How Much Do You Spend Monthly to Feed Your Snakes?

How much do you spend on feeders monthly? I'm just curious to know because it always varies on where you buy yours at, the sizes, and how many snakes you own. I think it costs around $80 a month for me to keep all of my snakes fed weekly.

$100 +

My weekly is usually around $80 - $90 so that puts me in the $350-$400 a month range.

I actually just started a colony of Rats about 3 weeks ago because I figured out what I was spending...

I'm around $60-80 a month. I was breeding mice for about 8 month, but the saving wasn't really worth it. The smell and cost of supply didn't really offset savings. Plus, I only have about 3 mice feeders where everything thing else is on FT Rats.

I have 16 snakes now (wow!), and estimate it costs around $90-100... I pay approx $1.50 per adult mouse & $2.00+ per rat, but also have some frozen prey I bought in bulk. Not bad compared to my cats and dog! :gj:

We spend around 80-100 at this point with only 5 snakes. That is not counting our beardie...little high mait. man....lol.

We are discussing as more snakes come in to start a colony....but egads...not sure if I can handle the smell. The money might be worth not having to deal with that. We also thought about doing it in our garage...but it would draw the rattlers....same with crickets...we thought about putting those in our garage...but that would probably draw the scorpions. :rolleyes:
I heard that ASF's our quite nippy so not sure if we want to go that way either. So for now....we will just spend the cash.

over 100 a month on rat food mazuri 6f 50lb bags.

I breed my own rats and sell the excess for feed and shavings. So right now I actually make a little money but not much.

$-35

I provide ASFs to a local breeder, and a couple enthusiasts. Breeding my own feeders was the best investment I made.

Let's see 3 bags of rat food a week at 25.00 = 75.00 2 bail's of pine at 5.00 So that's roughly 340.00 a month. GOD that sucks and that's fixing to almost double.. can I cry now..

I have nine snakes, $3 dollars a month to feed the 'colony' of 4 rats that have made all their food for the past two years. Best $50 investment I made!

Mothers isolated once I notice pregnancy and throughout the time they have their litter get constant access to food, the colony tub gets restricted access.
8 out of 9 snakes are currently eating weanlings or smaller, so I rarely have to provide additonal food to grow baby rats up to size.

I couldn't imagine breeding my own rats. For now I am just buying small pinks through the mouse factory. Shipping is an arm twister but the price for the mice is good.


As I'm still just getting started though I dunno what the cost per month is.

3 bags of kent -12.99 each bag and 2 bags of bedding at 4.99.

SO im paying $50 a month to feed my snakes and the rodents. What i over produce i sell to buy more supplies

Before my colony was large enough to keep up with my ball collection and was buying f/t I was easily spending $50+ a month. Now that my colony is up and running efficiently I'm not even sure I'm spending $20 a month.

It helps my cost that I spend like 25 bucks to get supplies to last about 3 months.

Hog feed, black oil sunflower seeds and pine pellets. FTW!

Over $1k.

$23 back in Jan.

Given I have 60+ snakes if feed one prey a week it would be about $80 a month (that's for the breeders), if I have hatchlings obviously more.

I usually do my calculation at the end of the year (rodent bedding + rodent food) / number of feeders produced.

A prey usually cost me around $0.30 depending on how well the production went.

well I count getting al lthe bedding and other supplies like rodent food ( large 50 lb bag of maziu spelling?) lasting a little over a month between the 3 asf colonies the 1 mice colony and the rat colony. but I also get 3bags of pine and a bag of aspen ( when I got the extra funds I stock up on shavings) so I only put about 21-40 bucks roughly. I only got the 16 snakes now. and 3 possible clutches do this year ( waiting sucks lol)
lucky me I got a firend that travels to most te shows and can pick up anything I need. just to let him know..

I'm going to start breeding my own rats. I'm most likely going to get a trio of rat pups, raise them (they'll be pets and for breeding), and then feed off their young to my snakes. I think it will be a lot less expensive since I think that $80 a month is too much for only 9 snakes (5 of which eat rat pups, one eats a pinkie mouse, and one eats a jumbo mouse or a small rat).

