Stefan's garters

[indigoman]

Thanks Steve, the kids and mom are all doing fine she just needed some help like Stefan's girl.

[Stefan-A]

So, I just went to the local pet store to pick up food for my snakes. Apparently some things never change.

The smaller pinkie in the picture below is what the local pet store under old management. Price: 1.80€ ($2.40). The pinkie above it is what I bought directly from a breeder at a pet show. Price: 0.50€ ($0.66).






In the picture below is what I just brought home from the local pet store, now under new management and as a part of a chain. It's a 2 week old mouse, with a weight of about 5.5 grams. Price: 2.60€ ($3.45).

The .223 cartridge is just for scale. It's also about half the price of the mouse.




Yeah, I had hoped that things would get better once the store was under new management and they started to increase the amount of reptile related stuff they sold. Not so. Take something like Exo Terra Reptile Caves. I see that Amazon.com sells the "Medium" for about 6.80€ ($8.95) and an online store based in this country sells them for 6.90€.
The local pet store? Over 12€ (~$16).

It's nothing short of pathetic. The next time I visit that store, it'll have to be an emergency.

[gregmonsta]

It's a shame that reptile stores have such a mark up. They do have rent and rates but in todays climate they have to do something to adapt. Online services is what I've been sticking too and getting frozen mice direct from the breeder simply can't be beaten. My last batch of 100 pinkies were £0.14 each (about 16 Eurocents).

[infernalis]

That sucks Stefan.

even at big chain stores an expensive pinkie is $1 US

[ConcinusMan]

There's only one place around here that had pinkies for $1 - a privately owned independent pet store that recently stopped selling them. That was the cheapest I could find. Then there's petco, where you get 3 for $5. Live adults are $2.99

[HazAnga]

That's robbery. The local family owned petstore I go to sometimes and used to work at, sells their frozen pinkies for $.99 CDN. I'm not sure what the price is at the chain stores is, but from the breeder I've found just recently sells her pinkies for $.55 CDN. Which is almost half the price. She even does weekly deliverys and all you gotta do is meet her at a rest stop on the side of the freeway.

[ConcinusMan]

There are almost no "local family owned" pet stores left in many cities in the USA. There used to be at least 6 of them in Vancouver, WA alone. Then petco and petsmart moved into town in the 1990's and almost immediately half of the independent stores closed, including our one and only reptile-specific store. last pet store closed just a few months ago and I lost my source for affordable pinkies.

Same thing happened to the two local chain pharmacies when walgreens and rite aid came to town. They went out of business.

[Stefan-A]

I gave the wrong impression about it just turning into a part of a larger chain. It was a part of a chain before, just a smaller one. There's a second pet store that's a part of the old chain, that didn't have anything reptile related stuff last time I visited it. Not even substrate.

They just don't seem to get that these days, they're going to have to compete with private breeders and stores that operate online. There's something about this town that makes every store, whether they sell pets or electronics, double its prices. These people are going to have to cut down and give up and close down that store in about a year, if they don't realise this.

When I visited the vet this summer, he mentioned that they might start selling "cheap high quality rodents" that they would import together with the Helsinki Zoo. I wonder what came of those plans.

[Stefan-A]

About 4 months later:

T. e. vagrans big female - 211g / 83cm

Another 4 months later - 276g. Mighty suspicious.

[guidofatherof5]

Are you thinking, gravid or something else?
If gravid a delivery may be soon then.