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Is breeding your own rodents cost effective?

The BoidSmith

The BoidSmith

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More than likely “it depends” would be among the first answers to this question. It seems to be highly convenient particularly when you have stubborn animals that will only take live prey or even when starting baby snakes. Buying feeders from Pet Shops is almost prohibitive when you have large number of animals. The question is: “where is the point of equilibrium”? We currently have our own rodent breeding colony, particularly for the reasons stated above. Our closest supplier is an hour away. When we started we used to drive but as we grew, and the cost of the feeders and gas increased we decided to breed our own. But sometimes we question ourselves about the cost effectiveness of the time spent in cleaning and feeding rodents. In fact we currently do both breed some for those that feed on live, buy and have shipped frozen for the rest. What are other’s opinions on this topic? Do the benefits outweigh the inconvenience?

Regards.
 
I feel your pain! We've been on all sides of the coin, and there's no utopia anywhere.

When I was in Colorado, I bought from pet stores. Nothing like $6 rats and $8 rabbits to put a hurt on your wallet. Decided at one time to breed our own rats. Nothing like maintaining a colony to kill your free space (what little there is if you have a growing reptile collection) and your free time. I don't care what anyone says, at least snakes only need major cleaning/feeding once a week.

We've now gotten lucky, in that we've hooked up with a professional feeder / breeder about an hour from us, and we make a trip once a month. Our biggest investment was a chest freezer so we could stock. We still are able to get various sizes and enough live to last us a month for those stubborn feeders. It's not perfect, but what I give up for additional cost is more than made up for by having more time and space, and fewer mouths to feed.
 
The BoidSmith said:
Do the benefits outweigh the inconvenience?
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That is really a question that each person has to answer for themselves. How big the benefit is, how big the inconvenience is, truly is in each individuals interpretation.

I know for me personally breeding my own is most certainly worth it financially. I am a live feeder, so I would spend more in a month on live rats than what it costs me to breed my own for a year.

The convenience factor of always having the exact sized rodent I need, knowing they are healthy, well fed and parasite free certainly outweighs the half hour a week it takes me to clean all the cages and the 5 to 10 minutes a night checking on food and water.

So yeah, for me it is most certainly worth it.
 
I've never really done the math to see if it's truly cost effective for me to breed my mice. I have about 150 extra mice every month and I trade those for rats so I think I'm coming out okay. I really like the convenience of having any size mouse I want at my fingertips without having to wait for them to thaw or having to drive and buy what I need.
 
We still are able to get various sizes and enough live to last us a month for those stubborn feeders. It's not perfect, but what I give up for additional cost is more than made up for by having more time and space, and fewer mouths to feed.
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That’s exactly what I meant! The problem is where to draw the line. As Sammy says it’s a decision each one will have to make on its own. We decided also to go for the chest freezer. Regrettably we can’t get away from live altogether, so we will have to keep on breeding. As Sammy also points out the convenience of having the exact size of feeder for a given size of snake is invaluable, particularly when you have baby snakes. Not only the right size but for us is important having an assortment too. Right now we have mice (the bulk), gerbils, and Siberian hamsters. Feeding and watering is not that bad, a few minutes each day. Cleaning is a different story. It’s also done twice a week here and it takes slightly over an hour when everything is lined up right. One thing is for sure, it’s uneconomical to drive an hour both ways to buy feeders from our “local” Pet Shop. It’s far better to have them shipped frozen.

Regards.
 
I can only say that I break even and a little better most months, I need 140 pinks per month summer time for breeding leos, most of my leos will not eat frozen so buying live at a pet shop for $1 each is crazy.

Once I set up the mice, buy the lab chow and clean the cages, Im out really I guess, but I know how my mice were fed, raised and where they come from. I really think you have to take out the time and only figure the cost per pink (other) frozen in the end VS the price per pink (other) raised in the end.

Good thing is that when I do have surplus there are 2 pet shops that buy my live pinks+ for .15 each

My father in law raises his own rats, rabbits and quail with only a few mouths to feed and makes a decent amount of money on the rabbits and quail alone.

But who has space for all the herps they want and space to raise all of the feeders too? Not many probably, I have a full basement so I utilize both for my needs and have room left since all of the herps are in the normal living spaces of the bedrooms, living room and kitchen lol
 
It would be interesting to figure out the cost per feeder once all other expenses are factored in (feed, labor, electricity, etc.). Of course it would be difficult to put a price on the convenience of having them at hand though.

Regards
 
I order my bedding and food directly from harlan-teklad in bulk. 16- 3 cubic feet bags of Aspen and 13- 35 pound bags of lab block run me $200. It lasts me roughly 8 months.

I have 24 breeding females, 5 breeding males and we also have another 6 rats that are just pets.

I was spending around $300 a month on live rats prior to breeding my own. They really do not make any change in my electric bill and I can not see them making too big of a change in my water bill which runs about $25 a month on average. A little more in the summer, a little less in the winter. Lets say 2 hours a week on maintaining them. So 100 hours a year....

I figure I am saving around $3000 a year by breeding my own.
 
It also depends largely on how you are maintaining your rodents. I have a seperate building from the house just for the rodents. They are maintained in racks with automatic waterers and feed hoppers. The water and feed is filled twice weekly which takes around 15 minutes per. They are cleaned weekly and that takes around 45 minutes. SO total I have a little over an hour per week invested in maintaining the entire rodent setup.
My setup is optimized for time effeciency. If I were using water bottles, I wouldn't bother. Automating the system is the only way to do it. Nothing more aggravating than having to fill water botles every 1-2 days.
I average around 60 female mice with one male to every three females, and 30-40 female rats actively breeding. I don't know exactly how many rodents I produce per month.