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Originally Posted by JAMills

$100 +

My weekly is usually around $80 - $90 so that puts me in the $350-$400 a month range.

I actually just started a colony of Rats about 3 weeks ago because I figured out what I was spending...

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Dang that's a lot.. I'm starting a colony as well from how much I figured out we're spending monthly to feed.

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Originally Posted by Auletto

I'm around $60-80 a month. I was breeding mice for about 8 month, but the saving wasn't really worth it. The smell and cost of supply didn't really offset savings. Plus, I only have about 3 mice feeders where everything thing else is on FT Rats.

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I guess the mice breeding didn't go too well. I hear rats smell a lot less and are easier to maintain. Rats FTW?

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Originally Posted by Lolo76

I have 16 snakes now (wow!), and estimate it costs around $90-100... I pay approx $1.50 per adult mouse & $2.00+ per rat, but also have some frozen prey I bought in bulk. Not bad compared to my cats and dog! :gj:

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Wow 16? I remember when it was only like... 4 maybe? :P
You have better prices for rodents than I do, you pay closely to what I pay a month, just about $10-$20 more.

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Originally Posted by BPelizabeth

We spend around 80-100 at this point with only 5 snakes. That is not counting our beardie...little high mait. man....lol.

We are discussing as more snakes come in to start a colony....but egads...not sure if I can handle the smell. The money might be worth not having to deal with that. We also thought about doing it in our garage...but it would draw the rattlers....same with crickets...we thought about putting those in our garage...but that would probably draw the scorpions. :rolleyes:
I heard that ASF's our quite nippy so not sure if we want to go that way either. So for now....we will just spend the cash.

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$80-$100 with ONLY 5 snakes? Like I said in the above post, rats don't smell nearly as much as mice do, so if you're going to start your own colony we'll help each other out by what info we acquire LOL. Also someone was telling me how friendly rats are and how they make really good pets. So, I'm going for rats:D

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Originally Posted by Dave763

over 100 a month on rat food mazuri 6f 50lb bags.

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You've gotta have one huge colony then huh? Aren't those 50lb bags supposed to last a while?

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Originally Posted by jason79

I breed my own rats and sell the excess for feed and shavings. So right now I actually make a little money but not much.

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Well that's pretty good that you are saving something rather than spending away like I am.

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Originally Posted by pavlovk1025

$-35

I provide ASFs to a local breeder, and a couple enthusiasts. Breeding my own feeders was the best investment I made.

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Not bad!:gj: That actually isn't too bad of an idea.

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

Let's see 3 bags of rat food a week at 25.00 = 75.00 2 bail's of pine at 5.00 So that's roughly 340.00 a month. GOD that sucks and that's fixing to almost double.. can I cry now..

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Wow, that's a lot! Don't worry we can cry together:tears:, even though $80 a month wouldn't seem much to you, it's holding me back for purchasing items that my snakes actually need.

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Originally Posted by Aeries

I have nine snakes, $3 dollars a month to feed the 'colony' of 4 rats that have made all their food for the past two years. Best $50 investment I made!

Mothers isolated once I notice pregnancy and throughout the time they have their litter get constant access to food, the colony tub gets restricted access.
8 out of 9 snakes are currently eating weanlings or smaller, so I rarely have to provide additonal food to grow baby rats up to size.

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That's pretty damn good, it makes me want to breed rats even more now:)

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Originally Posted by Seru1

I couldn't imagine breeding my own rats. For now I am just buying small pinks through the mouse factory. Shipping is an arm twister but the price for the mice is good.


As I'm still just getting started though I dunno what the cost per month is.

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I couldn't imagine breeding rats at all. I didn't necessarily like rats (I didn't hate them, just never really cared about them or any other rodent) so I told myself that breeding isn't really what I want to do. Now seeing rat and mice litters in person and seeing how easy it is it makes me want to start breeding.

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Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

3 bags of kent -12.99 each bag and 2 bags of bedding at 4.99.

SO im paying $50 a month to feed my snakes and the rodents. What i over produce i sell to buy more supplies

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Bravo:gj::salute:

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Originally Posted by Isis

Before my colony was large enough to keep up with my ball collection and was buying f/t I was easily spending $50+ a month. Now that my colony is up and running efficiently I'm not even sure I'm spending $20 a month.

