Quality Bred Boas

Keeping and breeding rats as snake-food

These are different standards than for pet rats, do not proceed reading if you haven't read our terms and conditions page

Because we want our Boas to get the best possible care, we make sure to provide the best possible housing and food. And that’s why we breed our own Boa food: rats.

At Quality Bred Boa’s, the rats are not only prey items but also pets, because we believe that every animal deserves to get the best possible care. And if you want your snakes to get the best possible food, you need to take good care of your prey items.

We keep our breeder rats in T4 cages measuring about 60 cm / 40 cm. We keep 2 female rats per cage. Every week we clean all the cages and switch the rats to the next level in our rack, this way, they are put inside a cage with a male rat every 10th week, giving the female rats time to care for their young and relax a bit before they are used for breeding again.

We keep our rats outside all year long. Not everybody can keep their rats outside, you need a spot that’s out of direct sun and draft, it needs to be sheltered from the rain and isolated so they can keep themselves warm. A small shed will do perfectly, but remember that your rats need daylight too, otherwise they won’t reproduce well.

Our rats are kept in a rack that can be isolated with polystyrene in the winter. We build a roof on it using plastics on a wooden frame, and made two panels on the front sheltering them from rain. Because it’s all made out of transparent plastics, the rats have natural daylight every minute of the day.

For the cold winter days we made them all a lid on their cage made of plywood and isolated with polystyrene. As bedding we use a thin layer of sawdust to absorb any fluids like water and urine, and on top of that a really big pile of hay where they can build their nests from. Don’t use too much sawdust, as rats are highly sensitive for the small dust particles in it, making them sneeze and feeling sick.

Many large breeders use pellets as food for their rats. This is because these pellets contain all the necessary vitamins and minerals the rats need to stay healthy. Only problem is, the rats don’t always like to eat them, cause it all tastes the same. Because of this, if you have some picky rats, they only eat enough to sustain themselves. This way, they can’t produce large litters, making them unsuitable to use as breeder rats.

Because we had a few of those rats in our rack and couldn’t find anyone with enough female rats for sale, we switched back to normal food. Before we kept snakes, we bred our own mice and rats for pet stores and exhibitions so I remembered to make the food as varied as possible for that way the rats would produce the biggest litters and be healthy enough to care for them too. We use a basic food mixture for rabbits and rodents and add a little dog food twice a week for extra proteins and fat.

Next to that, we feed our rats a small portion of raw fish or cooked meat every week, and about 2 times a week they get a mixture of vegetables, fruit, potatoes (cooked) rice (cooked) cookie crumbs, pastas, oven dried bread, and all kinds of things as long as they aren’t spiced, salted or containing too much water (like cucumber or lattice) cause rats can’t tolerate those too well. We also give our rats fresh water every day and clean the bottles every week when the cages are cleaned out too. When it’s a little colder outside, we sometimes give them a little broth in a bottle or small dish so they can warm up a bit. Yes, some people have told us we’re crazy for doing all this, but we think it’s just the best way to care for the animals and every time we see those shiny coats and litters up to 18 young, I still think we’re doing the right thing.

Some facts:

Rats are sexually mature when they’re about 6 or 7 weeks old. Do not put males and females together at this age, cause the female isn’t big enough yet to successfully produce and raise a litter of pups. It’s better to wait till the female rat is at least 4 month’s old before putting her in with a male. This way, she’ll be almost fully grown and should be capable of producing a healthy litter.

When your rats are old enough, put them together to reproduce. A female rat is receptive once every 5 days. So if you don’t want to keep the male in with the females, keep them together for 7 days to make sure the male had a chance to impregnate the female(s).

Make sure your rats always have clean water to drink, especially when they are pregnant or nurture young. Without water, no milk, meaning no food for the baby rats, resulting in poor quality food for your Boas. Also provide some dog food twice a week, this contains the necessary proteins and fats for your mother rats to stay healthy and provide good milk to her young. It also prevents the mother from eating her young due to malnutrition.

After about 22 days, you should have some babies :P

Rats are born without fur and are pink for about 3 days, after that their markings will gradually appear. They are also blind and deaf when born, after 9 days they are able to hear and their eyes will open between day 10 – 14. After 14 days, the rat pups will have grown their first complete fur.

At about 2 weeks old, they start nibbling on some solid foods, but it takes till the 4th week till they don’t need milk anymore.

Never provide regular (cow) milk to your rats, it contains too much lactose causing diarrhoea. If you want to give some milk, use lactose-free or kitten-milk.

Keep baby rats with their mother for at least 4 weeks, but no longer than 5 weeks. If you keep the young males and females together, they can and will reproduce.

To tell if your rat is female, go look for nipples (they have 12) To tell if your rat is male, look for the testicles. If it is a male, they’re not easy to miss. Do not try to determine the sex of the rat while holding it by the tail, because males can retract their manly parts, making them look like a female.

If you have any questions considering keeping, breeding or feeding rats (in any way), we're happy to provide the information you are looking for. Just send us an email using the contact page.