Oh come on now. Really?

Is anyone else a little tired of getting advertising E-mails saying that small rats are ON SALE or ONLY (30% more then they were last year)???

I need a new place to buy rats.

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Originally Posted by MarkS

Is anyone else a little tired of getting advertising E-mails saying that small rats are ON SALE or ONLY (30% more then they were last year)???

I need a new place to buy rats.

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I don't have that problem but my problem is not better I breed them ;)

Yeah, I used to do that until I found I was spending more time with the rodents then I was with the snakes. Way too much time... Unfortunately if the price keeps climbing the way it has I might have to look into doing that again.

I buy through Big Cheese and don't have that problem :O

Thank goodness I live in The Sunshine State. There's a reptile show almost every weekend. Let's me buy direct and negotiate the price if I can.

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Originally Posted by Lizardlicks

I buy through Big Cheese and don't have that problem :O

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I'm a fan of these guys too, but their frequent lack of medium rats is starting to get to me.

I buy my rats locally at a reptile/exotic store that breeds feeders. Last month they had a huge chest freezer fail so they blew out jumbo rats cheap, IF you could get to the store before closing because by the next day the rats likely wouldn't be any good.

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Originally Posted by Lizardlicks

I buy through Big Cheese and don't have that problem :O

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:soapbx:The two times I bought from big cheese my experience was great .. HOWEVER ..the other 10 times I have "TRIED" to purchase from them has been nothing short of despicable!! ... They never have enough in stock to make the shipping worthwhile. While $29 per box is excellent, who in the :cens0r: wants to pay that to have the 1 bag of medium rats they do have in stock shipped. I am actually under expressing how I feel about this situation!! While their rats were clean and neatly packed .. those two factors mean absolutely NOTHING if you can't get them! I will NEVER give them my business again ... Ever! They just lost my $600 to $800 every 4 months ... I just placed an order with Rodent Pro two days ago .... We will see how they pan out.

@ T_Sauer- I hope your RP experience is better than my two experiences with them. Both times I went with Rodent Pro I got soiled/smelly feeders that a few of my snakes refused to eat. I use Big Cheese pretty regularly but you're right they are often times out of the sizes I need. If I can't use BC I use Perfect Prey. Their packaging, feeder quality, and prices are comparable to Big Cheese but they usually have all of the sizes I need available. Layne Labs is really good too but their shipping costs are quite a big higher than the others. I'd rate Big Cheese and Perfect Prey as the best of the bunch, followed by Layne Labs. I can't see me using Rodent Pro again.

@ T.Sauer: Absolutely second EL's sentiments and frustration with Rodent Pro. They are the worst quality rodents in the world. With the excrement and urine soaked fur clearly visible they should really be ashamed to ship that garbage to paying customers. Hopefully you wont have any issues but trust us make it your last order with them. Choose Big Cheese or Perfect Prey. Layne Labs pricing is ridiculous. :taz:

@ EL and Albert ... Thanks for the heads up, hopefully I get lucky :please: .... I looked at both perfect prey and Layne labs before making my order with Rodent pro ... I couldn't bring myself to swallow the cost that Layne labs came out to and perfect prey was also out of med rats .. luckily I played it smart and only ordered a 2 month supply from rodent pro instead of the usual 4 to 6 month supply that I like to order. I would love to stick with Big Cheese but like Eric said I am getting so frustrated with their lack of med rats that I don't know what to do. If they can get their supply and demand issue under control I would gladly go back to them but until then it's just not worth my money as 80% of my order is usually med rats.

I'm thinking they need to expand their facility again. Make more rats!

@ T_ Sauer: Gotcha. Understood. I will hope for the best as well. :)

I'd never trust RP after the stories of snake deaths. If you lived close, I'd happily breed feeders for you. I really enjoy them. Even invested several hundred early this year to get into dalmatians, marbles, and silvermane rats. I have a big cue of people waiting for this summer when I can get up to production to provide food for them. Make some extra money from doing what I like anyways. I could take advantage of the barren market and charge extra but I'm keeping reasonable profit margins to give reasonable prices.

