Rats/mice:
OK so start up costs. We had to build 7 racks with about 300 tubs in and rody cages for the mice. We built in an auto-watering system aswell.
So housing:
Wood for the racks - £38.27
Mesh for racks (2 rolls) - £29.98
Screws/staples - £11.34
Tubeing for watering system - £23.47
Main tank for watering system - £9.89
Valves for watering system - £19.21
Tubs - Around £190 as we already had loads of them spare
Rody cages - around £90
Other inital start up:
Food/bedding/rubbish bin - £3 (best buy - ever lol!)
Small heater for "rodent room" - £10.99
Bowls (around 300) - About £50 (we went to discout stores and got small crockery cooking dishes)
Now, I usually buy in bedding at the same time as food. Which is every 2-3 months, but generally this is the shopping list for 2 months (alot of the veggies and all meat is frozen as quick as possible to keep for long enough but at the same time keep nutrients!):
45kg rolled oats - £24
15 kg pony mix - £7.12
2 kg dehydrated fruits - Varies
10 kg dehydrated veggies - Varies
1 kg kelp powder - £2
1 kg copper powder - £2.50
5 kg puffed rice - £5.50 (£1.10 per kg - bargain IMO
)
10 kg of bran - £7
30 chickens - £30 (I get all of the local farmers surplus stock etc)
40 whole beef shins - Varies, usually about £9 'cause the butchers throws it out!
50 heads of romaine lettuce - £21
5 kg Carrots - Varies, usually no more then £5 from the pony feed shop
1 kg Cabbage - Usually around £4.50
5kg Apples - Again varies, usually no more then £5 from the pony feed shop
5kg Pears - Yet again varies, usually no more then £5 from the pony feed shop
20kg kale - £38.91 and worth every coin!
200(ish)kg of wood pellets - £40
Nesting material - free-£10
If I wanted to, I could do this alot cheaper probably. Amount of chicken depends on how much surplus stock the farmer has as I refuse point blank to buy chickens from a supermarket so I just put in the average.
Other expenses:
Pest repellents (ACV) - £10.99 every 6-8 months
Chews/toys - tunnels were free from scrap yard, bird toys are £1 each, chew toys are free (apple tree
)
I think thats about it?
We worked it out and we can raise a rat to adult size for about 21p (0.30 USD) which is tonnes better then having to buy them for £1.10!!
We also sell frozen rats/mice to local pet shops hense we have such a big setup.