When you raise certain species such as ball pythons, you have no choice but to raise rodents. The hatchlings pretty much always require live feeders at least initially.
Even without the live feeder requirement, I don't think it's possible that I'm not saving a considerable amount of money even with my time factored in. The time it takes to maintain the rodents is easily offset by the time I save not having to thaw rodents. I can go out to the rodent building, pick what I need, and come in and start feeding.
I do still order a few frozen rodents once or twice a year to supplement my production, since at times I wind up using all I produce in feeding, but I am about to expand the rodent breeding again so that will largely be eliminated as well.
 
This is kinda off topic
Has anyone had mysterious deaths in their rat colony?
I have been raising rats for about 3yrs, my old racks use concrete mix tubs, and the tops are 1"x1/2" wire they use in the bottom of rabbit cages, auto waterer, dog food, sunnies, and a handful of wildbird seed every couple of days. Last summer I built a new rack and used 1/2" galvanized welded wire (hardware cloth) on the top. This new rack had 1-3 deaths per week for a few months, I bleached out the water system which did not seem to help, about 2 weeks ago I snipped part of the wire out and replaced it with the 1"x1/2" and built feed bins over the new area. I think it helped so I scrubbed the remaining galv. 1/2" wire with hot soapy water. I have not taken feeders out of this rack yet as I am not sure the cause of death. Could they have been poisoned by gnawing on the galvanized wire? Would this toxin accumulate in the rats system and be harmful to the snakes?
 
Wasn't the 1"x1/2" galvanized as well?
I use 1/2" galvanized on my rat rack and have never had any deaths I suspected to be caused by that.
I do know there is a toxin released from galvanized metal when you weld it, you have to be careful and not breathe any more of the fumes than you can help, but I'm not sure if the toxin would be realeased just from contact.

I really couldn't offer any suggestion other than vague guesses as to why you've had the deaths. Could there be any mold in the food supply?

I was also curious which dog food you are using that will stay on top of the 1x1/2 wire. The dog food I use for the mice will go through the 1/2" mesh just enough to make sliding the tubs hard. I use 1/4" mesh fo rthe mice and it's not a problem but I normally use lab diet for the rats which is a lot bgger pieces.
 
I used the galvanized hardware cloth and lab diet for raising rodents for 2 1/2 years without any problems. I never tried dog food though.

We moved recently and I made the switch to buying frozen instead of raising them myself. It definitely costs more to buy instead of breed, for me. I am ok with that because I did not really like the cleaning involved with rasing rodents, so for me, the trade-off is worth it. (We'll see if I still feel that way in 6 months) Like others, I do miss the convenience of having any sized feeder any time I need it though.
I suppose it would also depend on the number of snakes you are feeding, the qantity of frozen rodents you order at one time, and the reason you keep snakes. For me, right now the deciding factor is convenience, so buying frozen is my choice. If generating profit becomes of more consequence, I will definitely look at breeding my own rodents again.
 
It is galv. (I think) but it is surely a different coating process.
I use the same feed in the old rack also, and have had no problems.
I used to get a generic at Target that would not fall thru, but they disc. it about 2 weeks ago. The only one I have found that works OK now is Pedegree for large breeds, the little pieces fall thru, but the large ones do not.
I would love to find a source for large chunks again, Pedegree is OK, but it costs twice as much as I had been paying.
 
Using dog food can slash the feed costs significantly. The only key is to choose a brand that will provide the nutrients breeding and growing rodents will require. Usually the one formulated for puppies works better. The problem, as Clay says, is the relatively small pellet size (falls through the mesh). Critical things to check for are protein (20-21%) and calcium (around 1%). The problem with some of the large breeds for puppies (IAMS for example) is that they have 26% protein, quite more than rats or mice require. All excess goes to waste and ends as nitrogen in the urine of the rodent which increases the ammonia smell. In checking at some of the tags Ol’Roy from WalMart seems to match the requirements of rodents well. The only problem is the size of the pellet (small).

Regards.
 
David,

If you are even able to make money out of breeding your own rodents then you are doing an awesome job!

Believe it or not we also enjoy playing genetics with our feeders. Although we try to breed female mice from prolific lines we also select for color. It makes it more fun. We usually have three females to a male. Invariably we try to have the three females of a similar color whereas the male will be different. We can spot really fast if we have a problem with the male or one of the females. Every minute that you save counts!

For example right now we have changed the color of all our Siberian hamsters to dark gray with white hands. I bet they would sell really well as pets. Some beige animals are also starting to show up spontaneously, and we plan to isolate that color two. It makes the task more interesting, at least for ourselves.

Regards


Regards.
 
Some beige animals are also starting to show up spontaneously, and we plan to isolate that color two.
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It should read:

Some beige animals are also starting to show up spontaneously, and we plan to isolate that color too.
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Sorry about that.
 
I play the mad scientist here as well.
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Isn't it fun though? I bet you can sell those "fancy rats" for twice as much.

Regards.
 
Lol... yeah we play the color breeding game as well. It was actually my daughters idea to start doing that, but I have enjoyed doing it myself as well.

Previously, and currently still, I breed for temperament. If I get any adult rats with attitudes they are quickly sent to the CO2 chamber. Passive, good natured rats make great meals. :)
 
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