat-breeding-setups-89394
(2) http://www.arbreptiles.com/cages/rat_rack/ratrack.shtml

Hope it helps some of you out there...

-Settle

 

[Jewly]

I just have my rats in rat cages at the moment. The 2 boys are in one, and the 3 girls are in the other but one of the females is only about 8 weeks old. I then have a 3rd cage where I put the mum's who are about to give birth. I will have to get another one soon, if I want to have 2 pregnant at the same time. I keep mine on Breeders Choice but might have to consider putting them on shredded paper to keep the costs down and I can get an endless supply from work.

I thought my girl Layla would have popped last night but she's still going strong. Maybe tonight will be the night. I'm a bit of a sooky lala at times with my pets. I took Layla up to my bedroom the other night to keep an eye on her, seeing as this is her first pregnancy, but she drove me nuts all night cause she kept drinking all the time. Maybe she's not pregnant at all....maybe it's fluid retention..lol

 

[swaddo]

Hi Jewly

I have just started to do this myself. I build some racks (very much like the ones that Dickyknee makes) and they look like they'll do the job fine. They are quite simple to make (I've written yet another step by step guide here) but if building isn't your thing, then I've seen what Dicky makes and they look pretty good.

I am using an Edstrom watering system connected to a 20L plastic tub, makes water refills very easy, and i use sawdust in the bottom of the tubs (to keep any smell to a minimum) and some shredded paper for nesting material.

Currently keeping them 2F:1M and hoping for a population explosion in the very near future

 

[Justdriftnby]

This is an old pic but shows how easy it can be, I have added an extra rack now and I always keep 1 tub empty so move mice and rats around when cleaning.

http://s495.photobucket.com/albums/...ion=view&current=RIMG0098.jpg&t=1229596415522

I have been making these for others and get good feedback from them, if you are in Vic and want info and prices please PM me I am only too happy to help.

 

[grimace256]

if you search killing a rat in youtube it'll show u how to kill them without using gas, and they're fresh as!!!!

heres link: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=n85RK12Meu8