10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Breeding Rats!

[@jackkonnof4106]

Is this a feasible business for someone that is somewhat physically disabled? I don't live on much and I'm debt free but I have had horrible doctors and have never qualified for disability and want to be self reliant. Could making 600 a month be doable ? Can you buy the tubs individually? I can weld and fabricate my own frame.

[@REAVER781]

The few times I've been bitten, was by "hormone aggressive" males. Now what I do, is buy a live male rat, let him grow to mating size, move him and a female to a different cage. I'll document when I 1st notice them mating, if they don't mate the next week, I know she's pregnant, he then gets fed off. I only have 4 snakes so I only have 2 females. One is nursing a litter of 13 that were born on Dec 1st. And since I found out they make good pets when I was researching breeding them, I got a Critter Nation cage. Their babies may be food, but they're still good pets.

[@debayeuxchats5607]

Critter nations are fantastic cages, and if kept in good condition also resell very easily. Nice choice!

[@sinandcyanide7505]

Mine are pets but food as well. I've got a CN and a couple of smaller nursery cages. They are awesome pets. I sell some of my extras as feeders and some as pets.

[@REAVER781]

@@sinandcyanide7505 that is a consideration I'm having, because my 4 balls can't eat that many rats. And since they'll be treated as pets until they get eaten, then I may sell them as pets too.

[@valnpaulvanorden]

Do you have customers wanting rats for Asian food? Namely...Chinese and Korean food?

[@coldbloodedkidz860]

I only have 10 bp, and I breed my own rats. I sell my overflow, and that pays for all the food for the rats, so my snakes eat for free basically.

[@andreskalayaan6208]

How many rat breeders you have? Haha thanks

[@sinandcyanide7505]

That's what I do and I've only got 4 bps. There's a local pet shop that buys my extra rats.

[@saintedcat3140]

Where do you sell them?

[@coldbloodedkidz860]

@@saintedcat3140 I sell them locally here in CT.

[@saintedcat3140]

@@coldbloodedkidz860 how do I start selling? Like how do I get people?

[@GingerSnapping]

I like this setup for feeders, tho to up litter rates and female fecundancy you can give them a boiled egg after birth to keep there protein levels up.

[@hilljacklife2073]

Nice ! I feed mine all kinds of good veggies and bones , my asfs love crickets and meal warms

[@nikkoshay5403]

I personally prefer community breeding. A male and 4 females and separate the female when she is pregnant. This allows the girls a break Also any rat that bites kill off. That aggression is genitc. I use to breed rats and I kept only tame rats. It's safer for the snake as well.

[@AbsolutePrecisionReviews]

Where did you get the rodent racks? Can you get them locally in Colorado?

[@Ur_Local_Royale_High_Fan_Lala]

So is it ok to keep my male rat with my female rat while she's pregnant and weaning her babies?

[@VinciKobra]

helped me so much with a lot of things . thank you bro 💪🏼

[@ChrisHardwickanimaladventures]

Happy to help!

[@safehavencarequality1516]

Just for others to know, be careful about using pine and if you use it just make sure it’s a good quality one that’s not to dusty,, bc the rats burrow and play in the bedding as well as just laying in it and they will get the pine dust that’s sorta toxic to them and will get them sick from respiratory infections / distress and they will constantly be making this sneezing sound so a mix of pine and aspen works quite well like a 40 60 mix and aspen they can make better baby towers/beds for the babies I’ve noticed... great info though Chris, I watch all your videos and keep it up..

[@toasty_cat123]

I just get the paper bedding.

[@sonoranherphaven1761]

I want to breed rodents so bad. Thanks for the content!

[@lu2man75ll]

Great video

[@hilljacklife2073]

I have about 175 snakes I feed once a week , I breed all my own rats mice and asfs ! That’s a job on it’s own ! Snakes are easy to take care of! But the rats 🐀 its on a another level thanks for sharing !

[@Humboldt-Herps]

That's a lot of snakes lol

[@KingTimmy136]

Do you run your own store?

[@itsjustagame2479]

Did you have any mice die while using newspaper? If so how long did it take before you had one pass away? I looked into using newspaper before I started breeding and google claims the ink had been pet friendly since 1997. Ive been using newspaper for about 4 weeks for mice and 1 year for ball pythons and have had 26 mice babies in last 4 days. No deaths. Interested in knowing what happen with you when you used newspaper.

[@hasisme1]

I’m thinking this is your favorite snake Bobby. He looks so comfortable around your neck.

[@lenacisowski1889]

I breed rats and a few times over the years I've been bitten badly by females with babies so watch out for that! They can be faster than you think and give a good bite if they are a protective mom.

[@teknotrkr]

Sounds like snake food to me

[@sinandcyanide7505]

In this house, if they bite, they're culled. I don't want babies that'll end up mouthy. I had a younger one have a small litter the other day and she's bitten my roommate twice just for having her hand in the cage. None of my others have ever bitten so we'll just keep breeding those females.

[@sg-cq9tb]

I cull rats that bite including babies and within 5 generations you will see no bites

[@trapier1381]

females can become aggressive week 1-3 pretty bad depending on the rat in question. Rats have different attitudes but a female during this time can go from cuddles to "BEN" over night. Ive found not only males but strange females added during this time can end really bad (strange(new) / not cage mates). exception to the rule is if they know the rat being added and even that might not stop a fight. With getting bit from a rat.. use common sense and dont stick your hand into the hide when they have baby's. lol..Other than that ive never been bit as well.. great info for those starting there own colony because i too used trial n error n wish i knew then what i know now and you pointed out the main key things

[@teknotrkr]

Been breeding fancies & Asf's for almost 5 years now & very rarely do I get bit regardless pregnant, have babies or with a female. If they do bite me they have a date with my snakes. It's called bad temperament. You should choose not to breed that in your rodents.

