Where to get mice?

[Enneirda.]

I hope to be able to switch Rune onto mice soon, and was wondering what is the best place to order from?

She is only about fifteen inches, should she be able to eat small pinkies?

Also, how long will they keep in a normal freezer? If she eats two a week, 100 would last about a year! Would they still be ok after all that time?

[ConcinusMan]

I'd say if they were vacuum sealed (I use a foodsaver system) they would keep just fine for several years if you don't put them in a self defrosting freezer. Unfortunately many refrigerator freezer compartments are self defrosting and useless for long term storage.

[guidofatherof5]

They would still be good if packaged correctly.
Trust me when I tell you purchasing 100 mice will probably cost you 10 times that amount in shipping.
Your best bet might be finding someone locally that orders large amounts and go in with them on a purchase or see if they will sell you a 100 out of there stock.
Purchasing from most pet shop means you'll have to pay 2,3 maybe even $4 for one pinky.
I've been working with Mice Direct to offer an economical small order shipment but I haven't seen any results, yet.
I'm going to be calling the owner next week to check in on the idea.

[ConcinusMan]

Steve has a point. Shipping is so darned expensive that it's really not worth ordering less than 500 mice.

I lucked out and found local mice breeders through craigslist. This seems to be the only economical way for me to get the small quantities I need. Often times I get them, they're still alive so freshness is definitely there.

[guidofatherof5]

Just to give you an idea of costs.

Mice Direct website. 100 pinkies for $16.00, shipping is $50.00. Total $66.00

Rodentpro was $16.00 and $37.00 shipping. Total $53.00

Those shipping cost were to my address here in Iowa. I think shipping would be more to TX.

[ConcinusMan]

I could have sworn that some also charge up to $9 for the box and dry ice, in addition to shipping. Anyway, I kinda have a problem with these online places. They make it sound so cheap until you start adding up the costs. I haven't found any that make it easy to figure out what your total cost will be either. Sounds like pennies but ends up being a lot more. I find the same story just about everywhere I look online. I simply do not need, nor wish to pay for thousands of mice at once and I have a lot more than just one snake unlike yourself.

Try finding a local source other than a pet store is what I would suggest.

[guidofatherof5]

Not sure what the problem is.
Your total mice purchased is given, then the shipping is given and a grand total is there.
There's no hidden fees or mystery number that you don't know about.
The two businesses I looked at had very straight forward processing.

[ConcinusMan]

Actually, if I took the time to explain, that would be yet more time I wasted on the effort. All anyone has to do is try to shop around the various mice websites trying to figure out which ones will give you the best price per mouse cost and you'll see what I mean. It's a pain.

[kibakiba]

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. I'm paying 5-7 dollars for a box of 3 pinkies, about 10 for Mama's fuzzies. If I had the money I would much rather buy them online than keep buying something that literally drains our pockets when the end of the month comes.

[guidofatherof5]

I just got off the phone with the owner of Mice Direct.
At this time they don't have a small oder special in place.
He did drop all on-line shipping prices $10.00