Want to start small feeder business

One of the things I find lacking where I live is a good local source of feeders, both rodent and insect. Other than the big stores like Petsmart and Petco, there are only two stores in the area that carry feeders. One of those stores I don't use due to frequent mite infestations with their mice and rats. The other store does a good job, but they are about 45 minutes from my house.

So I had the thought to start up a small feeder business to cater to the reptile people in my area. I'd start small with just rats, mice, superworms, mealworms, and dubia, and see where things go. (If it goes well, I can expand into rabbits, ASF, and other non-rodent feeders).

One of my concerns is that I may make enemies with the other feeder suppliers. I'm in the process of acquiring a few rat racks and I've been getting my breeders from the store that's 45 min away. He's a nice guy and he's doing a good job with the store (its pretty much the only good reptile store in the area). I don't want to take away his business but at the same time, I often hear complaints from friends and others that the store's location isn't ideal.

How should I go about this in a way that I'm not going to cause him problems by taking a bunch of business but I can still establish myself as a feeder producer? I would provide locally as well as vend at reptile shows.

Competition is a fact of commercial life. It establishes boundaries, for sure, but competitors need not be enemies.

Really none of his business if you want to do this. If more feeders are easily available, there will be more people keeping herps, and more business all around.

Complete lack of feeder rodents around my area is a top reason why I'm not keeping any snakes. I've considered raising my own, and raising more to sell (what a great way to meet others in the hobby). However, the rodents need a heated space in the winter, and that is NOT going to work in our tiny house!

Considering that I know the store you're talking about, I really don't see the owner having much of a problem with it. A retailer 45 minutes away isn't that much of a threat. The closest competition my small business has is less than a mile away and we're still swamped with work. That said, I initially tried to play nice and cooperate since we have very different business models anyway, but the owner immediately tried to talk down my business and got pretty nasty about it, and ultimately it backfired on him since now there are many people who will never darken his doorstep again.

So, I would start the business and offer to cooperate, especially if you want to try wholesaling any extra feeders should you have any, or if you produce feeders he doesn't typically stock.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

How should I go about this in a way that I'm not going to cause him problems by taking a bunch of business but I can still establish myself as a feeder producer? I would provide locally as well as vend at reptile shows.

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You can't have it both ways. Either you want to be successful, or you don't. He does not care about your feelings. He cares about the money you spend in his store. You don't go into business to be friends with everyone. You go into business to make money. If he fails, he was going to anyway. Provide a better service, a better price and product and leave him in the dust.

I'm finding I have almost the same problem as the OP. One pet store is a long enough drive to be inconvenient, and the other isn't as reliable as I'd like with his stock. There have been several times he's been completely out of the sizes I need. Unfortunately, I don't know of any local breeders (I've asked in the FB Feeders group), so I've started doing research on what it will take to start and maintain a healthy feeder colony. My biggest problem atm is figuring out where to get the starting breeders. The most common answer I see is 'from a local breeder', but without being able to find one, where do you get the rats?

If it makes any difference, I would only be interested in producing enough for my own snakes and would either convert the excess to f/t or possibly sell to the nearer pet store, maybe making him a bit more reliable with stock for other reptile owners.

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Originally Posted by SmoothScales

I'm finding I have almost the same problem as the OP. One pet store is a long enough drive to be inconvenient, and the other isn't as reliable as I'd like with his stock. There have been several times he's been completely out of the sizes I need. Unfortunately, I don't know of any local breeders (I've asked in the FB Feeders group), so I've started doing research on what it will take to start and maintain a healthy feeder colony. My biggest problem atm is figuring out where to get the starting breeders. The most common answer I see is 'from a local breeder', but without being able to find one, where do you get the rats?

If it makes any difference, I would only be interested in producing enough for my own snakes and would either convert the excess to f/t or possibly sell to the nearer pet store, maybe making him a bit more reliable with stock for other reptile owners.

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Go to a reptile show if there's one near you and buy as many rats as you need to get going.

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I was lucky enough to find a breeder, but the first 8 breeders I did buy came from petco @ 12 a piece...

I breed my own mice n rats for my 3 bp's. When I get over run with them I place them free on craigslist, (males only). I got them free to begin with so I pay it forward to others. My opportunity to meet local breeders and so on.