[@Bildgesmythe]

I could feed frozen, but I like rats too much to feed live. I could never raise rats, I'd just have a lot of pets. Remember the old movies Ben, and Willard?

[@taav3458]

A horse walks into a bar, the bartender says why da long face? The horse says I have testicular torsion.

[@jordanhuffman755]

Hey bud how ya been wit all the craziness goin on hope ur doin ok

[@JesseRyan]

built an asf rack a few months ago with the help of your videos.

[@dorrellcreekfarm]

Sounds nice!

[@jaydentarkkanen9169]

Have you ever had a hard time adding a new female rat in with an existing pair? Both the male and female from my existing pair seem to bite at this new female. Even when I put them all in a neutral location. I'm think it could be because the pair currently has a litter but they still act like that even when the babies aren't around.

[@millerhighexotics6178]

I would add a male to a new group of girls.

[@1911in45acp]

Hey Chris! New ball python owner here. perfect timing on this vid for me! I'm trying to get ahold of ASF young female's for breeding. seems like everything is sold out here in Colorado springs. you wouldn't happen to be able to sell me 3 asf females?

[@emiliodeanda423]

If you had a freeway pastel male; what female would you pick up to go along with him? I’m thinking an Ivory

[@ryanearl1081]

Hey Chris, I've found some softwood just like you use at Murdocks, very compressed about the same size bag as yours. After tax it's about $5, two bags will last me about a month. (But i have less rat bins than you do. I can also get Mazuri rodent breeder food, 50lbs bag for $30. For those of us in Colorado or anyone else with Murdocks I'd highly recommend getting your supplies there. (I add veggies from my aquaponics garden when I've grown more than I can eat. Sometimes leftovers depending on what was for dinner, like you said). While in season they will have chick's for sale maybe quail. Do you have any advice on the watering nipples/valves? what do you use? I have valves that will get stuck open. Guessing, its the hard water i have out here that builds up over time? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Nothing worse than finding a bin that has flooded... As always, I enjoy watching your videos. Hopefully see you soon at the next show.

[@Zanzibaby]

Don't have rats and definitely don't plan on breeding rats. But here i am watching rat videos.

[@courtneyschroet7399]

My pet stores are having trouble getting supply of feeders rat so I am thinking of breeding my two pet rats for feeders for my three ball pythons

[@brandontillery2715]

What bedding was it exactly that was killing them?

[@gaelenspirko2527]

re watching again year later lol and the way you say corn lmao ..... carn

[@DisasterMaggot]

What's awesome about rats is they play to establish dominance with one another; human children do the same when playing with other kids.

[@mikebramlett445]

I just got my small colony started in aquariums. I'll do that until I can get a rack. Love the videos Chris!

[@dorrellcreekfarm]

I used to breed some in 30g tanks, didn’t turn out too bad.

[@mikebramlett445]

@Royal Creations not yet, but they are still growing, not breeding yet. But I have a small ionizing air filter on top of the screen. I vacuum the filters when I change bedding every week and it's not really noticable. And my female ball python hasn't fasted since I got the rats. And they are pretty cute and entertaining so it's rewarding all around so far.

[@katiejamieson2294]

@Royal Creations I just have 1 female and 1 male in a tank and change the bedding every week. They smell lol.

[@dorrellcreekfarm]

Someday when I get back into reptiles (when I build a garage) I hope to have a setup like this!

[@maryrosesanpedro9129]

I would never feed a cute little rat to a snake

[@falcolf]

Snakes are cute too though, especially ball pythons!

[@ClutchCreations217]

Does the rats smell bad I heard it is ungodly

[@TJHutchExotics]

Not if you clean on a regular basis.

[@hhhserpents5495]

Yeah I've got my colonies in aquariums. I'm going to make a rack soonish

[@dorrellcreekfarm]

I started in aquariums when I bred rats, we all gotta start somewhere!

[@dethofasalesmanhoneyboi5577]

I’m right there with ya

[@dethofasalesmanhoneyboi5577]

I started using hay from tsc for my rats n mice keeps the smell down so much better than the pine I used

[@dethofasalesmanhoneyboi5577]

They will kill any other males babies

[@scoobyscooby7762]

Can u use aspen fiber for rats?

[@sinandcyanide7505]

Aspen is actually preferred over pine.

[@wesleysantiago1461]

You only breed rats and not ASF. Just wondering your reasoning... I'm looking into breeding as well.

[@teddyroosevelt2838]

Hay Chris You getting the covid jab tomorrow

[@preppergirl2866]

Hi Chris, I love all your movies and never miss one. I have 20 Ball Pythons for about 1 year. I also have 3 Sand Boas, so I keep a few mice for them. I freeze the extras but so far I’ve only Fed live. I have homemade racks that we built off directions on You Tube. The plastic tubs are the cement tubs from Home Depot. I’ve never had a rat chew out, but transferring them to clean the tub is when they make their getaway. The youngsters will go into plastic live traps that I bought off Amazon. But I recently had a grown female escape. The first night she chewed through 3 water tubes and flooded 3 mice tubs. The second night she chewed through 4 rat water tubes and flooded more tubs. I was ready to get rid of them all ! We caught her on the third day but now I’m paranoid about them escaping. Do you have any tricks you’ve found that prevent them escaping when cleaning?

[@xxyy1318]

Can you draw them with treats instead of chasing and have a helper to make a barricade?