rodent cost analysis

[brick]

wondering if anyone had done a cost analysis of breeding your own rodents. I have worked out, cage construction, bedding etc etc. But i want some advice on what kind of weight in food, you are needing to produce a set size or rat, if that makes sense.
I am going to start doing this, just for myself, as by the time all my snakes are adults, im going to be looking at needing over 30 large rats a week, and that is a lot!!
I was thinking i will start with one rack, with say 5 tubs of a 1.4 ratio, and will use this just for my own use, but if possible i would like to expand and provide for other people.
The cost of rodent food, will be differently priced here, as to the UK, but if someone could give me and idea, and how much food is needed etc

cheers
dave

[brick]

bump..

[tazzyasb]

We have 12 tanks of mice breeding 3 females and one male. Plus 4 tanks for growing on as I need pinkies to large mice.

Rats we currently have two females and two males. This will not produce the number of rats I need for the boas however they are going to be for the corns and rat snakes not the boas.

I do a swap with one of my local shops who sells everything from reptiles to birds. I swap normal and hairless mice alive for extra large frozen rats and tubs of crickets ect for the bosc and BDS.

I still need to buy about £10 - £20 worth of food per month and every now and then I get 50 large mice in bulk to keep me ticking over on the mouse front its large i find you have the hardest time producing enough of.

Back to my point lol

I spend £30 per month on food for the mice and rats. They also get fruit and veg scraps and so on. Spend about £10 month for saw dust and hay I use a mix in the tanks. Bedding is shredded papper from work my department produces about 2 to 3 bin bags a day so its never in short supply.

Need to work something better out for the egg eater though at the minutes its quail eggs from costco and budgie and pidgeon eggs when I can get them.

[madfrontosa]

I all depends on what and how much you need.

If you have a growing collection, then I would say go with it, but you need plenty of space - for example with the mice

say 5 tubs of 4 female / 1 male - which should give you around 40 young in perhaps 10-12 week spells

you then need the same amount of tubs for weening to sub adult size, and possibly the same amount of tubs to bring some hold back to full adult size - and spilt male / female etc.

or - as I have done - use the ralph davies rat breeding - have a male in each tub and put females in until they are gravid and move them to other tubs to raise young and ween them - give them a break, and put em back in with the males - this has worked very well - you can also regulate what you take an when.

you also know what diet they have been kept on and have the benefit of fresh kill and live for tricky feeders.