I gotta know is it worth the cost to raise your own rats or mice? I am not talking about the people who have a couple of rats to feed a couple of snakes. ( no offense ) If this has been brought up before just tell me the thread. I was just curious. Sorry for the grammer had a red bull about 30 min ago:cool:

I'd have to say that it really depends on how big your collection is. If you only have to feed a couple of snakes, it may be alot cheaper to buy frozen or from some other source. I have a small rat colony going right now because I have about 20 - 30 baby snakes that won't take frozen and I don't have the time to try to convince them otherwise and a monitor that takes a live hopper every couple days. I still buy frozen, though, as I don't want to deal with the amount of rats I would need to fill my weekly food order. So, what it all comes down to is that you will need to decide based on your situation whether it is cost effective for you to raise the rodents opposed to buying them.

You need to take into consideration the cost of the food, bedding and supplies and your time compared to what it costs you to buy the rodents elsewhere. It's rather expensive to get live rodents in my area, so it works out in my favor for the snakes that won't eat F/T, but for those that will eat F/T, the cost of the rodents would be a bit higher to raise then to buy (my aggravation at cleaning loads of rat tubs included).

It's worth while, the cost of buying FT would be far greater for me, not to mention the ease of just grabbing some rodents when you feel like it and not having to wait for rodents to thaw is hard to beat!

You can always put back what doesn't get eaten to... which is kinda nice!

i am going to say yes i used to raise my own now i dont and it was worth it i am going to start raising my own again

Yes and no, just depends on your time and size of your collection.

On a cost basis, yes it is cheaper to raise rodents. On a time basis, it's easier to just buy them. :lol:

It would cost me 4-5 times to buy than it does to breed. If I had to buy I would not have near the collection I do now plus the convenience of having them anytime is priceless......

I'd say yes. Usually the cost of food and bedding is less than the cost of buying, unless you can get a good deal on FT and don't need live.
The time that it takes to properly care for rodents can get costly. I plain do not have the time to care for at least 50 adult female rats, plus enough males to breed with, plus the young to get them to small rat size in order to feed all of my reptiles. I work, and commute over two hours a day, so I have limited time, and prefer to spend that time with my lizards, snakes, and dogs.
You can also make sure of what your feeders eat when you raise your own though, so that in itself can be rewarding.

It really helps if you have some where to freeze the food. So you may have to have the snakes on F/T too.

Its worth it if you have a lot of snakes. Your hard work will pay off.

For me its cheaper. There is a commercial rodent breeder somewhere around Atlanta but I hear mixed reviews about them. If i went anywhere else it cost me cost me 4 times the $$$ than its worth. I can produce more feeders than I can use on less than a $100 a month and I know they are on the diet I want them on.

I would say its worth it. I only have a small colony but it is growing fast. Its nice to just go and get them when you are ready and not have to worry about having the right size.

The guy who raises them isnt producing and said he may just give it up all together. I know all about the time aspect. I will be in school and having a p/t job on top of that. Thanks for the replys so quickly.

I think eveyone has covered it.

With my meager collection (prob 60-70) snakes... it is cheaper for me to produce my own. I didnt rotate my breeders out soon enough and my production plummited... I ended up sending Rodent Pro close to $700 for frozen rodents just to get me by until I could start producing again.

It is totally worth it! For 17 or so ball pythons I have not paid a cent on them ( Other than in waterbills, but its almost free...) since November 18th when I got three bags of food, and I still have a bag left. And this is for 150+ asfs and a few normal rats.

Hope this helps- Matt

So for a breeding colony of about 100 females producing is the smell REALLY that bad?

not if you clean at least every other week.... of it gets too bad... maybe very 10 days

We produce our own rats, asf, and mice here as well. I would say even with the cost of food ($45.00month)and bedding($20.00/month)my supply of rats is more valuable than purchasing them elsewhere.

We have them in the house currently but the plan is to build them a barn and then we can increase the numbers. Cleaning is done every 7-10 days right now.

Worth it to me and I know I am producing quality rodents, I had the opportunity to pick up an order of F/T at a locally (probably the one Bryon refers to) and that visit opened my eyes, that day I decided to breed my own.

My cost each rodent cost me about $0.35 to produce (of course this does not include the fix cost of building my racks the first year)

What type food and bedding do you use?

What type food and bedding do you use?

We use Mazuri Rodent Block that I special order from a feed store. $23.00 per 50lb bag. For bedding I go to Tractor Supply for the large compressed bags of Aspen.

What type food and bedding do you use?


I use pine shavings and a mix of sweet feed for horses and cat food.

This is what I think- I got tired of ordering,waiting,waiting some more,then receiving them finding them half thawed already then finding room in the freezer then when I wanted to feed I had to go through the wait for them to unthaw and then spend hours doing the rat dance for the snake to grab it.
I got live ones and gave it a try wow they are nasty in glass tanks with shavings for bedding, I had escapes a awful smell and a very time consuming day cleaning those nasty tanks.
My SOLUTION----I built a rat rack as seen at the top of this forum page,,wow what a difference it takes almost no time at all I use pine pellets and change every two weeks other than that keep the bottles full and the top full of food and no other effort needed.----my only improvement I plan on doing is to add the automatic water system.

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk172/CornBreadSnakes/ratrack.jpg

At a local feed store the Purina rat food is 29.50 with tax. The aspen bedding in the big bags from petco are around 16.00 with tax. When you guys talk about how many bags you go through how many rats are you talking about?

Nice rack though

I hate rats and I hate mucking rat tubs -- mice are twice as bad -- even if I had the space to do it now I wouldn't do it again. So I will gladly pay someone else to do that for me.

I just started breeding again. so far I have 6 tubs each with a 5 to 1 ratio. I am planning on two more racks by the end of the month. I use the pine pellets from Tractor supply and pay 3.99 a bag and that does about 8 tubs or so depending on how much you use. as far as the food I was using the rodent diet at about $33 a bag and Noticed that production wasn't as high (not sure why) then started using regular dog food that is mostly grain and not so much other stuff and it only cost $12 a bag and better looking rats so far- I know there is big discussion on what to feed but I am just experimenting so far.. Hope some of this helps

Nice rack though
Thanks it was my first attempt, not bad I need to use better wood though

To me I do both purchase and produce my own...The key for me to produce my own is that I canhave the right size rodent at any time...compaired ot your local supplier whom may charge you the same price for a Fuzzy rat and small rat...And could be out of stock( buy from same rodent suppler as a Large Reptile breeder here in Mi). So to me its not only about which is cheaper but how i can have rodents available all the time...Just my 2 cents

Kevin Stoltz