So this year is has a lot of firsts for me... first time breeding snakes and first time breeding rats... Those 2 equal many many questions.

I have some female rats that are up to weight and I put male in with them on sunday after I cleaned. It's been a couple days now and I havent seen any action or heard any action coming from their tub. My male is a big boy so I dont think his size has much to do with it. With snakes its pretty easy to notice a lock because they're pretty much stuck that way for hours but will I see/hear the rats getting it on?? I have 3 other male rats that I can put in if hes not getting the job done but I'm not sure how to tell??

Also I keep 2 males in a tub... I put the one male in with the females and the other fella is alone. Do I need to worry about him being lonely or anything? Is he cool chilling by himself for a couple weeks while his brother gets his groove on??

I wouldn't worry about anything i'm pretty sure he's getting the job done.you should see signs of pregent females in about 2 weeks or so.you can also put both males in with the females if they dont fight to much

I wouldn't worry about the rats, they'll breed like crazy!

Thanks fellas... Ill give the guy his two weeks with the females and then move his cage mate in with my second group. Hopefully they can get me some babies because this paying for live/ft is starting to get old. Local pet store upped small rats from 3 to 4$ and wouldnt grandfather me in for pretty much buying their whole stock every week. Welp their loss.

Thanks fellas... Ill give the guy his two weeks with the females and then move his cage mate in with my second group. Hopefully they can get me some babies because this paying for live/ft is starting to get old. Local pet store upped small rats from 3 to 4$ and wouldnt grandfather me in for pretty much buying their whole stock every week. Welp their loss.

Breeding your own will save you some bucks!

It sucked coughing up 1800 for a rack and another 50-100 for rats and food. In the end it will all be worth it when I dont have to pay crap for food. Only thing that costs me $$ is the bedding I use but it works great with keeping the smell down and I dont have to worry about cleaning every week. Id rather pay 500$ a year for bedding for snakes/rats over paying 2k a year to feed what I got not to mention the babies in the future. Thank god I'm almost at the point where Ill be able to feed my snakes the rats I raised. It's a good feeling knowing I'm the one who did all the work from start to finish.

It's always nice to know what your animals are eating too, with some of the problems that have arisen over the years in regards to buying.

It's a little extra work or sometimes a lot of work, but it's worth it to me also! :)

Don't sweat it I'm sure he's getting the job done. I rarely witness breeding activity in my colony, part of that is because it's in the garage but nontheless..

Babies will come...Good luck

Great thread! This is something I've been thinking about for months now and expect I'll have to make a decision soon. Rat prices and supply when available is impossible. I drive about 30 minutes each way to pick up a 2 dozen small rats each week and this week the breeder emailed me saying they don't have any live for sale this week! :machinegun:

I might just suck it up and buy a level or two from Freedom breeder. It's expensive but I am horrible at building anything.

Breeding rats and mice is very easy...put them together and in no time you have prego moms and then babies. I like breeding the rats and mice. Hoping they get moved out of the house next spring so we can increase the volume. Limited on space so it limits the breeding I can do.

The only difficult part for me is that I live in a condo and keep my snakes in the 2nd bedroom. I would have to keep the rats in the snake room as well and I'm worried about the smell. I don't mind cleaning and will just expect to clean them as they become stinky. I'm also worried about keeping rats together with my snakes 24/7 and handling the snakes with the scent of rats in the room all the time.

The only difficult part for me is that I live in a condo and keep my snakes in the 2nd bedroom. I would have to keep the rats in the snake room as well and I'm worried about the smell. I don't mind cleaning and will just expect to clean them as they become stinky. I'm also worried about keeping rats together with my snakes 24/7 and handling the snakes with the scent of rats in the room all the time.

i keep my rats and snakes in the same room.don't have any problems.i just clean the bedding every 5 days.

I have kept a few rats over a week when ever I get any snake that skips a meal. I have a rubbermaid tub that I add carefresh and keep it in the living room. I decided this will be my christmas present and get a level of freedom breeder rat rack. I can add a level if needed and whenever I have the money.

If you have the time to care for rodents it is way cheaper to raise your own. Rats are pretty easy to breed.

My snakes are also in the same room as my rats. Theres maybe 2ft separating one rack and the rats and then like 4ft separating another. Havent had any issues so far. I currently use Diamond soft by Harlan and it works great. It's very similar to carefresh but a little less expensive(17.99 for a 20lb bag). It soaks up the smell pretty good and I can get away with only having to clean every two weeks. This is a huge plus for me as I use just about a full bag of bedding to fill 18 rat tubs and then add stuff to the snake tubs when needed on a weekly basis. I thought about going to something a little less expensive but I'm not sure how it will work with the smell. My rats do smell but to me its tolerable. Other people dont think so but hey... theres 30 rats and 18 snakes in the same small ass room. What do you expect.

ive been thinking about breeding my own rats and mice cuz the local shops are outragious in price but my other idea is go with rodent pro and get like 6months worth and keep in the freezer witch sounds much easyer. but im not sure yet maybe ill give it a try and see if it works beter for me if it doesnt ill just feed them off and go with rodent pro cuz this local pet shop stuff is a joke they only sell live witch means i gotta kill it all when i get home and
the prices are through the roof, im use to paying 50 cents to a doller for a mouse and they want 275 and rats same thing small rats ive never paid over 250 and they want 475
what are peoples opinion on comparing rodent pro to breeding your own?

Not all snakes will eat F/T. I have about 1/2 that will eat F/T and the other half eat live only. To get around this I'm stuck buying live for the ones that wont take FT. F/T worked great for awhile until I got some picky eaters. I order all my F/T through American Rodent Supply as they have the best prices.

Luckily my 2 females look pretty plump and I think the male got the job done over his 2 week stay. Hopefully things go good and I get some babies to feed off soon.