Online vs Local F/T

I'm new to the hobby so initially bought my feeders from a pet store which charged insane prices and seldom carried the size I wanted.
As I acquired more snakes, this option just wasn't practical so I started searching for rodent breeders.

Did find a couple but one was unreliable and the other was ... unpleasant. Back to the drawing board! I found another pet store, not local but doable, which specialized in reptiles. Customer service is really good, feeders are healthy, but prices were significantly higher than breeder prices. I did research online shopping, but once shipping costs were added I'd be paying as much, or more, than I would at the pet stores, and, as others have mentioned, there is no way of knowing quality of the animals until you commit to purchase. Acceptable if you are able to just buy a reasonably priced sample, but usually a minimum order is required. (which I understand, it just wouldn't be my first option).

Still on a "feeder quest", I answered an ad that led me to a "feeder breeder" with reasonable prices, quality animals and who is accommodating without being surly. I do have to drive a bit of a distance, but I simply plan other errands while I'm at it and buy enough for a month or two at a time. Hopefully, a time will come when I can find someone local who can provide what I want, but in the meantime, my first choice is the breeder, and as a back up I use the reptile store. It works. :-)

I've always bought my F/T rodents from my local pet store. I also am a person that likes to support my local pet stores and it's kind of like supporting my reptile community at the same time.
I have two snakes, and I can see how someone with a larger amount of snakes would really want to consider local rodent breeders and online rodent suppliers.

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Originally Posted by JRLongton

personally, I wouldn't eat fish that had been in the freezer for a few months, so why feed something like that to another animal?

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Whaaaattttt? LOL. That just made me remember recently cleaning out my grandmother's 2 large chest freezers in her home. She is 92 years old now and seeing as how she remembers the Great Depression where a lot of people didnt have enough food to eat, she didn't throw anything away. We found frozen food in her freezers that was labeled 1972!!. It took 4 weeks of filling her roll out trash can with frozen food every week before we fully emptied both freezers. I would hope that she never had intentions of eating that stuff from 1972 but she just can not bring herself to throw anything away. She even had stacks of many many thousands of the plastic bags that you bring groceries home in. She just couldnt bear to throw them out. She still had a working refrigerator in the house that had the date it was bought wrote on the inside of the lid. The date is Sept 1937.

I'm lucky to have a rat breeder 1 hr from here... and his prices are almost as good as the online vendors and I save on shipping.
I also have a co-worker that knows a farmer that sells quails and rabbits of any size you want 30 min from my house, so I'll be buying from him when my boa gets bigger.
I couldn't be happier, supporting local business and getting fresh prey for my boys.

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Originally Posted by JRLongton

The local snake store sells frozen mice and rats and I prefer buying from them. You can keep rodents frozen for weeks and months, but personally, I wouldn't eat fish that had been in the freezer for a few months, so why feed something like that to another animal?

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If the meat was vacuum-sealed before being frozen it will last many years. There are some vendors that ship feeders that way, or you could buy bulk and DIY.

I too try support local business as much as possible, however when saving a lot of money, I need to do what is financially in my favor. I was buying my feeders locally until I placed a big order and found I would save significant money with Reptilinks at the time.

About my local guy....VERY nice people - no complaints and his customer service was great when I bought weaned mice that turned out to be hopper weights (yes, I am OCD and weigh my feeders) and offered to exchange them all at no cost but I insisted on paying the difference. I guess he supplies the Buffalo Zoo (RickyNY not sure how close you are and forgot to ask in the PM I just sent you LOL) with their feeders and delivers within a mile of the zoo for anyone locally that orders through him.

He uses an old barn with very little air circulation so the mice/rats/rabbits reek of urine and so did I when I would leave after being there for a few short minutes to pick up my order. :puke::puke::puke::puke:But I like to help the local guy so I overlooked it....but money savings is something I need right now on a budget.

I'm currently looking to place an order so I'm "shopping" some of the online suppliers mentioned here, so this thread has come in very handy.

I've never bought frozen online I've always thought it must take at least 24 hours from there freezer to mine and surely it won't stay below 0 degrees with a ice pad. I do try to avoid pets at home here in the UK I always find there rats have a different smell just not a fan.