Silver sides or similar in the UK?

[-MARWOLAETH-]

I notice that some of the American members feed silversides to their garters and thought I'd give them a go but I can't find them.Does anyone in the Uk know a website where I could get some silversides or similar safe whole fish?My little one is eating chunks of trout nicely but I would think he'd be better off being fed small whole fish.

[chris-uk]

There was someone else on the forum from this side of the pinkies that used frozen lance fish. I got a pack from my local fish shop and my garters like them, they get fed the lance fish as part of feeding mix now, I tend to use them as a little treat feed between pinky and salmon/trout feeds.

[chris-uk]

There was someone else on the forum from this side of the pinkies

pond

[CrazyHedgehog]

I get 'Dillies' from the local shop, they are a frozen fish food for lion fish I think, but are essentially just silversides or smelt.
They can't be that bad as they were the only thing two of my Florida Blues had ever eaten and they seem pretty healthy (they have been given a more varied diet now)
http://images.kjreptilesupplies.co.uk/images/products/medium/1342296063-94438500.jpg
Frozen Fish Food Dillies (http://www.kjreptilesupplies.co.uk/frozen-food-c16/aquatic-turtle-frozen-food-c39/dillies-p91)

[CrazyHedgehog]

sorry, duplicated post

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Thanks guys i'll be checking out lance fish and dillies to see which one she likes better:). How many dillies are in the blister pack and how big are they?

[gregmonsta]

I found smelt here - Kiezebrink UK (http://www.kiezebrink.co.uk/) ;)

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Thanks.How much does the packaging cost?

[chris-uk]

Thanks.How much does the packaging cost?

I just took a look... £4.20 for 1kg of smelt... and £19.50 shipping. Ouch!

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Thanks for the warning lol.I once bought some cork bark for my gecko that costed £3 and the shipping costed £10!They only told me what the shipping costed after I bought the damn thing.The website was viper&vine they have a good stock but their their posting is way to steep.

[CrazyHedgehog]

Thanks guys i'll be checking out lance fish and dillies to see which one she likes better:). How many dillies are in the blister pack and how big are they?

hundreds, and they are tiny, biggest are about 2 cm but lots smaller
most aquarium shops would sell them

[CrazyHedgehog]

69736974 teaspoon in packet and a 5p and 20p to give an idea of size

[gregmonsta]

I just took a look... £4.20 for 1kg of smelt... and £19.50 shipping. Ouch!

It does sound a lot but then I bulk order and buy my rodents at the same time. My last order was 1kg smelt, and a&n rodents - 100 pinkies, 100 fluffs, 50 ex-breeders. So, with the shipping spread across the board it works out cheaper than any shop for both my rodents and the smelt.

Dillies, for example come in 100g packs at £1.60-2 mail order (probs more in the shops). that is about £16-£20 a kilo without shipping ... so buy 2 kilos with the above postage and you've already saved money. Buy 4 kilos and it becomes cheaper than supermarket salmon.

Considering my feeding sessions average around 120g of food every 4 days now - bulk is the way to go for me.

[chris-uk]

Good point Greg. I'm still getting away with smaller feeding sessions, although I've noticed that I'm using considerably more food than I used to as last years babies are growing and the female radix has an unsatiable appetite. Time to convince Char that I need a whole big drawer in the freezer rather than just a box in one of the drawers.

[chris-uk]

....... 50 ex-breeders. .....

Who eats the ex-breeders Greg?

[gregmonsta]

Who eats the ex-breeders Greg?

My Everglades rat snakes take care of those ;) .... when they can be bothered to eat :rolleyes:

[gregmonsta]

Forgot to mention - the smelt I get tend to be larger than the dillies in the blister packs.

[-MARWOLAETH-]

Thanks for the help.My new excuse for filling my parents house with garters will now be "It's more cost effective if I have more to feed" :D

[chris-uk]

I just got an order delivered from Kiezebrink, and have no complaints other than the delivery driver not ringing the doorbell so we just found a box on the doorstep at 9:30. It was packaged well enough that it would have stayed frozen all day though.

1kg of smelt, 300 pinkies and 200 large pinkies made the £14.50 postage worthwhile. Buying this quantity of pinkies locally would have cost around £140, and the smelt would have been almost £30 from the aquatic shop. Total order was under £80, so bulk is the way to go for me (now that I have freezer space). If I'd realised I had more space in the animal food drawer in the freezer I would have got a couple more bags of smelt.