# Any money in breeding rats on a bigger scale?



## jrcash4321 (Mar 7, 2011)

Hi Guys,

I do breed rats at the moment but on a very small scale (1 Male and 3 females) This keeps my 5 snakes in food for most of the time, with the occasional trip to the pet shop if i get low.

I know it may sound weird but i actually enjoy breeding my rats and cleaning them out today got me thinking about breeding them on a bigger scale and if i could actually make some money doing it.

Obviously space is a big thing to think about. I am good with my hands so would have no problem building a rack system. I have a van so could deliver once a week locally. Mabe sell live rats as pets to petshops. (just thinking outloud now) :lol2:

So what do you think?? are there any legal hurdles involved?


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## eightball (Jan 1, 2011)

yes you can if youve got alot of unused space

you need to concider the costs for food, tubs, freezer running costs/space, rack materials, the rack maintainance, wire mesh (can be quite expensive for a few racks), watering system as its not ideal to change lots of water bottles every 2 days and watering systems can be expensive but when theyre there theyre there kind of thing and bedding which can be more costly than you think in the long run

you also need to concider if youve got time for it all, if you can allow the smell as lots of rats will give quite abit of smell if not cleaned every week at minimum and of course the space

the legal side of it, unless your selling thousands a month then i cant see there being an issue, aslong as your just covering your costs and "unintentionally" producing more and your only just covering your costs it shouldnt be an issue, but in the eyes of the tax man, if your making any kind of money extra, you owe him a portion of it but he doesnt know unless you tell him :whistling2:

theyve got better things to be doing than catching people making a few extra £ so unless youve got a full house of rats then i wouldnt concern too much about it

can you sell to petshops? well yes if theyve got a license for that certain livestock, for example pet shops that have license to sell fish only cant sell live rats, stupid yes but there it is, so first of all you need shops that have a license to sell them, then if you do find one then and they want to sell rats then theyve probably already got a breeder for the shop but you could try pet shops :2thumb: dont be disheartened if you go to 10 petshops and all of them say no

so after all of that, for what you get out of selling extra rats isnt much really for all the effort but if its what you wanna do go for it :2thumb:


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## eightball (Jan 1, 2011)

in short, if you keep all costs minimal, that means food, racks, watering source and bedding down then you can make money


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## jrcash4321 (Mar 7, 2011)

eightball said:


> in short, if you keep all costs minimal, that means food, racks, watering source and bedding down then you can make money


Thank you so much for your advise it is very valuble to me. Sounds like i need to have a good sit down and work out the cost etc. I think i will deffinetly double or triple my rat breeding from now on and sell what i dont use and start off that way and see how it goes. And who knows i may be coming to you in 6 months time for a website :lol2:
Thanks again and have a happy new year.


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## 123dragon (Jan 15, 2011)

hi, just saying it would prob work better if you bred quite a bit more because to be successful you will need to be able to supply on demand not just when you had some to get rid of


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## jrcash4321 (Mar 7, 2011)

123dragon said:


> hi, just saying it would prob work better if you bred quite a bit more because to be successful you will need to be able to supply on demand not just when you had some to get rid of


Thats a very good piont thanks for your input :2thumb:


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## 123dragon (Jan 15, 2011)

jrcash4321 said:


> Thats a very good piont thanks for your input :2thumb:


thats ok lol


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