Where to get mice?

[Enneirda.]

Breeding mice may be cheaper, but the family wouldn't have it. And I don't know if I'd be able to freeze newborns myself... and I only have a normal freezer, not a CO2 chamber ect. I can just imagine the talks lol.

My post got flagged on craigs too, and I don't have any contacts with snake people around nor know how to find any.

I think I'll have to go with the $42.24 for 100 small pinkies, or 43 cents a mouse. At the very least this order should last about a year so I'll just think about the price spreading out lol.

[guidofatherof5]

If you get any reptile shows in your area, that might be a good place to meet people that could be raising mice.
In our area we have a local ad paper. Advertising in it is pretty cheap. You might also check into those kind of things, to place an ad.
Just an idea.

[ConcinusMan]

With all due respect Enneirda, you might be getting ahead of yourself a bit. Either that, or I'm out of line. It's difficult for me to figure out which is true sometimes.

I do not have the time to familiarize myself with every person's situation so please forgive any misconceptions I may have while I state the following.

If your only use for feeder rodents is this ribbon snake you have, then I would suggest that you hold off for a while on the quantity rodent purchases. Ribbon snakes, and of course, many Thamnophis species thrive and live full and healthy lives without eating a single rodent. Getting your Thamnophis (any species) to eat rodents is an excellent way to provide dense nutrition and reduce the need for frequent feeding but it is by all means not necessary.

I would start with foods that the snake is most familiar with. If you do not know what foods that would be, then with a ribbon snake I would look around at widely available food first such as small live fish. If the snake has already taken food under your care, then by all means, keep feeding her that and perhaps buy a few pinkies and smother them in with the scent of whatever food she has already taken. If she eats the scented pinkies, then that's great. Some ribbon snakes will never take them. Get to know your snake's tastes and habits.

The goal should be to keep your snake eating heartily on food that she likes, and is widely available. Experimentation with other foods and searching for sources of "better" food should be second priority.

[Selkielass]

Abby was 13 inches long when I got her, and she handled small pinkies with no problem.
I found my most economical way to buy mice was to buy a bag of 50 at a local reptile show- It was a *LOT* cheaper than buying from pet stores or paying shipping.
Those fifty mice lat me for several months (With two snakes) and while the end of the bag is a bit freezerburned, its not too bad.
I store mine in a bottom corner of a chest freezer wrapped in several layers of ziploc baggies.

[Enneirda.]

Steve: I looked on the web but couldn't find any shows ... I'd love to go to some if there were any lol.


ConcinnusMan: Your not out of line. I'm the new kid to this lol. If you think I'm going about it wrong, chances are I am. My only snake is Rune yes. I am very interested in getting another female to house with her, but it'll be a while I think.

Rune did take a frog today. I dropped it near her and she jerked and it jumped. I dropped it again, and she grabbed it and downed it amazingly fast. She's not shy at all! I'm thinking her natural food is frogs and worms (no water near for fish) The problem is I have to hunt for them, so getting her on to something else soon is best right? I can't see frogs being a stable food source. Winter will come and they'll hide, and my small hunting area would be used up soon I'd assume.

"Experimentation with other foods and searching for sources of "better" food should be second priority." My thought is that if Rune needs frogs and worms, and they are hard to get for me, that it is more of a need them an experament to get her on mice. Is that thinking wrong?


Selkielass: Thanks for the info. I need to look harder for shows! From what I've read they sound great!

[ConcinusMan]

I added up how much I'm spending at the pet store and how much it would cost me to order 100 mice and it still had at least 20-30 dollars of savings.

Same here until I go to check out and they add the shipping. Then bye-bye savings.

[guidofatherof5]

Rune did take a frog today. I dropped it near her and she jerked and it jumped. I dropped it again, and she grabbed it and downed it amazingly fast. She's not shy at all! I'm thinking her natural food is frogs and worms (no water near for fish) The problem is I have to hunt for them, so getting her on to something else soon is best right? I can't see frogs being a stable food source. Winter will come and they'll hide, and my small hunting area would be used up soon I'd assume.

Also, keep in mind that frogs can carry a heavy parasite load. If you've been feeding frogs it would be best to have a fecal check done for parasites. Many wild caught snakes carry parasites. Call around and get the best price from a Vet. You can collect the fecal sample and take it in. Some Vets. will try to get an office charge by asking you to bring in the snake.
If you have a fecal sample and the snakes weight that's all that is needed to prescribe some medicine(probably Panacur)

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah, my vet said that according to fecal exam, one of my snakes needed Drontal Plus. Only thing is, that medication is prescription only and so I needed to bring the snake in person for an exam to the tune of $65. That's out of the question because it's not only too expensive but they can't treat garter snakes by law here. They will do fecal exams however, without seeing the animal so that's what I do.

Pancur does not require a prescription.(It's not effective against tape worms) Neither does either of the ingredients in Drontal plus. You can buy Pancur and the two drugs in Drontal Plus (one is for tapeworms, the other drug is for other worms) separately and they then do not require a prescription. Makes no sense does it?

So, my snakes do not see a vet and I still bought the drugs without prescription. All I have to do is weigh them in grams, do the math to calculate the dosage, then dose them myself. That's what quite a few snake keepers around here do. Seems to be working out just fine.

I know you're supposedly not supposed to dose them unnecessarily but I went ahead and dosed them all for tape worms and round worms without doing fecal exams on all of them. Some passed dead worms and they seem none the worse for wear and are doing fine. You can skip the vet, and buy the drugs yourself. You just have to be extra careful that you get them weighed accurately and get dosage correct. Correct dosages for various reptiles are found online.

Steve is right. If this is a wild snake or has been eating wild caught fresh amphibians or fish, chances are, the snake has internal parasites. Wild frogs and fish are intermediate hosts for a wide variety of parasites that target birds and reptiles as the final host. Tape worms seem to be the most harmful of them. They can live with other parasites and not seem ill at all but stress and confinement to captivity can tip the balance and then the parasites get out of hand and injure the overall health of the snakes. In the wild, these parasites act as health enforcers. Healthy animals can live with them for years but if the snake isn't in tip top health... well, you get the idea.

You don't want your snakes to have parasites. In the wild it's no biggie but you don't want that in captive snakes. You can still feed WC frogs to your snakes after they are treated for parasites but you must freeze the frogs at 0 degrees F or colder and leave them that way for at least 60 days. That will kill the parasite larvae which are inside the frogs.

[kibakiba]

Same here until I go to check out and they add the shipping. Then bye-bye savings.

I added the shipping amount to the total and I was still saving over 30 dollars.

[ConcinusMan]

Well yeah, I see the price your pet store charges for rodents and I'm like OMG!

I thought petco was outragous. Anyway, after some months of paying a lot I got to searching craigslist and found several people near me that raise rodents. I can get them cheaper than online and I don't have to buy hundreds. On top of that, they deliver to my house if I order $20 worth or more.

I have enough snakes to make having a pair or two of breeder mice worth while, but like others, I can't stand the way they smell. Doesn't matter how clean you keep the cage, they stink!