Cheap frozen rodents melbourne

[Khronoz]

I have 4 snakes and im at that point where buying from reptile stores is expensive but i cant afford to spend 100+ on bulk. Any cheap rodent suppliers around melbourne?


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[Flaviemys purvisi]

Breed your own, best thing I started doing.

 

[Stompsy]

I have 4 snakes and im at that point where buying from reptile stores is expensive but i cant afford to spend 100+ on bulk. Any cheap rodent suppliers around melbourne?


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You’ll probably find that private sellers will charge you around the same as a pet shop if you aren’t buying in bulk.

We buy in bulk from a guy in Melbourne who also supplies many pet stores and we get them at a good price because we buy a lot at once.

If you could wrangle a few other keepers into buying a bulk load with you, you’d probably have much more luck with cheaper prices.

Where abouts are you in Melbs? Send me a pm if you’d rather not divulge in the thread!

 

[Khronoz]

Sorry for the extremely late reply but after reading ur comments i think I’ll start breeding my own feeders. Always wanted to own rats could be fun. I looked at the forums on here and google searched but im still not hundred percent sure on how to take care of them and stuff. Should i start a separate thread or just ask questions here?


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[Flaviemys purvisi]

Sorry for the extremely late reply but after reading ur comments i think I’ll start breeding my own feeders. Always wanted to own rats could be fun. I looked at the forums on here and google searched but im still not hundred percent sure on how to take care of them and stuff. Should i start a separate thread or just ask questions here?


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It's not difficult mate, I breed mice, rats is much the same, just more space is required as they're obviously bigger.

I put nineteen 4 week old weaners in the freezer this morning, got another 9 hoppers here and 10 pinkies.


I started with 1 trio of Quackenbush super mice weaners on January 21 this year and have 34 live mice going (2 adult trios) plus offspring at the moment with another 30 odd in the freezer.

Too easy.

 

[Khronoz]

There are still a few things I’m still unsure of though.

1. Ive read that rats don’t start breeding until 6 weeks of age but then I’m reading in a other place i should start breeding them until they’re a few months old. When should i start breeding them?

2. I have 2 snakes that are on hopper rats and 2 on rat pinkies. Should i have a female for both the bigger snakes and a single rat for the 2 smaller snakes or a female rat per snake?

3. Should i keep them in a tub or a wire cage? I don’t which one would better convenience wise.


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[Flaviemys purvisi]

I let my mice start breeding from 5-6 weeks old. I keep mine in 2ft glass aquariums.
I've never kept rats so I'd imagine the wire topped rat tubs would be the best to prevent escapes. I have several of them, I use them for basking my turtles in outside in the sun.

I'd imagine 1 trio of rats (2 females and 1 male) would be enough for your needs. When a litter is born... take half of them away immediately or after a few days for your snakes that on rat pinkies and let the adults rear the remainder of the litter to hoppers then take them out. By then, the females will already be pregnant again. My female mice are dropping a litter every 3 weeks to the day, I'm taking weaners off them at 19 days so they're not having a new litter with a heap of weaners still suckling.

After you've bred them half a dozen or so times, retire them and raise up a new trio from the last litter and start again.

 

[Fall guys]

The rats I work with have been known to chew through the thin mesh top and breaking out around the holes the water bottles go in, so it needs to be thickish

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

These are a few of the tubs I have, mice tubs. I haven't ever used them for mice as yet. Might rear some weaners in a couple if I run out of space in the tanks.
The mice definitely wouldn't be chewing through this stainless steel mesh, I'd honestly be pretty surprised if rats did. I'm sure their teeth would wear out before the mesh did.

The lids mightn't look it but they are pretty heavy duty.


My basic Quackenbush super mice breeding setup. Standard 2ft glass aquariums. Apple scented Chipsi as a substrate, a water bottle, food dish, couple of hides and some shredded newspaper that they use to build nests with. I clean once /week or fortnight depending on how many mice are in the tank at the time.



So for rats, just up-size everything...

 

[Khronoz]

How much do u generally spend on bedding and where to buy it in bulk?


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[Flaviemys purvisi]

Small 2kg bag of chipsi from petbarn costs $15 and lasts about 3-4 weeks. Sometimes I get a larger 3.2kg bag from another local pet store for $23 and it lasts almost 2 months.

 

[Khronoz]

Okay so thanks for the information so far its been really helpful. I will be picking up a trio very soon. Also, whats the easiest way to euthanise the rats?


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[Flaviemys purvisi]

Okay so thanks for the information so far its been really helpful. I will be picking up a trio very soon. Also, whats the easiest way to euthanise the rats?


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Hi @Khronoz sorry I missed this... I just use a soda stream machine... Have made a small gas chamber out of a Sistema tub and attach it to the soda stream via some aquarium air line tubing and it's that simple.

Read this following thread for more info on how to do it yourself.
https://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/threads/co2-gas-chamber-instructions.94534/

Photo courtesy of Hsut77