where's the best place to buy feeders?

[Pliskin]

I'm in Toronto .

anyone else from Toronto(markham , actually) ? how much should they cost?
difference in price frozen/live ?
do they sell them at petsmart?

[Chu'Wuti]

Yes, PetSmart & other stores will sell them, but the cost is horrendous. Your best bet is to order online where you can get animals for under 0.20 cents to maybe 2.55 per animal depending upon the size and amount you purchase at a time. There are quite a number of prey breeders; you can buy 25-100 or more at a time if you have a deep freezer to keep them in. The place from which I order said to get an air-tight container and store them in it--double-wrapped--to help maintain quality.

I get them in batches of 25-50 (depending upon what I'm getting), and even with the shipping cost (which is nearly half the total cost), it's WAY cheaper than buying a few at a time in a store.

I use themousefactory.com--the mice/rats are always very clean and come still very frozen (hard as rocks), but there are probably other online sources just as good and much closer to you (The Mouse Factory is in Texas, which is really far from you), so let's hope some of the other Canadians give you some good places to go.

You can also google frozen mice or frozen rats & seek sources, then do some comparison shopping. Also find ratings for the sources you find so you can find a place that provides really clean, healthy prey animals. Good luck!

[Deej85]

I live in BC, I get my mice from canadianmouseman who operates out of Alberta.

It is closer to you then Texas, but there could also be another breeder closer to you in the east.

[Pliskin]

i've been in touch with another member here , he's local and selling them for $1.50/ea

[Chu'Wuti]

Wow--that much? For what size? Here's what $1.50 buys you at the mouse factory:

When you purchase 10 MEDIUM Rat 80 gr / 5", it costs 1.50 per rat so $15.00 for a package of ten medium rats, not including shipping. The prices goes down as you increase the size of your order.

These come prekilled/frozen.

[Chu'Wuti]

Actually, now that I include shipping costs, $1.50 per rat isn't bad.

However, if you're talking about mice, that's expensive. You can get jumbo mice for $1.275 each--including shipping costs--at themousefactory.com. Maybe less somewhere else, especially if you find a closer Canadian source.

[citysnakes]

if you can make it to the mississauga reptile expo you can find live or frozen feeders for pretty decent prices.

[Chu'Wuti]

Darn it. I want a reptile expo to appear where I live! Soon!

[Aaron_S]

Just move somewhere that has them :D

Or put one together.

[Chu'Wuti]

Just move somewhere that has them

Or put one together.

Oh--somehow, neither of those sounds very easy!:laugh:

[Ringo]

My petsmart does not carry them. The store i buy them from is at a ******** price, and they never have as many as i need in stock. Today they did,so i bought a bunch and i'm going to breed my own....i'll trade 1 headache for another, at least this one won't hurt my wallet as bad..

[EarthGoddess]

The PetCo near me will not sell live mice if they know they'll be feeders!! store policy!! and the mice they have are kinda too big for my snakes. I finally converted my snakes to frozen fuzzies, but they are expensive relatively. How about buying a male and a female mouse and breeding your own feeders??

[Chu'Wuti]

The PetCo near me will not sell live mice if they know they'll be feeders!! store policy!! Corporate policy--it's true in all PetCo stores and in all PetsMart stores, from what I've seen.

F can be found at decent prices compared to in-store prices, especially when you buy in bulk. Some of us don't have space for a feeder breeding operation!

[Boostedneon04]

i get all mine from a local breeder and if a reptile expo is town ill grab sum there too..i get 100-200 frozen adult mice and 100-200 hoppers at a time..have a separate freezer for them..makes it easier than going back and forth to the store

[Chu'Wuti]

have a separate freezer for them.

Wish I did. I have to hope nobody notices them in my freezer! It could freak someone out. At least my kids & DH don't seem to mind! ;-)

[Boostedneon04]

Wish I did. I have to hope nobody notices them in my freezer! It could freak someone out. At least my kids & DH don't seem to mind! ;-)

lol yea it still freaks people out when they dont expect them to be in there lol..

[Boots]

Does your freezer look like this one perhaps?

http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/images/other/contestwinner_08_11.jpg

Contest winner for November 2008 over at the Thamnophis forum. Link to contest (http://www.thamnophis.com/forum/thamnophis-contests/4389-november-2008-photo-contest.html)

[siz]

Hahahaha, that's hilarious.
One time I had some mice in my freezer and my sister reaches in..
"YEAH, PEROGIES!......AHHHH!"

[Chu'Wuti]

Does your freezer look like this one perhaps?
ROFL!!

Similar! I have a deep freezer--much larger than that one--so the 3 sizes of rats & hopper mice aren't _quite_ so obvious! Plus my supplier recommended storing them in the plastic bags then in airtight plastic boxes to extend shelf life. Even so . . . they are mixed in with other meats & things!

That's a great photo!