I used to shell out for layne labs before I bred my own. (which started at snake #3) That's a lot of money though if you're feeding a lot of snakes. But I liked their quality and I only was feeding 2-3 snakes at the time.

Marrissa-Where in CA are you? I'm in Ca also so I use Layne Labs because their feeders are the highest quality of everyone (and i've tried a lot). I'm just lucky they are not too much to ship for me. Also, to whoever is looking...don't use feeder source either. The rats I got at an expo where soaked with urine and my BP who eats everything was like "no way!!!". I couldn't tell they were soaked until I thawed them out...YUCK! (they were also super skinny). NEVER have this problem with LL.

I have used and liked Perfect Prey for mice but haven't got any rats from them.

This is my most recent Perfect Prey order. If they only had xs rabbits. :)

http://i1319.photobucket.com/albums/...psqxtnptxz.jpg

I was reading and had a laugh cause just last week i was thinking how much big cheese sucks for never having mediums. Wonder where they go? Pre orders maybe? At least sometimes i get big smalls.

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Originally Posted by EL-Ziggy

This is my most recent Perfect Prey order. If they only had xs rabbits. :)

http://i1319.photobucket.com/albums/...psqxtnptxz.jpg

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Well now I know why perfect prey was out of med's!!! LOL J/K ..... Holy Moly, those jumbos are the size of the street rats I saw when I was in New York City, big as house cats!!

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Originally Posted by EDR

At least sometimes i get big smalls.

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^^^^ This is the only reason it hasn't been to rough for me in the feeder department the past several months, for about 2 1/2 months I have been buying mine from a local pet store that happens to be the exception to most pet store horror stories you hear about and they have a class A reptile department. What I like about them the most is that they are all about supporting and buying from local breeders in the area, in all departments :gj: Recently they have been getting good clean nice quality feeders in and the smalls have been above average in size so it has worked in my favor since Big C has not had mediums .... However the one thing I can not boast about is their prices, my wallet has been taking a beating

Kinda funny i was editing my post to add how I've been considering getting pre killed then freezing them. I backed out on accident and it erased or something so i just left it. But anyway yeah i hear yah T on the prices i just got x2 sm, x2 weaned, and x1 pup and it was like around 140. Luckily i only need to get more like every 2-3 months so i doesn't really kill me. I was kinda pissed cause it was one of a couple financial set backs that have been hitting me right before narbc tinley show.:rage: But by some miracle i got a 1000 deductible or something from state farm for my car getting total like a year ago:weirdfaceand :gj: lol. Funny the way life works sometimes.

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Originally Posted by T_Sauer

^^^^ This is the only reason it hasn't been to rough for me in the feeder department the past several months, for about 2 1/2 months I have been buying mine from a local pet store that happens to be the exception to most pet store horror stories you hear about and they have a class A reptile department. What I like about them the most is that they are all about supporting and buying from local breeders in the area, in all departments :gj: Recently they have been getting good clean nice quality feeders in and the smalls have been above average in size so it has worked in my favor since Big C has not had mediums .... However the one thing I can not boast about is their prices, my wallet has been taking a beating

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I've seen that too. It seems funny that online there are people all over selling smalls and mediums for less than 2 bucks each shipped, but even my reptile store (sounds a lot like yours, not a horror story) charges 2.50 for a small and 3.50 for a medium. I did hear about a guy that uses facebook though that breeds and makes deliveries to certain places and the prices I've been hearing sound ridiculously good, like $1 for small/medium and .50 for pinky-pups. I just placed an order from perfectprey that's arriving today, but when it runs out I'll probably start breeding my own and just buy a small stockpile from him and euthanize and freeze them.

And for those who don't know about rodent pro, they don't produce a lot of what they sell. They have breeders drop ship rodents they've never seen. Their quality is poor because of this. Buy local and support your neighbor.

