Where to get mice?

[ConcinusMan]

I forgot to ask, has your snake taken pinkies yet?

[Selkielass]

Yeah, make sure your snake will eat pinkies before you go stocking up on them- some fish and frog eaters have reputations for being stubborn.

If she will take guppies, minnows or goldfish (The last two are not a good regular food.) work on getting her to accept frozen and thawed silversides. (Sallys Silversides are a safe brand/species.)

I can get a bag of silversides from petco or petsmart for around $10. I partially thaw them just enough to break the slab apart into individual fish. and then freeze in packets that I can use up in a month or so to minimize freezer burn.

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah, the sally's are great. They pack them in water so they stay very fresh and they look like they could be still alive. My snakes love 'em.

I do know that ribbon snakes have a reputation for not accepting dead fish but many will take silversides with a little coaxing. Whatever food she seems to like, you can thaw pinkies in water to dilute the smell, then smother them with the scent of your snake's favorite food. If that works, then by all means, buy a bunch of pinkies.

[Enneirda.]

ConcinnusMan, she hasn't yet, I'm still on the rocks about bying a pack because you all see some unsure if she'll eat them. I really think she will (she is a voracious eater, and not shy at all. I can't picture her hungery yet ignoring a scented pinkie) but I think I'll try to get a few frozen pinkies and try them first for safety sake.

Thanks Selkielass, I'll look into the silversides.=)

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah, good idea. Buy a few and if she takes them, then make a quantity purchase. Personally, I'd still feed her other things in addition to the pinkies. Other foods have nutrients that pinkies don't, and visa versa. For my snakes that eat a variety of things, I feed them all of the items they like and rotate their food items frequently so they get as much varied diet as possible.

[kibakiba]

Variety is the best thing you can do for them, in my opinion. I give salmon, tilapia, worms and pinkies to every one of my snakes. Snakey be the exception, but sometimes he'll gulp down some worm or fish that's stuck to the butt of the pinky.

[ConcinusMan]

I just found someone who is breeding rats and has 140 newborn rat pups frozen and she's going to just give them to me for free. I already tested my snakes out on them and they all (except for the northwesterns) went nuts over them. They love e'm. Big bertha got so aggressive and chomped down 2 of them.(but those were big fuzzies) I thought she was going to take my hand off.

Yay! 140 rat pups for let me see... + shipping to my door... that's a grand total of $0.00

Awesome.

Thank you craigslist

[guidofatherof5]

Nice find.

[ConcinusMan]

I already have two other people that occasionally dump off a litter or two of mice for me as well. They want to keep their breeding colonies for their own snakes, but they end up overproducing and overstocking their freezers. Good. I'll take 'em.

Now keep in mind guys, I found the free rodents by placing ads myself each week and being patient. These people didn't advertise. I simply stated that I was in need of rodents and if anyone had too many or could spare them, shoot me an email. Well, turns out there's plenty of people around here that breed their own, and produce too many. A few of them were kind enough to give them to me for free. They said they were going to end up throwing them away anyway, so what the heck. It's worth a shot. Some of you might want to try this if you can't really afford to buy bulk or keep buying expensive pet store rodents.

[Millinex]

Girlfriend is very good friends with an individual who breeds something like 2500+ a month so I get some pretty good deals, considering the amount I get at a time to keep up with 3 monitors eating 6 or so every other day