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Nice! Not bad at all, that's what I want to spend monthly.

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Originally Posted by pavlovk1025

It helps my cost that I spend like 25 bucks to get supplies to last about 3 months.

Hog feed, black oil sunflower seeds and pine pellets. FTW!

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Major FTW!:D

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Originally Posted by LadyOhh

Over $1k.

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That made my jaw drop:O That's insane, over 1k.. Do you breed your own rodents or just purchase live & F/T monthly? I couldn't imagine purchasing so many rodents a month if you have a large collection.

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Originally Posted by DarkComeSoon

$23 back in Jan.

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My God I wish I could be spending that much.:tears:

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Originally Posted by Deborah

Given I have 60+ snakes if feed one prey a week it would be about $80 a month (that's for the breeders), if I have hatchlings obviously more.

I usually do my calculation at the end of the year (rodent bedding + rodent food) / number of feeders produced.

A prey usually cost me around $0.30 depending on how well the production went.

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Not bad. Having 9 snakes and spending as much as you do monthly makes me want to cry like Freakie Frog does:(

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Originally Posted by mechnut450

well I count getting al lthe bedding and other supplies like rodent food ( large 50 lb bag of maziu spelling?) lasting a little over a month between the 3 asf colonies the 1 mice colony and the rat colony. but I also get 3bags of pine and a bag of aspen ( when I got the extra funds I stock up on shavings) so I only put about 21-40 bucks roughly. I only got the 16 snakes now. and 3 possible clutches do this year ( waiting sucks lol)
lucky me I got a firend that travels to most te shows and can pick up anything I need. just to let him know..

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Not too bad, I want to see how breeding rats goes for me. My mom wasn't so happy about it at first, but we're talking about it and most likely I'm going to breed. Of course I'm buying all of the supplies and everything.

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Not bad. Having 9 snakes and spending as much as you do monthly makes me want to cry like Freakie Frog does:(

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Basically the more you produce the lower the cost per prey item to get numbers like mine we are talking of a few thousand feeders each year.

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Originally Posted by Deborah

Basically the more you produce the lower the cost per prey item to get numbers like mine we are talking of a few thousand feeders each year.

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That's a LOT of feeders:O

for the year I generally average 70-90 a week some weeks get as high as 150 some (like during breeding season)as low as 50

Back when I was breeding ASFs. I Paid $20 for an ASFs trio (1.2). I spend maybe $40 for the weaned tubs I made and everything that went in it. I bought a 25 Lb. bag of hog feed for $14~. I still have that bag. I dont breed anymore though. So other than the initial set up cost, I didnt spend anything but the ocasional pine shaving bag.

Now that I dont breed ASFs anymore and I have to run to the store once a week I spend usualy $10 tops. I have 4 BPs. So it comes to an average of $40 a month.

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Originally Posted by Royal Morphz

for the year I generally average 70-90 a week some weeks get as high as 150 some (like during breeding season)as low as 50

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Not too bad actually. I guess it's best to spend a lot of money on feeders for the breeding season:)

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Originally Posted by Danounet

Back when I was breeding ASFs. I Paid $20 for an ASFs trio (1.2). I spend maybe $40 for the weaned tubs I made and everything that went in it. I bought a 25 Lb. bag of hog feed for $14~. I still have that bag. I dont breed anymore though. So other than the initial set up cost, I didnt spend anything but the ocasional pine shaving bag.

Now that I dont breed ASFs anymore and I have to run to the store once a week I spend usualy $10 tops. I have 4 BPs. So it comes to an average of $40 a month.

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Not bad:gj:

I pay $6 dollars a month for the feeding:D:D:D

I am at roughly $40 a week so monthly is around $160...

I just recently started keeping records and stats on what the hobby is costing me, I'm now in position to produce about 215 feeders a month about double my needs at the moment, I do expect my collection to grow again this year, breeding this much is going to run me about $20 to 40 dollars a month. About 30% of my production will be soft furs(ASF) so this helps big time with cleaning and smell cause they need alot less attention.

