petstore rat prices, what do you pay?

[Aaron_S]

Originally Posted by reptiledude987

I stopped buying at a pet store 15 snakes ago. I found a local breeder and my price list goes as follows;

Mice
Pinkies .60
fuzzies .75
hoppers 1
weanlings 1.10
adult 1.25
jumbo 1.75

Rats:
pinks .75
fuzzies .85
pups 1
weans 1.5
small 2
med 3
large 3.5
jumbo5

orders over $100 get 10% off

I always end up getting 10% off lol

Overpaying bro. I pay $2 - $2.50 a medium rat.

[reptiledude987]

Originally Posted by Aaron_S

Overpaying bro. I pay $2 - $2.50 a medium rat.

Well pm me the contact infor for your supplier. Its worth a drive to the GTA for me.

[Wingbeats]

In my area, there is a local small chain of pet/garden stores. There, I can buy a box of 6 fuzzies for about $14.

Yeah, more expensive than an online breeder, but I only have one snake. So, a box of 6 actually lasts me quite a while! So I don't feel that the shipping for bulk is worth it to me, until I have more than one (or three or four) snakes.

[Aaron_S]

Originally Posted by Wingbeats

In my area, there is a local small chain of pet/garden stores. There, I can buy a box of 6 fuzzies for about $14.

Yeah, more expensive than an online breeder, but I only have one snake. So, a box of 6 actually lasts me quite a while! So I don't feel that the shipping for bulk is worth it to me, until I have more than one (or three or four) snakes.

That's fine. I think for 1 snake the price is pretty managable for most people. It's cheap compared to many other pets.

We still have to support local good businesses too!

[EL Ziggy]

Originally Posted by Wingbeats

In my area, there is a local small chain of pet/garden stores. There, I can buy a box of 6 fuzzies for about $14.

Yeah, more expensive than an online breeder, but I only have one snake. So, a box of 6 actually lasts me quite a while! So I don't feel that the shipping for bulk is worth it to me, until I have more than one (or three or four) snakes.

I understand your logic but I disagree with you beats . Using your math, if you fed your snake just one fuzzy every 7 days the box of 6 would last 42 days. After 4 boxes you will have spent $56 for 24 fuzzys. You can order 50 mouse fuzzys with taxes and shipping included from Big Cheese for $50.65. Thats twice as many feeders for less money. The only sacrifice is clearing the extra freezer space .

[sophiedufort]

I don't use frozen rodents, only live, and I had troubles finding a reasonable supplier. I used to drive almost one hour to Pet Bazaar in Maitland, as they sold mice for $1.29 and small rats twice as much, as opposed to $3.99/mouse at Petco and impossible prices for rats. A couple of days ago I found a local mouse/rat breeder on Craigslist, and now I'm paying 60 cents for hoppers, 90 cents for adult mice, and a maximum of $2.50 per rat (this price being the jumbo size). He also sells them frozen or freshly killed. If you browse Craigslist, you'll be surprised at what you can find.

[smoothie4l]

I don't buy from petshops or online, I buy bulk at conventions. They had small rats for only 1$ but pinky rats were also 1$ ( supply and demand I guess )
You can bicker with them to, I got a amazing deal were I asked for 20 but they come in bags of 25 and he didn't want to break up the bag. So I got the 5 for free!

[prairiepanda]

Originally Posted by bigsnakegirl785

They shouldn't stink. I've bought from both Layne Labs and Big Cheese and none of them stink. They have a bit of a musty smell when thawed out, but that's about it. I can't really smell it unless I bring the rat to my nose or smell it on my fingers. The snakes sure can smell it though. :P

The pet store rats smelled a bit. I suspect they were thawed and re-frozen a couple times, which is another reason I wanted to buy in bulk.

The stinky rats I've encountered before haven't had the kind of stink that a partially-decayed rat would have from being thawed and refrozen multiple times. It's the stink of the enclosure the rats were raised in. Dirty aspen and rat pee smell. Those were from Petsmart, though. The ones I buy in bulk online don't have a dirty rat cage smell, just the slight mustiness you described which is to be expected.

[Wingbeats]

Originally Posted by EL-Ziggy

I understand your logic but I disagree with you beats . Using your math, if you fed your snake just one fuzzy every 7 days the box of 6 would last 42 days. After 4 boxes you will have spent $56 for 24 fuzzys. You can order 50 mouse fuzzys with taxes and shipping included from Big Cheese for $50.65. Thats twice as many feeders for less money. The only sacrifice is clearing the extra freezer space .

Can't argue with the math, haha! I did save Big Cheese for later. I suspect my rainbow boa will outgrow her food pretty quickly (I just upgraded from fuzzies to hoppers this week) but when she's an adult that is for sure worth it!

I just hope they don't get freezer burn in the span of time it takes for one snake eat through a stack of 50. That's a year's worth-ish on a 7-day feeding schedule. On a 10-day adult feeding schedule...that's 500 days' worth....

Stuff to think on, haha

[SnoopySnake]

Originally Posted by Wingbeats

I just hope they don't get freezer burn in the span of time it takes for one snake eat through a stack of 50. That's a year's worth-ish on a 7-day feeding schedule. On a 10-day adult feeding schedule...that's 500 days' worth....

You can take a few out, and put them in a freezer bag. Put the rest underneath everything else in the freezer. Like I said in a previous post, if you call or email they can usually do smaller numbers.

[Sasha2]

The biggest issue is rodent pro makes you buy 100 of the fuzzies or smaller.
Big Cheese lets you buy only 50.
I one snake eating fuzzy rats, I certainly dont need 100 even doubling them up eventually.

[Aaron_S]

Originally Posted by Sasha2

The biggest issue is rodent pro makes you buy 100 of the fuzzies or smaller.
Big Cheese lets you buy only 50.
I one snake eating fuzzy rats, I certainly dont need 100 even doubling them up eventually.

Buy with a friend if need be.