- Joined
- Aug 16, 2002
- Messages
- 1,031
Don't bother me, I'm eating!
an adult female p. regalis finishing off a rat pup.
Ed
an adult female p. regalis finishing off a rat pup.
Ed
it was a live rat pup (I breed rats for feeders for my herps and any leftovers go to the inverts).Originally posted by Tarantula
Wow I was just gonna post a C paganus or an A seemani eating rat pups both were fed today. That is a great photo. Was it live or dead? I have never had success with dead vertebrates.
Looks like a piece of corkbark that the leg is resting on.Originally posted by conipto
Is it me, or does that ornamental have a pink toe on the last set of legs??
Bill
Hi Chris. I have four 66 quart sterilite brand opaque plastic bins that have had the center of the tops cut out and 1/4" hardware wire mesh pop riveted in for ventilation. I use 1 male to 3 females in each bin as my breeding ratio. I use aspen shavings for substrate. I used to use lab rodent chow but because it is a pain to find I have been using a dog food that is very close to the protien, fat, etc. listed on the lab rodent chow bag. I do all the cage chores and harvest the rat pups once a week, takes me about 15 minutes per bin. I give them enough food and water to last them until I service the bins again the following week. altogether I spend an hour once a week on the rodents. since rat pups sell for over a dollar each here (not sure on the price, but pink mice are a dollar each so I am sure rat pups are more) I save anywhere from 20 to 60.00 weekly dependant on how many rat pups I have on hand. I raise them in my garage as they are too smelly to have in the house. I have no problems with the rats in the unheated garage in the winter, they all huddle for warmth. I have to run a fan on the rats in the summer when the garage temp gets close to 100 degrees. IME rats are easier to raise, hardier, and better moms to their babies than mice are. I used to raise mice but no longer, I have switched all bins over to rats. when the rats no longer produce I hold a batch of pups back to raise up for new breeders, the older non producers are feed out.Originally posted by Pyrdacor
Is it easy to breed rats for feeding? I thought about breeding mice. But those little mouse pups are to small for my Ts and the grown up I regard as to dangerous in case to hurt one of my Ts. I guess a rat pup would be a good thing to feed. Can you give some explanation?
Greets
Chris
Ernie, here ya go.........Originally posted by MrT
Ed,
That sounds like a slick setup you have there.
I tryed breeding mice once and it was too much to deal with, ie the smell, cannibalism, ect.
But the garage rat idea sounds worth trying.
Would you please post a pic. of your setup and the bins.
Thanks,
Ernie
it is a boom and bust kinda thing, sometimes there can be up to 30 or more rat pups in one bin each week, sometimes there are none. I know, not much help, eh?Originally posted by Pyrdacor
Thanks for the information, I guess I'll try it out. Just one last question. You say you are using 1 male and 3 females in one bin. How many pups do get out then. I think that'll be too much for me
a lot of times I don't need all the pups produced and I end up freezing them or giving them away, but with more than one bin going you better your chances of having pups on hand, for instance if a male dies in a bin usually the females will not accept another male so I feed the remaining females out and start another breeder bin. I try to stagger the ages of the breeders as they usually only produce for about 6 to 8 months. you could try one bin with one male to one female, I would not recommend trying two bins with a female in each and switching the male back and forth........the female may not accept the male back after he has been gone and the female is in heat again right after she gives birth if I remember correctly. believe it or not rats actually make very intelligent pets, I gave two juv females to a tarantula friend (she named them Laverne and Shirley) and she says the rats are very personable (best to get them when they are weaned). I feel guilty even mentioning the rats as feeders because several people here have rats as pets, I think Holley has rats as pets.Originally posted by Pyrdacor
That was kinda fast .
That's too much for me. I just got 5 Ts at the moment. You can imagine that 30 pups are to much. Maybe it works with just a couple. 1male and one female. or two females in two different bins. Swithcing the male from one to the other.