Breeding your own feeders is great you always know you are feeding a very healthy and well nourished prey item. I feed my colonys mazuri 6f plus carrots and veggies once in a while. I have a real good hook up in town with outstanding prices but I still rather breed my own. I work lots of hrs I don't like to have a set feeding day or pick up day.

I only have one snake currently, I spend about $25 a month on my mouse/gerbil colony, I breed mainly for my ferrets and cat so it makes snake feeding costs pretty much nothing. My local pet store charges $4 a mouse and they don't stock rats really at all other than a couple adults for pets. So I was spending up to $40 buying them previously monthly just for the snake, made breeding a very good investment and cuts food costs for the other critters as well.

I'm at about $32 a month. My female has been picky, so I buy pre killed for her and if she doesn't eat it, I throw it in the freezer for next week. That's been nice, less trips to the store.

The biggest pain isn't the money, it's the constant trips to the store! I can't stand driving.

I sell my excess frozen feeders to a local pet store, so what I make off of that is just enough to pay for bedding and feed. I've sold some ASFs to local enthusiasts as well, which has earned me some nice pocket change. So, my number is in the low negatives.

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Originally Posted by CoolioTiffany

That made my jaw drop:O That's insane, over 1k.. Do you breed your own rodents or just purchase live & F/T monthly? I couldn't imagine purchasing so many rodents a month if you have a large collection.

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I purchase live weekly from a wholesaler. I cannot breed rodents where I live in the quantities that I would need.

And $1k tends to be when the bp babies come around.

Usually its around $750 or less a month without the babies.

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Originally Posted by LadyOhh

I purchase live weekly from a wholesaler. I cannot breed rodents where I live in the quantities that I would need.

And $1k tends to be when the bp babies come around.

Usually its around $750 or less a month without the babies.

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Holy crap:O If you don't mind me asking, what do you pay per small rat?

I spend about $300 a month on feeders.

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Originally Posted by briz

holy crap:o if you don't mind me asking, what do you pay per small rat?

I spend about $300 a month on feeders.

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$1

i spend around 10$ a month :banana:

My addiction has just started but i would love to see how much ill be spending a couple years down the road :D

Since I have a permanent snake collection of about 70 and am a breeder, I usually do spend a little over $100 a month for snake food. The vast majority of my snakes eat frozen / thawed, and I normally order bulk shipments from Rodentpro.com. A full box usually costs $300 to $400 and lasts about 4 months at my house. Then I have to buy weekly live meals for my younger ball pythons. I hope to convert them to F/T in the near future. Since I mostly have corn snakes, and they brumate in the winter, my feeding expenses go way down at that time but up more in the summer when I have lots of babies hatching. In the summer I ususally breed a few of my own mice also, to get some of the pickier baby corns started on their feeding. Luckily, most baby corns take F/T for their first meal, and the rest always convert within the first four months of life. I wish my baby ball pythons were that easy to convert! Oh well! I love them anyway! :)

I breed my own, so that helps a lot. I feed them dog food that's bought for the outdoor dogs (the dogs go through the dog food faster than the mice). So Possibly a dollar or two for what I use..And I use Equifresh for bedding which is $5 or so for a twenty pound bag.

Somewhere around $130-140 right now. I'm trying to get a breeding colony up and going though, so hopefully that number will go down.

I have 5 snakes and by calculations i spend almost $70-80 a month if i buy all live. I buy 1 md rat @ $6, 2 sm rats @ $4 each, 1 weaned rat @ $3 and 1 small adult mouse @ $2.50. sometimes i skip the md and go with another small. i did buy a pack of 30 weaned f/t but none of the boys wanted it this week which surprised me because last week all the boys took them, so i went and bought live. also i started a small colony of 1.2 rats to see what happens.

When I did the math on it, I discovered that the cost of raising rodents, and the cost of buying FT from Rodent Pro through the mail, was approximately equal. The only difference is the labor.
However, not all of my animals will eat FT, so I have to raise rodents anyhow. I use both FT and live.

I actually have no idea how much I spend per month...my bad. But it changes every month, anyhow. Right now...not very much, because most of my collection is off feed and in the thick of breeding.