The Rat Ranch

[fritzi2009]

just wondering, i live in qld and pet shops aren't allowed to sell live animals as reptile food. do any states in australia allow this? by the way i think your set up is great and good luck ! such cute little rats too aw i couldnt bare to let them be food i would want to keep them all but such is life. hope everything goes well for you

 

[j.kcustoms]

Youve got a good setup trippz. Well done. Should have purchased opaque/clear tubs for a few reasons but theyll do the job.
great set up 'trippz' wish i had the room to do the same ive only got 12 tubs going
re;whats the difference from black to clear tubs is it the heat factor ?

 

[richard]

Hi,

Can you tell me about the gravity fed drip feed? What hoses, tank? Do you attach the end of a purpose made water bottle to the hose etc.

Cheers

Richard

 

[Barno111]

Great looking set up. We are about to make some more racks up and that has given me some ideas. Where did you get those tubs from?? If you dont mind me asking!

 

[trippz]

im guessing clear tubs are to see if there are any floods reptillia? i couldnt find any clear tubs in the size i wanted but have now gone straight to the source to aquire them for next time. I bought valves from america & i just use a 25 lt tank & 4mm pipe to run off each valve. it was cheaper to go to a irrigation shop for the fittings( tees & elbows) than bunnings. i know there will be a few kinks in my system that i will need to iron out.

 

[Kimbully]

Sorry wasn't "ripping" anyone! The set up looks excellent
I like the food tunnel in the centre and the space.
Thanks for the extra pic trippz, even more impressed.

Kim

 

[mungus]

Aleks, my point is that if you are trying to produce pinkies then litters of say 18-20 may be desirable, but when aiming at weaners there is little point in aiming for a litter size over 12. Litter size is highly heretible!Big litters are not necessarily desirable.
As an aside; Do you recommend that budgie owners grow birdseed. It only takes a few seeds and a bit of dirt and water.

No way, budgie seed is way to hard to farm.
breeding rats is so easy........:lol:

 

[Reptilia]

im guessing clear tubs are to see if there are any floods reptillia? i couldnt find any clear tubs in the size i wanted but have now gone straight to the source to aquire them for next time. I bought valves from america & i just use a 25 lt tank & 4mm pipe to run off each valve. it was cheaper to go to a irrigation shop for the fittings( tees & elbows) than bunnings. i know there will be a few kinks in my system that i will need to iron out.

Yep the floods.
But also the photperiod 12/12 (not enough light gets into those black tubs compared to opaque/clear tubs. Thats why labs use them.)
If you are selling a large amount of rodents under an abn then you will probably get a visit from the rspca at some point. They will look at the code which is based on the laboratory setup. Rodents should be able to stand on there hind legs and peer out of the tub, should be housed in opaque/clear strong tubs (escape proof, chew knaw proof) and the tubs should not be overcrowded.

 

[Lonewolf]

thats a grait looking set up we would love one like that but not for feeding purposes lol

would like to see more pics

 

[trippz]

thanks reptillia i dont think i will be doing commercial quantities but that kind of info is good for the future. i live on 97 acres so u never know

 

[Ciircz]

That's amazing. Do you use C02? If so were abouts do you get it?

 

[dodgie]

im in melbourne so will have to wait & see how nasty summer is

Melbourne summer you will need some sort of cooling.

 

[phac]

As an aside; Do you recommend that budgie owners grow birdseed. It only takes a few seeds and a bit of dirt and water.

If budgie seed was the price per kg that rodents are, yes, that would be recommended. Scotch fillet steak is cheaper per kg than rodents. Why can rodent breeders in the states sell jumbo rats for $2.00 each?? And its not because they have mexicans working for them for nothing before that old chestnut gets wheeled out by the aussie rodent breeders. Even the small breeders over there who work for themselves have similiar prices to the bigger breeders.

 

[wokka]

If budgie seed was the price per kg that rodents are, yes, that would be recommended. Scotch fillet steak is cheaper per kg than rodents. Why can rodent breeders in the states sell jumbo rats for $2.00 each?? And its not because they have mexicans working for them for nothing before that old chestnut gets wheeled out by the aussie rodent breeders. Even the small breeders over there who work for themselves have similiar prices to the bigger breeders.

