Feeding day never gets old. (and where do you buy your rats?)

[Emily Hubbard]

Dogs and cats are great, but there is absolutely nothing interesting about watching them eat. But watching a snake devour a whole rodent that is exponentially wider than their head is a feat of nature I never get tired of witnessing.

On that note, I just had the easiest feeding session yet with my girl. I have had her for a month or so now, and her other 3 feeds were a process. She would stare at the mouse for a while, strike and miss a couple times, she would take too long and the mouse would cool off so she would start focussing on my nice warm fingers at the end of the tongs.... once she struck, coiled, and then crawled away, so I had to try it over again....

But today, no fuss. Held the mouse in front of her, immediate strike and grab, no questions asked. We finally have a smooth routine!

I have three mice left in the freezer and she is growing fast, so I think once she goes through these, I may just graduate her to small rats and hope she takes them no fuss. But we'll see.

Out of curiosity, where do you guys get your rodents? The mice I have I got for free from my fiancé's dad, who has a lot of corn snakes, but he breeds the mice himself and my ball will need rats soon. Any good online rodent breeders that don't make you buy 100 at a time? My freezer isn't that big, I don't think I could fit more than 20 at a time, 10 or so preferred.

[jjmitchell]

Where are you located. All of your online rodent places, are going to be rediculous if you dont order in bulk, that shipping isnt cheap. My last order just shipping was around $150-$175 on a $500 order. I would try to find someone local, or maybe a reptile show close and pick them up there.

[Jonas@Balls2TheWall]

Depends where you are located, for example I buy from Loxahatchee rodents, they are only a couple of hours away from me so they offer $20 shipping to me.

[purplemuffin]

We happen to live about ten minutes away from big cheese rodent factory. Shipping would be expensive from far away though, but they seem to offer smaller bags..but it would be a lot of waste considering shipping. You can stock up on frozen when conventions are in town!

[Emily Hubbard]

Im in northern California, about an hour and a half from Sacramento. I have been looking online for rodents suppliers in the area, but no luck thus far. No luck locally, but I did the math with rodent pro and with shipping costs factored in, it would be about $3.50 a rat if I ordered 20. Not great, but snake's gotta eat.

Unfortunately, as long as I am living in an apartment, I just don't have the freezer space to stock up on larger quantities. In a few years, I would love to get a second, (third...fourth....) snake an get them their own freezer, but alas, I must currently dream small. I looked at feeder rodents at PetCo but the selection of sizes is unreliable and I have no idea what they have been fed, so I would rather pay more for quality rodents than save a little on something potentially less nutritious to my snake.

[loonunit]

I actually don't live anywhere near Big Cheese, but I still order from them. Even with the exorbitant shipping, $1 a rat is much cheaper than the $5+ the local stores charge for them.

[therunaway]

well go to a local pet store, not a petco or petsmart, go to a little "small town" pet store i guess u could say, the one i have to go to is only like 20 minutes away, and they have which is all my little one will take! pm me ur zip code and ill try and find you a pet store, unless ur out of the us or canada, anyway, i buy one little mouse at a time, for 2 bucks each at a place called specialty pets, very nice people, great information from them, get there snakes at expos and bring them back and breed them once there old enough.

[Twist]

i buy one little mouse at a time, for 2 bucks each at a place called specialty pets, very nice people, great information from them, get there snakes at expos and bring them back and breed them once there old enough.

That makes two of us. Phil's the man. I pick up my rats from them at about 5ish each. Was in there yesterday actually.

[tcutting]

me and another person combine orders through rodent pro. shipping is kinda high but when 2 people split it you can get your average cost per feeder to about 1~1.25. works great for me.

[Evenstar]

I have to order my rodents online, order smaller quantities, and suck it up and pay the shipping costs. I can pick up frozen rodents at the closest expo to me if I'm able to go that month, but that expo is 2 hours away. When you figure in the cost of gas, its about the same price as the shipping. I'll do that if I'm there for another reason, but it doesn't always work out that way.

I order my rodents from Layne Labs. They have been absolutely wonderful. The rodents are positively the best quality I've ever seen - clean (pristine actually), large, and dry. They are frozen individually and laid straight with legs tucked back and tails tucked under. No contorted frozen rodent bricks to break apart whatsoever!

I order in 50 counts which work really well for 1 BP and 1 boa (for now, lol). But you can order in as small a count as 5! Of course, the shipping does add up, but they aren't too bad. For my BP (she eats 2 jumbo mice per week), I pay about $78 including shipping for 50 mice and that's only about .65 per rodent shipped! I think that's pretty fair for having the convenience of them being delivered to my door.

Also, I see you got your BP feeding well, but be warned, snakes view rats and mice as completely different prey items. Just because she's feeding well on mice doesn't mean she'll take a rat with the same gusto. Personally, I'd try to find a couple of rats from a local pet store first even if they're a little more expensive per rat. That way, if she won't take it, you don't have a freeze full of rats you can't use. That's why my girl is on the jumbo mice. She's a powerhouse feeder, but show her a rat, even scented, and she says "NO WAY." Layne's jumbo mice are HUGE though. Ella will take 2 which easily equals a small rat in grams. It works for us. I hope all this info is helpful to you!