Frozen feeder mice

[Dragonbeards]

My mom is going to let me get a corn snake very possibly (as my 18th birthday gift). Very awesome, I already have a tank set up (was going to be for a garg, but is also perfect for a corn), and it will give me some hands on snake experience before I start breeding red sided garters.

Anyways, I was looking for places to buy online, and I was shocked at the prices. The bags of mice themselves aren't bad, but shipping is way too much. I don't make much allowance, and I don't know anyone who owns a snake near me (or anyone at all for that matter).

Where would be a good spot to buy mice for one corn? Washington members, do you guys know of any stores that sell frozen feeders?

[guidofatherof5]

I'm not sure about any stores but if there is a reptile show coming to your area they might have frozen mice for sale. That happens at the Nebr. and Iowa shows. It's a little more than online but a whole lot less than a pet shop.

[Selkielass]

I'll second the Local Herp show recommendation. Mouse prices at the Taylor MI show were around half that of the reptile stores and less than a quarter of the price of the big-box pet stores in my area.

[Dragonbeards]

Yeah, there's actually one today and tomorrow, unfortunately, I can't make it. Not sure when another is coming around.

[infernalis]

Join the local herp club, sometimes they arrange group buys where more than one person shares the shipping charges.

[guidofatherof5]

Join the local herp club, sometimes they arrange group buys where more than one person shares the shipping charges.

Good idea, Wayne.
I love brainstorming a problem;)

[Dragonbeards]

Join the local herp club, sometimes they arrange group buys where more than one person shares the shipping charges.

That works. I'll have to find one around here, and see if they work with my college scedule, but I really like that idea. Not opposed to getting together with other reptile weirdies such as I :)

[mustang]

My mom is going to let me get a corn snake very possibly (as my 18th birthday gift). Very awesome, I already have a tank set up (was going to be for a garg,
garg?whats a garg?

[kibakiba]

Gargoyle gecko most likely.

[Dragonbeards]

Yeah. Gargoyle gecko. I was gonna get one, but a snake is just so much cooler, when I already have cresties.

[mustang]

i thought you ment to say a GAR
http://www.garguys.com/photoGallery/images/Gar%20Bowfishing_jpg.jpg

[Chondro788]

All my frozen rodents come from American Rodent Supply, it doesn't hurt that I work there!! :rolleyes:

Jason

[Dragonbeards]

Haha, nope. Gar would be nice though. Sadly, the biggest aquarium I have is a 75g. Maybe someday when I install that 10,000g in my backyard :P.

I'm checking around a few of the stores we have around here, so I'll at least have a supply in the short run while I search for a better long term option. We shall see.

[fish_4_all]

Where in Washington are you? Also, since you are going to college, get ahold of the biology teachers and see if any of them order mice and rats for feeding animals. Put a post on the school bulletin board. Colleges are great places to meet people with similar interests and get a group going.

[Mommy2many]

i thought you ment to say a GAR
http://www.garguys.com/photoGallery/images/Gar%20Bowfishing_jpg.jpg

Ha Ha Ha!!! I used to have baby gars! Nice fish but a bad case of guppies did them in:(

[mustang]

Ha Ha Ha!!! I used to have baby gars! Nice fish but a bad case of guppies did them in:(
guppies?

[brain]

Where would be a good spot to buy mice for one corn? Washington members, do you guys know of any stores that sell frozen feeders?

I have found nothing north of Everett so I went to Big Cheese Rodent Factory (http://www.bigcheeserodents.com/) good selection fair price. Steve suggested Mice Direct but they cannot ship to WA. Big Cheese has pinkies .017 ea 2 day delivery. I order some 29 Oct 2010 they shipped Monday like 5:00am got here to WI this morning 10:00am and they could have been shipped 3 day. There was still 1/2 of a 3lb bag of dry ice. Very well package.
I did not see much at the Tacoma show, allot of live.
Hope this helps.

[ConcinusMan]

Mice direct certainly does ship to WA. Perhaps they just won't ship to you because of your specific location in WA (your zip) You need to be near a major airport. Major city helps too. They don't want your package taking an extra day or two on a truck, causing it to thaw, which is what I think would happen if shipping to Whidby Island.

How many did you get from big cheese? What was your total cost after shipping?

[guidofatherof5]

I've been lucky to catch all the mice I need when they were on sale. Ex-small pinkies for .07 each.
Another thing that takes me back to Micediect.com is the owner. I've spoken to him a few times and I like his style.;)

[ConcinusMan]

The only problem I have with that is, considering my actual cost after shipping, I would have to order an absurd amount to even come close to making them cheap enough to bother. Heck, a dollar each would be a decent price to me considering pet store prices, but it doesn't quite work out that way through mice direct unless I want over 500 or so.:rolleyes: 7 cents is a wet dream that just never seems to be reality. Maybe if I ordered a million or so.

