I was browsing through "rat breeding" sites the other day and one site in particular got my attention. They had set themselves up as know all, and were a self appointed watchdog of feeder raisers. They spoke about some valid cases of cruelity, but for the most part it was just whining.
They wrote that it was the worst form of cruelity to keep rodents on pine shavings. No reason, just because they said so. The only other bedding would be a pelleted wood form. Heating my home with a wood pellet stove, I can attest that pellets are like little sponges. Trouble is they turn back to the sawdust that they were formed from.
Can anyone site any reason why pine shavings should not be used as rodent bedding ?
The voles I've kept didn't like cedar shavings, but had no visible problem with pine.
Post by scfalconry on Jun 11, 2006 20:31:46 GMT -5
According to most of the PET RAT (anti-feeder folk) and quite a few feeder breeder people... the aromatic oil that pine shavings gives off is an respiratory irritant. Seems respiratroy problems is one of the most common ailments for rats.
The ones that really harp on this suggest apen shavings as a substitute. (similar price and no aromatic oils) Well... thel Wal-Mart, feed&seed and pets stores around here only carry pine or cedar. Also ...since I bought a huge bale of pine shavings before learning all of this... my rats are currently bedded in pine shavings. Likely they will continue to be housed on pine. They don't seem to have any problem with it. Likewise the rats at the local pet stores, and the pet rat breeder that I bought my breeding stock from all use pine shavings. Maybe it is something that shows up after many months of being bedded on pine. Maybe it is BS. That will not be a problem for my rats... they'll be euthanized long before old age.
The pet stores down near the mall have alternative bedding. Pellets of recycled newspaper and corn cob and all sorts of other alternatives.
Hey scfalconry, How about an update on the rat project ? I checked with local pet shop and a few snake folks and am not sure whether it would be worth set up and maintainance capital. Plus, I don't have a good place to set up.
8-)I'm new here but i found a website with great deals on rats i will post the address as soon as i find where i wrote it down. I think you do have a point about breeding them, but the price in the end for rats is less on this website so you save money, time ,and effort;D
LOL rat breeding is not what you expected is it? I think I might have been the original naysayer on rats. We bred them for awhile here, for pets. You got to watch out for the males, the males (and some females) get violent, the males have alphas and will attack each other to the death. Rat's can be unpredictable sometimes so you gotta watch the females... also A rat will kill and eat the brood because they sense something wrong with the pups.
Post by chris kimble on Aug 1, 2006 4:45:29 GMT -5
Interesting topic to find here. I usually see this discussion on the reptile forums. I didnt disect this thread, but I thought I'd throw my opinion out there anyway.
I breed rats for my rather large collection of snakes. I produce about 200 rats a month, and keep them in racks similar to what any large scale rodent breeder keeps theirs in....(sliding tubs, wire tops, auto. water, etc.) I also feed them Mazuri breeder pellets, and wouldnt feed them anything else.
Males are kept on large tubs alone...females in small tubs, alone. When a females litter is weaned (aprox. 4weeks) She goes in with a male, along with a few other females. After a couple weeks they go back into their small tubs to give birth, and the male has time to relax, etc etc, bla bla bla....
Of course their is a lot of work to this and it is a costly and time consuming project. It is however cheaper than buying frozen rodents,,,,IF you feed a lot of them over a long period of time. If your looking to feed one or two a day...buy them frozen, and spend the time youll save doing something else...like hawking!
And Rodent Pro is by far the best I've found......you can compare rats all day, but customer service is an obvious plus, and rodent pro has good service.
Anyone who feels they need to try breeding their own rats is welcome to contact me if they want more detailed info on how I breed mine.
Also, for what its worth....I still feed my birds quail!
I agree with Chris. I tried the rat thing for a short time and found it somewhat painstaking. I only used 6 females and two males. I found it very time consuming keeping the rats seperated and moving them from cage to cage. True, you do save a ton of money instead of buying but I didn't want to put that kind of time in. I could only imagine what it would be like keeping up with 12 or more females. After that failed venture I tried out breeding Coturnix quail. I found the Quail to be much easier to manage. They grow and breed much faster than the rats. I have a freezer full of 12-14 ounce birds that are only 6 weeks old. I get apporximately 35 eggs a day using only 52 breeders in a 12 foot by 3 foot pen in the back yard. I can save 100 eggs in 3 days, incubate them in 17 days and start again with another 100 eggs every 16-17 days. Can't beat it.