I agree that without the costs of employing labour and the requirement to pay tax, small breeders should be able to sell for far less than the larger breeders. I guess they get what the market will pay, and capitalise on not paying workers comp,holiday pay,gst,income tax,rent ect that many of the larger breeders and shops pay.

 

[Lewy]

Never understand why people always compare America to Australia we are different people. Most Americans rat suppliers don't grow there rats right up as the have a huge market for the smaller size animals like the Ball python

If your not happy with rat prices then breed your own. IMO the price of rats and mice is stuff all. For the amount of time and effort that we need to put in to cleaning, feeding, sorting, power, lighting, building rack systems, waterers, drippers, saw dust, having to pay for the Co2 and running freezers. Its a full time job and costs a lot to keep running it takes something like 6-7 months to get a full size/jumbo rat and to then only charge $10 for it?? it nearly cost that to feed it LOL

JMO
Lewy

 

[Troy K.]

I agree with you Lewy. People come and have a look at my rat set up every now and then and ask do you think I should breed my own rats. I always give them the same answer, do you want to be a snake breeder or a rat breeder?

My thoughts are if you want to be a snake breeder than put a couple of extra female snakes into your collection and the money you'll get back from breeding them will more than pay for your rats for the year and a lot less work.

Good work with your set up Trippz. Clean and user friendly with plenty of room to work.

 

[steph]

looks like a great set up. we too breed our own rats but not that many at the moment. just looking at getting a shed, what about ventilation in summer. I thought a shed might be too hot in summer we would have to get extra windows in it, have you got any suggestions
as we live in Brizzi and it gets bloody hot.

cheers

julies

 

[mungus]

:lol:

Never understand why people always compare America to Australia we are different people. Most Americans rat suppliers don't grow there rats right up as the have a huge market for the smaller size animals like the Ball python

If your not happy with rat prices then breed your own. IMO the price of rats and mice is stuff all. For the amount of time and effort that we need to put in to cleaning, feeding, sorting, power, lighting, building rack systems, waterers, drippers, saw dust, having to pay for the Co2 and running freezers. Its a full time job and costs a lot to keep running it takes something like 6-7 months to get a full size/jumbo rat and to then only charge $10 for it?? it nearly cost that to feed it LOL

JMO
Lewy

Sorry Lewy, but I dont agree with you on this one.
Tubs and racks are basic to make.
A bag of feed and bedding is no more than $40 a month at the most.
My rats and mice get done every Friday Night [ while listening to the footy on the radio...:lol: ]
and its 2 hrs of my time a week - bugger all .
Water and food checks every 2 days, which takes 5 -10 minutes Max, while getting the car out most times.............:lol:
By the way Trippz, your rack system is awesome, but slightly large for the average Joe blow.
Should start to breed and sell, bit of extra pocket money.................

 

[Lewy]

:lol:

Sorry Lewy, but I dont agree with you on this one.
Tubs and racks are basic to make.
A bag of feed and bedding is no more than $40 a month at the most.
My rats and mice get done every Friday Night [ while listening to the footy on the radio...:lol: ]
and its 2 hrs of my time a week - bugger all .
Water and food checks every 2 days, which takes 5 -10 minutes Max, while getting the car out most times.............:lol:
By the way Trippz, your rack system is awesome, but slightly large for the average Joe blow.
Should start to breed and sell, bit of extra pocket money.................

LOL no problems Mungus, But I am talking about big scale breeding not just a few racks. I'm in the proses of building a few hundred racks and by the time I'm finished I'm hoping to be putting out a few hundred rats a week

ATM I'm going through well over $100 a month in food and saw dust and it still going up with more tubs being built

With my caravan full of mice and my carport full of rats its a good half day Friday cleaning them and at least an hour aday topping up all there foods and sorting out the different sizes for killing, then weighing each one and bagging them then rotating the freezer to make sure the older stock comes to the top and so on

Cheers Lewy

 

[Fireflyshuffle]

I agree completely with Lewy also, Im going throught the same amount as you.. they arent cheap and you must be commited to their hygeine, especially if you want to sell, but even more, would you feed your reps crappy dirty unhygenic rodents? you may aswell hunt wild ones lol.
A couple of breeders for your reps at home, no worries. But if you want more than just that, thought needs to be considered.