[guidofatherof5]

Well, sounds like you need more snakes so you can buy more mice and get a better deal.
Think about it. It's a double better deal. You have more snakes(good) and save money(even better).:D
Works for me.:D

[justme]

I recently ordered from Rodent Pro and am very happy with the frozen mice I received from them. Before Rodent Pro, I was buying from a local pet shop and spending roughly $30 a week for my garters. The cheapest price for mice where I live is a $1.50 to $2.00 each. Yikes!!!

[ConcinusMan]

$5 for 3 pinkies at petco. Ridiculous, but I've been paying it. I don't need hundreds of pinkies at a time, don't have that kind of money to spend anyway, and the only place in town where I was getting them for $1 each shut down. Sucks. I have been unable to find an alternative without shelling out half my paycheck for hundreds of them online.

[infernalis]

So I guess it's a good thing I use several hundred pinks a month.

I just view my rodent pro tab as another household utility. I factor in about $100 a month into our budget to cover feeders.

[ConcinusMan]

I don't plan on going that big with my snakes. Already have more than I had planned on but I think I have quite enough now. Some will come, some will go, but I don't want to expand anymore. I'd rather keep few enough that they can all get adequate attention and room, and the feeding, maintenance, and expense is at a manageable level for me personally. I love the hobby, I don't want it becoming a burden or chore if you know what I mean. Don't want to go and take the joy out of it.

I don't feed rodents exclusively as a general rule either. I just need them as a significant part of a varied diet. Right now, that means I need perhaps 25 a month (mostly large pinky mice) when all my snakes are out of the fridge.

[brain]

So I guess it's a good thing I use several hundred pinks a month.

I just view my rodent pro tab as another household utility. I factor in about $100 a month into our budget to cover feeders.

Yep just the cost of doing business :cool:

[Floof]

Looks like I'm a little late, but I used to live in WA, so maybe this info can help the OP or other WA members if she hasn't found it yet?

Pacific Northwest Herp Society is based in the greater Seattle area, and, from what I understand (wasn't a member, but have a friend who is), the members regularly do bulk orders together from companies like RodentPro. As for local, there's a company in Everett (Slippery Creek Ranch, I think?), as well as a member of the herp society (somewhere east of Tacoma, not 100% sure where, but he delivers in the Seattle area!) who breeds and sells live and frozen rodents to herp society members. The guy from Everett can be found at expos, selling frozen and live. You'll know him by the big tanks full of live mice and the giant freezers behind the table. I've seen a couple other companies at expos selling f/t, but they're not as easy to find as the guy with all the mice sitting in front of him. ;)
Anyway, here's a link to the herp society: Welcome to PNHS | Pacific Northwest Herpetological Society (http://pnwhs.org/) A link to the forum can be found under "Quick Links" to the left.

To be honest, I don't find pet store prices worth the trouble. Even if you do one big expensive bulk order, you're still saving money... You're just doing all your mouse shopping for the next 6 months or so at once, instead of blowing two or three times that amount at pet stores, just spread out over weeks. When I got my 2nd and 3rd hatchling corns, a bulk order from Rodentpro or The Mouse Factory was still less expensive than dropping cash every few weeks at Petco or Petsmart. When I had 20 snakes, it was even more worth it. This week is the first time I can't justify a bulk order online, because my limited funds are too tied up in paying off other things... That doesn't mean I'm not looking for local breeders or some other less expensive avenue, because there's still no way in hell I'm spending $2 for a fuzzy mouse every week unless there's absolutely NO alternative.

To the OP, Corn snakes are a GREAT choice. Certainly fantastic beginner snakes. After keeping some 9 different species over the last few years, they're still my favorite species. (Have yet to see if Garters or, when he gets bigger, my Gopher snake will change that!) Keep in mind, they have some pretty radically different husbandry and behavior requirements from Garters; for example, they aren't at all communal and cannot be housed together safely, unlike Garter snakes. I highly recommend signing up at the http://cornsnakes.com (http://cornsnakes.com/) forums. It's the Thamnophis.com for corn snakes, so to speak. Plus, there are a LOT of Washington members there, so you may be able to find a few people close to you who would be willing to go in on a bulk order with you. Good luck! :)

[ConcinusMan]

I'm aware that the herp society members do that. Just not sure what that means to me. Not much I think. Anyway, Seattle, everett, whatever, that area is hours drive from me. I know there's plenty of people selling rodents at reasonable prices and they deliver free. Unfortunately, I can't find one that delivers to my area. I've found one in Salem Oregon that delivers ALMOST to my location and much of Oregon but that doesn't really help me.

