Where to get mice?

[riley_napalm]

i work at a pet store and it's $1.59 for a live mouse or a live pinkie. that's not too bad. frozen are cheaper yet! but i set up two 10 gallon tanks to start breeding mice and i'm having fantastic results! i also have a yellow-throated plated lizard to eat pinkies, a savannah monitor that devours the full sizes, and a blue tongue skink that gets the occasional pinkie. my albino checkered garter is a bit too teeny to eat pinkies yet, he's still on guppies. but maybe look into breeding and then freezing the pinkies? it's pretty cheap and easy to get started on this route!

[kibakiba]

1.59 is a lot of money when you have 5 snakes who eat pinkies, one of which can down 4 of them in 1 sitting. It's also a lot if you look at people who sell them locally for under 50 cents each. The boxes of frozen mice I get are 6-7 for 3 and I usually have to buy up to 10 boxes a month.
To me, breeding mice is just as bad. They stink like a garbage pit no matter how clean you try to keep them. I had a couple mice and they were stinky things. I couldn't stand them.

[riley_napalm]

1.59 is a lot of money when you have 5 snakes who eat pinkies, one of which can down 4 of them in 1 sitting. It's also a lot if you look at people who sell them locally for under 50 cents each. The boxes of frozen mice I get are 6-7 for 3 and I usually have to buy up to 10 boxes a month.
To me, breeding mice is just as bad. They stink like a garbage pit no matter how clean you try to keep them. I had a couple mice and they were stinky things. I couldn't stand them.

yeah they are smelly little creatures, but i keep up on them so it doesn't get bad. my savannah monitor goes through three or four hoppers or full sized ones a week. haha. that's the main reason i started breeding!

[mustang]

yeah they are smelly little creatures, but i keep up on them so it doesn't get bad. my savannah monitor goes through three or four hoppers or full sized ones a week. haha. that's the main reason i started breeding!

whats your savs name!!! post pics!!!! im gonna laugh if its name is "Chomper"

[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!

[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)