Selling Feeders

[Jay_Bunny]

Prices here for feeders are getting so high. If I want somewhat "cheap" feeders, I have to drive 30 minutes to a reptile store and 30 minutes back and even then, the feeders are often sick (though he always has the right size). The other option is to go to a pet store on the other side of town but their prices are so high and they don't carry live mice or anything smaller than a small rat, live. Even if they did, live prices are through the roof. A small rat (which is little more than a wean) is $4. A "medium" is $5! Frozens are just a little less, smalls being $3.30 a piece. The man at the store is always trying to get me to buy the mediums which are only around 100g or so (100g is what I need for my girls but they are soooo expensive. $4-5 each for 4 females. That's $16-20 a week just to feed four of my snakes!)

So I came up with a solution. Breed my own. And so far I've managed to get one litter of rats (I'm saving all females I produce until I get a nice colony going) and 3 litters of mice. I just bought a 50lb bag of Mazuri and its going to last me a few months with as few breeders/feeders as I have now, but hopefully my colony will start to grow. So I can easily provide my own, healthy, properly sized, humanely raised, feeders for less than $50 a month. (as opposed to spending $130-140 a month on feeders)

Then the thought came to me. What about other people in the area who have to rely on places like Petco ($2.50ish per small mouse) and the reptile store I go to. I thought, maybe I can sell extras to people around town. Would it be a good idea to make this into a small business? And would these prices seem fair?

Prices for mice:

0.10 per pinky mouse
0.20 per fuzzy mouse
0.30 per hopper mouse
0.50 per mouse wean (3-4 weeks of age)
1.00 per adult mouse (20+g)

Prices for rats:
0.20 per pinky rat
0.40 per fuzzy rat
0.50 per rat pup
1.00 per rat wean (3-4 weeks of age)
1.50 per small rat (up to 100g)
2.00 per medium rat (up to 200g)

And for those of you that sell to local people, how do you get the feeders to the customer? Meet somewhere? Deliver them to their house? Have them come pick them up? When selling frozen, do you just freeze them in ziplock bags or do you use vacuum "food saver" type bags?

I'm far from being able to sell surplus feeders but I want to get an idea on how to best do this.

[suzuki4life]

those are wholesale prices...you need to raise them a bit...

[Elise.m]

This is the price list for the place I get my feeders from:

Mice
- Pinkie - $1.25
- Fuzzie - $1.25
- Hopper - $1.50
- Adult - $1.75

Rats
- Pinkie - $2
- Fuzzie - $2
- Pup - $2.50
- Small - $3.50
- Medium - $5
- Large - $6
- Jumbo - $7

I buy two small rats and two hoppers a week. Needless to say, if I were in your area I would be knocking on your door all the time to get feeders, lol.

This business sells feeders, all sorts of reptiles, and reptile supplies. I think their main income is from feeders, hence the prices. But, it's the cheapest place in town.

[Jt.]

I hear you on the ridiculous feeder prices. My local pet store sells pinkies for $2.99 a piece.

And I also think your prices are too cheap. You want them cheap enough for people to buy from you over the other places but you still want to charge enough to make it worth your while.

I charge a little less than the local pet store.

[Jay_Bunny]

Ok, I will bring them up some, but not too much. I don't want to be charging an arm and leg like the pet store. I know I would love it if I could buy heathy, properly sized rodents at a fraction of what I buy them for now so that is something I would like to give to people in the area. Rats that are free from wounds, disease, infections (I have gotten rats like this as feeders.) and don't cost you so much. Maybe something like this?

Mouse:

Pinkies - 0.25
Fuzzies - 0.50
Hoppers - 0.75
Weans - $1.00
Adults - $1.50

Rats:

Pinkies - $1.00
Fuzzies - $1.50 (2 weeks old)
Weans - $1.75 (3 weeks old)
Smalls - $2.00 (up to 100g)
Mediums - $3.00 (up to 200g)
Large - $4.00 (250g +)
Jumbo - $5.00 (retired breeders)

What about getting the feeders to the customer? Deliver them? Have them come to you?

[Elise.m]

Pretty awesome price list! I would have people come to you. All the places I've seen on CL have advertised that they can deliver but you can also go pick them up. There's one person that sells frozen around here, he drives along the highways in a big O once a week and has people from whatever town he's in stop by when he's there and gets a week supply of f/t.

[Jay_Bunny]

Very cool. I guess I could offer delivery on big orders that are a short driving distance. I put an ad up a while ago with the first price list to see if anyone would even be interested (I stated in the ad that I currently wasn't selling and that I was seeing if there was a demand for feeders in my area) I've gotten 5-6 emails from people needing feeders. With this kind of interest, I might go ahead and build up my colony to the point that I can be producing extras for sale. Now, how many breeders do I need?...Haha. Well I'll be doing some math today, thats for sure.

[771subliminal]

this is the price list where i get my feeders from all her frozen come individually vacuum sealed

Mouse ............. Live........................ Frozen
Pinkie .............$ 0.25 .............$ 0.20
Hopper ............. $ 0.45 .............$ 0.40
Weanling ............. $ 0.65 .............$ 0.60
Adult ............. $ 0.80 ............. $ 0.75
Jumbo .............$ 1.00 ............. $ 0.80

Rat ............. Live ............. Frozen
Pinkie ............. $ 0.45 ............. $ 0.35
Fuzzy ............. $ 0.55 ............. $ 0.45
Pup ............. $ 0.65 ............. $ 0.60
Weanling ............. $ 0.80 ............. $ 0.75
Small ............. $ 1.25 ............. $ 1.10
Medium ............. $ 1.75 .............$ 1.60
Large ............. $ 2.25 .............$ 2.10
Jumbo ............. $ 4.00 ............. $ 2.50

ASF ............. Live .............Frozen
Pinkie .............$ 0.35 ............. $ 0.30
Hopper ............. $ 0.50 ............. $ 0.45
Weanling ............. $ 1.00 ............. $ 0.75
Adult ............. $ 2.00 ............. $ 1.75
Jumbo ............. $ 3.50 ............. $ 3.25

[Jay_Bunny]

I wish I could get my hands on some ASF! Apparently, they are illegal here.

[RichsBallPythons]

When i get over ran i sell my Mice no matter what size .50

My rats no matter what size 1.00 and i have non stop ppl coming back week by week.