Storing feeders

[HanabiraAsashi]

Hello,

I finally picked out a snake and its time to start thinking about storing food.

Buying online is obviously much cheaper if you buy online and buy enough to make the shipping costs worth it. I also noticed that they come in 1 big vacuum sealed bag instead of individually wrapped. How do people usually keep these after feeding the first mouse/rat? How long do they last?

The idea hit me of getting a handheld sealer with the reusable fresh saver bags. I wonder how much longer my feeders would last like this considering the package claims they make fish last 2 years in the freezer.

[xcjumper]

I use these! Work great...I can only find them locally at Walmart though.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/12443047?w...852752&veh=sem

[Yodawagon]

I vacuum seal mine.

[AbsoluteApril]

I also re-vacuum seal, divided up into how many are needed for each feeding. Very handy and they do last longer, don't get freezer burn like when using zip locks.

[Kokorobosoi]

Vacuum seal them in "serving sizes" with the dates written on the outside. Any extras get sealed individually with dates. Extras are brought out when I'm determined to use the last of a certain size, but really should have moved up.

And by dates I mean, the date sealed, and the use date since my boas are bi weekly and my balls are weekly, my sav is a pup every three weeks (other food items the rest of the time)

Hope that helps!

[bks2100]

I bought an 80 dollar or so vacuum sealer from costco, but I also wanted to use it for cricket gutload, personal stuff, and rats.

I'd say it all depends how long you store stuff though, if you're buying online I figure you usually have to buy at least 2 bags of rats to make it really worth it, but for one snake that's a lot. If the snake is on weaned rats then you would get one bag of weaned (~20) and one bag of smalls (~15). That's like almost 9 months worth of food, and I'm not sure how fresh they'll be at that point if they're in bags that keep getting opened/closed or are just normal ziplocks that aren't air tight.

Double check for reptile or exotic pet stores around you and check facebook/craigslist for rodent breeders. I've found people on facebook selling near me for comparable prices that are online (not as cheap but close enough to not deal with the bulk) and I'm lucky enough to have a pet store near me that has great rodents and sells frozen for buy 4 get 1 free. If you can find that then go for that. I would always buy 5 weeks worth of food for my snakes, no chance the rats go bad in that time.

[Prognathodon]

We vacuum-pack into smaller bunches of 3-5 (figure trying to do feeding-day bags is inviting a growth spurt by just one snake ); and then the opened vacuum bags go into a single gallon-size zippy bag in the freezer. They're only in the zippy bag for about a week, which is fine. For larger rats or mice that we'll go through the whole package in about a month they just go straight to a zippy bag.


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[HanabiraAsashi]

Thanks for the tips! I was looking at an electric handheld sealer with reusable bags. I only have 2 snakes so i think that would be the way to go.

[Moridin]

I got a used Foodsaver v2244 off ebay last month and it has worked really well. I purchased 8 months of rats from The Big Cheese and they are now stored safe and sound in their own little packages. Great way to save on shipping costs!