rat shortage? seriously.

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Originally Posted by johnny wobble

sunday, i went to my local pet shop where i get feeder rats and they said they were out until tuesday. i went back today and they said they're out. there's a rat shortage, they won't have any for a while and were trying to get some breeding themselves. i got a mouse and went to the counter and casually mentioned, "rat shortage, huh?" to the guy at the counter and he says "yeah, the biggest supplier, supplies nationwide, had an electrical fire and lost their rats and won't have a good supply going for 2 months." anybody hear that anywhere else? this is a local shop in plano tx, suburb of dallas.

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Yep same here- in E. NM. My shop also breeds their own, but hard to keep up with local demand. They're known for their good feeders. Lucky for me most of my snakes are on FT & my most of my '09s have converted over to FT pups too.

My supplier has also slowed down but it happens about the same time every year.

I'm thrilled that I just contacted a local breeder who supplies my local pet stores, who was very excited to add me as a client and asked if I knew anyone else who needed my volumes, because he keeps additional female breeders on standby in case his volumes suddenly increase. In four weeks he can have the production increased to handle the extra volume.

The nice thing is that he's close to me as well. And if I'm too lazy to drive to him, he'll charge $10 to deliver to me, but if my order is over $100 (not there yet), it's a free delivery to my door. He offers live and frozen. I don't believe he ships, however.

I got my own local supplier for rats, ASFs, and mice (though I've never needed mice). I know their facility and have been using them for about 4 months now.

Local is the best! Way cheaper and I can get em live because I hate dealing with thawing stuff out.

Hi Jonny,

I get my feeders at Petland in Lewisville (by Vista Ridge Mall). I will be going on Friday, I will let you know what the deal is there. Last week they had plenty. Of course I haven't taken the time to call :).

I get my rats from a couple local breeders... they rarely have 'shortages' since they have somewhat smaller, closely maintained groups of animals. Their sizes are also a lot better than the big companies since its more of a personal business relationship and we get to complain about the tiny ones that get squeezed in as "smalls" ;)

i just ordered some mice from bigcheese, guy told me they lost 70% of their rats from some kind of 'temperature malfunction'. if that shop was buying from bigcheese, that's probably why.

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Originally Posted by gmcclurelssu

i just ordered some mice from bigcheese, guy told me they lost 70% of their rats from some kind of 'temperature malfunction'. if that shop was buying from bigcheese, that's probably why.

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I've had that happen to me twice now with my own small rodent colony. If the circuit blows on the exhaust fan the temperatures can get ridiculously high in a very short time. Nearly everything in the upper tubs of the rack were lost while the lowest tubs were okay.

I sent u a PM but I go to...probably... the same store in Plano, TX and they always have a weak supply of live...I have questioned quality too, sometimes they seem sickly. I've posted before abou the dallas plano area and haven't had responses...nothing on our CL either -shrug-