cost

[Damian]

this is a cool edition to the forums and being i have no clue or experience with breeding rodents i figured i would post the first question ;D. i know it cant be cheap, but how much money does it generally cost to keep a rodent colony going? i am also guessing that you guys do not keep these rodents in the house because of the smell, do you have a seperate facility for them or do you keep them in your house?

[eViL_KaRoT]

Re:cost

Well, I don't breed them, but I do have two rats as pets. And they don't stink, as long as you keep the cage clean. A monthly cleaning and replacement of the substrate (pine shavings) and the smell is gone!!! No matter how many rodents or animals you have, as long as you are always cleaning up after them, you will have no stink!!! I mean, heck we have 2 rats and 5 cats and the house just smells like a house!!

[sclark]

Re:cost

Hey Damian,

The costs and setups really depends on what you want to brred and how many. I have 20 rat tanks right now and about 15 mouse tanks, and 4 gerbil tanks and 2 hampster tanks. All are setup in my basement. Its perfect for the mice and rats. It never gets above 80 degree's and never drops below 64. That is perfect for mice and rats to breed. I use all 10 gallon tanks except for two big wire cages. The wire cages have the two male rats in, and the females all go into that cage until the show signs of being pregO.. Then the females get placed in their own 10 gallon tank for less stress and a safe place to give birth. The mice are all housed in 10 gallon tanks with a ratio of 4 females to one make. This produces 60 pinkie mice per tank on average. The cost of this setup is not bad. The biggest cost is the food. I feed all my rodents strictly RMH lab blocks. It runs about 25 bucks for a 40 pound bag of food. The 10 gallon tanks run about 10 bucks, the water bottles with hanging holders run about 7-8 bucks. With the rats because they tend to puncture the plastic bottles, I use two metal holders per bottle. One that holds the bottle and one that caps over the top.. I make all the tops my self with 1/4 hardware cloth. It is by fat the cheapest way to go. The big rat cages are 3 foot wide x 2 foot deep by 18 inches high. Those cost about 35 bucks each. This hardest thing is the time it takes to clean all these tanks atleast once a week. The bedding I use is wood multch. that stuff is only 4 bucks a bail. I have had very good luck with breeding these guys. I do have one rule, if the mom eats the babies, she is fed off fast and replaced. If they prove to be good moms they get a nice house for 8 months and then replaced with a younger mom. The exess mice and rats are sold to the pet shop. I have heard its real hard to find pet store to buy rodents, but the one 10 mins away buys atleast 6-8 doz mice and pinks from me weekly.

As for the smell. To be honest, a weekly cleaning, ionizer and a few stick ups I don't have any smell up stairs. Trust me if I did, the wife would jump on me..LOL. If I do notice any kind of odor I just go and clean them early..

Just make sure if you get into breeding, you have plenty of free time and can convert to being aboe to kill babies you helped make..LOL

It is very cost effective to me because I have so many snakes. Biggest problem now is I don't have any snakes in that eat mice. So i seel what I can, freeze the rest..

Hope that helped some..

Steve

[redtailedmel]

Re:cost

it definately is alot of work and time. i tried it with mice first and decided it wasnt for me, couldnt figure out why they kept keeling over. then i got a few rats they to me are easier to raise! but... then there was the smell i did not have a place to keep them outside my house so they were all killed and ate. now i just buy them froze already to me thats much easier! but once i get my shed built im going to raise rats again my dad owns eas-lee cage mfg. and he has built many rack systems for people before and we have a good idea how many we need. they are wire cages with insertable holders and all pretty neat! but as far as the cost once you get your little stock going all you really have to pay for is the food cost. if you sell a few you get your food money back. that is if you already have your water and cages paid for. that would definately be the best way to go if you have a lot of animals that eat rodents.

[sclark]

Re:cost

Hey Redtailedmel,

If you do setup in a shed, make sure the room has heat/air conditioning and fans. Mice and Rats will die if it readches 115 degrees. I know my garage which is well insulated will hit 140 on a hot summer day..

Steve

[redtailedmel]

Re:cost

oh yeah i know all about that we raised quails and a little bit of everything back in the day. my dad gets a hair up his toosh and he will start raising something. lol we have had quails, chickens, mice, rats, peacocks, cows horses, goats lmao i could go on but that would take all night hehehe he never got into emus or alpacas though thanks god! i got stuck taking care of most of these animals!!!!