"Even if you do one big expensive bulk order, you're still saving money"

Not really. All the well-known online bulk one's I've looked into end up being just a few pennies under what I'm paying now,(pet store prices) once everything is all added up. And, I'd have to spend a hundred or more dollars at once, just to save a few pennies. Seriously.

I mean, c'mon. 7 cents or whatever it is I'm paying online sounds great. Add it all up and it's well over a dollar each. Forget it.

Maybe I'll look into the link you provided eventually. Right now it won't do any good. I just can't come up with the money. 10 bucks here and there. That's about it and so I'm forced to buy a few at a time, at the pet store. I'm stuck.

[Floof]

ConcinnusMan-- The bulk of my post was actually directed at the OP, with the exception of my opinion on pet store feeder prices.

And on that subject, I have to wonder where online you're pricing your rodents? I just put a theoretical 200 pinky order through the calculator using the prices at my favorite online rodent supplier (The Mouse Factory), who charges 25 cents per pinky mouse for bulk orders between 100 and 500 mice--still not the least expensive out there. 200 pinky mice comes to $50. Then you assume shipping will be another $50 (an overestimation, but it's been awhile since my last TMF order and I can't remember actual shipping costs), bringing the order total to $100. That's 200 pinky mice for $100... 50 cents per mouse. Although the shipping costs may potentially double the per mouse cost, that's still as much as 1/4 the cost of mice from the average pet stores, and still quite a savings. If my math is right, that's even just 1/3rd of the cost of pinky mice from Petco--5 pinkies for $3 is a little more than $1.50 per mouse.

Of course, there will be a difference if you're looking at sellers with more expensive mice or higher shipping costs, or if you're doing, say, a low quantity order of larger, more expensive rodents... But, doing the math, even a small, $100/200 pinky order from The Mouse Factory or RodentPro (going through their "get a quote," 200 pinks would be $83) is going to save you money on feeders.

Anyway, that's just my input and research on the subject. What you choose to do, and what works best for you, may well be very different from what works for me or anyone else.

[ConcinusMan]

Location, location, location. You are obviously not where I live. Anyway, I beat that horse a dozen times and figured up, got quotes, the whole nine yards, and all the major online rodent places. None of them made it worth my while to bother unless we're talking about 500+ pinky mice. In other words, more money than I'll have at once at any time in foreseeable future. I hear the savings the way you describe it, and that's what got me looking into it in the first place. Sounds great, but it just never comes out that way for me. Not sure why. You said $50 for shipping is an overestemate. No, that's pretty much an expected minimum every time I check.

Anyway, I don't friggen have 83 bucks now and probably won't for some time to come. Like I said. Stuck.

[infernalis]

Not much choice at my house. Our snakes consume around 400-500 mice per month to month and a half.

[Floof]

Actually, I was using shipping figures from not too especially far from where you are (I think, anyway!). My first and last few online orders came when I still lived out in the "boonies" that is Pacific County, Washington, an hour from the nearest "city" (Chehalis/Centralia), and 2 hours or so from the nearest airport (actually, from both nearest airports). Willapa Valley is pretty isolated--not as bad as some areas of the peninsula, but it's far enough away from "population" that it's almost expected for shipping to be outrageous. I got the quote from Rodentpro using Raymond's zipcode, NOT my current zip here in Utah, so even with their $83 quote, you're still looking at a quote for western Washington "boonies."

And the $50 guesstimate? That's the shipping cost from RodentPro to Raymond, and I can speak from experience that their box is exceptionally large, so that shipping cost has a lot more to do with the bulk of the package than the distance from the facility. They have one standard box size, that's absolutely enormous, as opposed to smaller companies who ship smaller orders in appropriately smaller boxes. If I remember correctly, my largest order from TMF to Raymond (more than 200 rats and mice of assorted sizes, if I remember right) was somewhere between $40 and $50. And Jumbo Rats and Adult mice are much, much heavier than pinkies.

Anyway, like I said, whether you want to or can do a bulk order is up to you. I'm just stating the facts, as, even if it doesn't help you at all, it might help other people who come along considering bulk orders online. I can understand not having $100 to drop on a bulk order; I don't either, or I'd suck it up and do just that for my gopher snake! :)