Rat Breeding for Feed?

[Chickengirl2671]

I breed rats for my snakes and had never thought of feeding the pinkies/fuzzies to the chickens, they love it when I find a wild rat nest in the house. I guess I could do that with all the extra males...

 

[Dandichook]

I used to breed rats for my snakes. I just checked the feed price for the type of food I used--at $35 for a 50 lb bag, I don't see how breeding rats as chicken feed would at all be economical.

Not to mention housing. I used to have two large tower cages along with about 3 smaller cages for maternity wards and holding cages. You could also build a breeding rack for them if you want, but either way housing can be expensive/requires a bit of space. Plus bedding (although if you potty train them to a litter box the bedding lasts a lot longer), and your time for management and cleaning... Unless you just really want to raise and breed rats as a hobby (in which case they make great and very rewarding pets!), I wouldn't recommend it solely as animal feed for an animal that can get it's protein some other way.

As others have said, maybe insects?

 

[FishaRneKed]

you can definitely gut just about any animal then pressure cook it and feed it to chickens or other omnivorous birds.

i do this with opossum whenever they come in to raid my yard.

i have bred rats before, but what are you going to feed your rats??? now you are talking about buying feed, when you could just have bought chicken feed

have you thought about breeding insects for your chickens?

look up BLACK SOLDIER FLY trap made from a bucket. it's easy and almost no maintenance.

meal worms is another good one. you buy a meal worm starter colony and let them breed/grow in a container.

these insects thrive on vegetable scraps and you can use grass clippings/dirt/sand, whatever is free as their substrate

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

As others have said, it's likely doable but not particularly economical.

I would think raising mealworms or BSL would be cheaper/easier, or maybe raising fish.

Alternately, if you live someplace with easy fishing, especially for invasive species, you could "harvest" a lot of protein while enjoying a hobby.

If you like fishing, that is...I always say that there's a fine line between "fishing" and "standing next to a body of water like an idiot" and I often find myself on the wrong side of the line.