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Originally Posted by Izzys Keeper

Go to a reptile show if there's one near you and buy as many rats as you need to get going.

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Great advice! Thanks. There's one in Oct in Las Vegas and if I miss that one, there's another in LA in November that's much closer.

Just a bit of an update. I've gotten two rat racks and have a few litters on the ground. So it's enough to breed for what we need for our own collection, but not enough to sell extras (much less start a business), so we are working on getting a few more racks built and we've started on mice and dubia. I have a few people who have said they'd buy from me so I'm hoping this takes off. Thanks for all the responses.

I produce between 500-1500 rats a week so take this for what its worth. If you're going to make money at it, know your margins. I can tell you how much it costs me to produce and grow a rat to any given size this number dictates my cost. Overhead + operating capital + profit / number of units produced = cost per unit. So for example:

Cost to produce a med. rat $.75 (food, bedding, water, medical, housing/hydration) + $.50 operating capital (this is to replace sipper nipples, gas for delivery's, insurance, pay employees) + 20% profit = $1.50 per rat. The more rats you produce and sell the more cost effective it becomes to breed them. Discounts on bulk food and bedding make it cost less per rat to produce so in turn the profit goes up and the price stays the same. If things change then either the profit goes down or the price goes up.

Learn what your margins are now before you start so you're making money out the chute and not struggling trying to figure out why you're losing money at it.

This is why so many people don't make money selling snakes they have no clue what it costs them to produce the animals and so in turn have no clue what they need to get for the animals to make it cost effective to breed them..

Here's a snake example. Super Pastel x Normal = 6 eggs

6 Pastels @ $50.00 each average = $300.00

Lets assume this is the parents first year breeding so a normal female and SP male we'll say 250.00 to buy the animals 3 years ago

rats to feed them for three years = $312.00 at 1.00 per rat
housing, bedding, water = $300.00 I averaged cause if you're using a rack then the cost varies so much
Incubation = 100.00 depending on method
Housing for babies = $300.00 again depending on method
food for babies = $9.00 for six babies @ .25 ech for 6 meals

So before any advertising or show equipment or vet cost it cost you 3 years and $1271.00 to produce 6 pastels.
So to make 20% on those animals you have to sell them for $255.00 ech. and every meal you put in them after 9 and every time you fill their water or change their bedding that amount goes up.

See knowing your cost to produce is a big help in knowing what to produce.

I've never had to keep track of finances like that so there's definitely going to be some learning involved. I'm currently keeping track of all spending on an excel spreadsheet. How do you figure out how much it costs to produce a rat?

There is one time fixed cost: Racks, Sipper nipples, water supply lines, water buckets, tubs, building (building if you have one), breeder stock. all of this cost = x/12 we'll say $2500.00 ( this gives you a year yo pay off the first investment and make money from the start)
Then there is Overhead: bedding, food, water, electricity, mileage. This cost varies on the amount used and the cost for the item. = f so 200.00 a month for a smaller operation.
Then the is the number of rats a month you produce = R lets say 500 a month
Then there is Profit percentage you want to make = P say 20%

This is how I figure how much it take to get a rat to a weanling size before it starts eating food and drinking water. This includes holdback replacement breeder costs but no explosive growth cost.

So to figure out the cost per rat you take (we'll use fake nice round numbers) x/12 = 208.33; 208.33+f = 408.33; 408.33/R = $.82 per rat

Now lets say your production drops for just two weeks (here's where knowing your number helps)

( (x/12)+f )/250 = $1.63 or even worse your food cost goes up so thus Overhead increases

( (x/12) + 250.00)/R = now your @ $.92

So ( (x/12)+f)/R + Cpr) P = what you have to sell the rat for to make money

But if you don't mind changing x/12 to x/36 then it costs you less. After the 36 or 12 months then you've recouped your investment and the formula looks like this ( (f / R) = Cpfr + P) = price point per rodent.

It cost more to get a rat above weaned size because the have to have their own housing and food and water ect ect. but you just simply figure that into the x/12 and f values. So figuring out how many you plan to produce and knowing how many you can house up front is a huge deal .