# Breeding your own mice/rats = 1/4 the cost



## ladybird (Sep 9, 2006)

I just worked out that if you breed your own mice or rats, they only cost about 1/4 what they cost buying frozen from a shop. I suppose the downside is that it takes time and work to grow them up yourself, doing all the cleaning and feeding and sorting etc... Though, it would probably save a lot if you have a large number of snakes!


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## bluerain (Jun 7, 2008)

hey Ladybird - you just up the road from me....so to speak!!!I keep some mice, and i was thinking of getting rats when i come back my hols. The mice do smell a bit(seems to mostly be the males) but iv bin told rats are better. Think another downside is , you have to not l:welcome:et the females get too old, as i have done,and alternate stock alot. Plus...you do get kinda attatched to them. Is much cheaper though!


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## ladybird (Sep 9, 2006)

Lol bluerain, I wouldn't say Midlothian was just up the road from me! Though, I'll be moving soon, hopefully somewhere near Clackmannanshire (closer to Stirling, which is where my university is!)
Anyway, where did you get your mice from? They seem to be non-existant in shops here! I know rats are common though, they're all over the shops like Pets at Home etc... (pet rats I mean, lol :whistling2
Oh another question for you bluerain! What food do you use for your mice? And bedding?


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## ladybird (Sep 9, 2006)

Even if you were to use the more expensive food for the rats it would still halve the cost at least, lol


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## briancook (Apr 12, 2008)

how do you humanly kill the mice & rats ?


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## fantapants (Jan 4, 2008)

when we bred rats for our snakes we fed them a staple diet of dried rat food and gave them lots of fresh fruit and veg. they were familly pets first, breeders second. they happily produced littlers of 12-13 in each lot and the only sticking point was when it came to culling them. we tried vinegar and bicarb ( smelly and drawn out,not pleasant) gas chamber ( adapted from a soda stream) and breaking the neck. I honestly think that breaking the nack is the most humane as its the quickest. BUT you kind of have to see/try the various methods and death in order to appreciate that bicarb and vinegar and gass are NOT instant, but can be quite drawn out, especially for babies.

you should NEVER just put babies in the freezer while still alive. it may be easier and more convenient but thats only because YOU cant hear there squeals! apparently, ice crystals for in the eyes first, then the brain, leading to s-l-o-w drawn out death. And the rspca may have somehing to say about that.


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## gnipper (Feb 13, 2007)

A sharp whack on the head gives a quick humane kill.


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## ladybird (Sep 9, 2006)

There's a thread here http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/feeder/128997-step-step-guide-making-c02.html about making a gas chamber with a CO2 canister, which knocks them out in about 5 seconds and they're dead a few seconds later. Sounds humane to me!


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## Robbie (Dec 4, 2006)

Cost of care and smell are the biggest issues breeding your own mice. As Pam has said, mice do smell.


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## Athravan (Dec 28, 2006)

Well time for me most certainly does equal money, as I have only just enough hours in the day to do the work that I already have on my plate... to sacrifice more hours a day to increase rodent production to the level it would need to be in order to maintain my collection, well, unless the 36 hour day is invented, I would have to hire someone to maintain the rodents which would end up costing a lot more than buying them

But I suppose if someone has the extra time in the day... I have a small group of mice & rats at the moment and they do take up more time than you realise sometimes, and as I use over 100 rats a week at weaner size or above... that would have to be a lot of production and I don't think longterm would save me money when factoring in time & effort.


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## Akua_Ko_Nalu (Feb 15, 2007)

When breeding approximately 200 Mice, Rats and Multi-Mammates a week, it isn't particularily money saving.

It is overly time consuming, take into account the cost to produce one Adult Rat for a Blood Python's fortnightly meal.

Time alone will take approximately 6 weeks to reach appropriate size, which means you're already behind. Then there's the food, and cleaning.

All time consuming and costly over the 6 week period.

Is all that work really worth the saving of £1.50 or whatever for one Large Rat? Not really.....

While I breed alot of my own, particularily for my younger snakes, I also buy in every now and then a good range of larger items.


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