From my understanding Rodent Pro had problems in the past with sourcing their stock from lab surplus. Peoples where unknowingly feeding their animals rats with tumors, microchips embedded, etc. and deaths occurred because of this. They claim to have resolved it, but that's not a risk I'm willing to take with my animals. I would not trust Rodent Pro as far as I could kick 'em.

I use 3 different prey sizes, small rats, adult mice and pup rats, for 3 different snakes. I am lucky enough to have 2 reptile supply stores near me, but to buy frozen feeders from them is prohibitively expensive, like over6 dollars per week. I bought from big cheese and love their prices, even with the shipping they are just a little under 3 dollars a week. i also like the way they package in trays, and the feeders are very clean.

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Originally Posted by T_Sauer

:soapbx:The two times I bought from big cheese my experience was great .. HOWEVER ..the other 10 times I have "TRIED" to purchase from them has been nothing short of despicable!! ... They never have enough in stock to make the shipping worthwhile. While $29 per box is excellent, who in the :cens0r: wants to pay that to have the 1 bag of medium rats they do have in stock shipped. I am actually under expressing how I feel about this situation!! While their rats were clean and neatly packed .. those two factors mean absolutely NOTHING if you can't get them! I will NEVER give them my business again ... Ever! They just lost my $600 to $800 every 4 months ... I just placed an order with Rodent Pro two days ago .... We will see how they pan out.

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I think you should re-evaluate and give them a second chance. I too was not happy that they kept running out of the sizes that I wanted. I actually called them, spoke to a very nice guy who told me he would let me know the minute that he had more of the size I wanted in stock. Two days later he promptly called me and said he had what I needed, and could ship them right away.

I will never buy from anyone other than Big Cheese. Time and again the rats come so perfectly wrapped, and as healthy as can be. Shipped straight to my door with no issues.

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Originally Posted by Lizardlicks

From my understanding Rodent Pro had problems in the past with sourcing their stock from lab surplus. Peoples where unknowingly feeding their animals rats with tumors, microchips embedded, etc. and deaths occurred because of this. They claim to have resolved it, but that's not a risk I'm willing to take with my animals. I would not trust Rodent Pro as far as I could kick 'em.

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I find it really hard to believe that this actually happened. IRB and IACUC strictly regulate the disposal and usage of laboratory animals post research. After animals are sacrificed in labs, we sort them into different disposal streams based on what has been done to them. Any change at all to their normal physiology requires them to be sealed appropriately and disposed of accordingly. Our research institution participates in the Raptor Safe program, and any animals that go to them have to be completely unchanged. Even a small dissection of any organ disqualifies them.

If a lab got caught selling lab animals to outside sources inappropriately, NIH, FDA and the Fed would drop a bomb on them.

Also, rats are extremely pre-disposed to tumors, and will usually develop an oncogenic phenotype naturally given enough time.

It may be hearsay, I'm having trouble tracking down the source, but I remember a tumblr user who's snake died shortly after a feeding and when they did a necropsy there was a microchip found in the snake's stomach contents. The user was incredibly distraught (understandable) and said they'd gotten their feeders from Rodent Pro. Regardless, there are MULTIPLE anecdotes to be found about regurge, diarrhea and death horror stories all over the internet from owners who fed their snakes and lizards with RP stock. Not a good track record and not something I'm willing to risk when there's several better options available.

I am absolutely not defending rodent pro. I have never heard good things about them.

Ah here we go http://www.reptileradio.net/showthre...-your-reptiles

Im sure there is always the opportunity for a one off issue like you said, with literally millions of rodents exchanging hands yearly.

Hmm..... WELLLLLL this is awkward... I came here to say I just got a shipment of medium/small/weaned/fuzzy rats from rodentpro and they all arrived pretty clean and well packaged. Shipping was only $29. Thought it was a good deal and nice feeders. Now ya'll making me feel like I need to burn the bodies and order from somewhere else! Yikes. Well Ill be on the lookout for any shady rats.

Youre fine. As long as the rats look healthy go ahead and feed them

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Originally Posted by wilomn

And for those who don't know about rodent pro, they don't produce a lot of what they sell. They have breeders drop ship rodents they've never seen. Their quality is poor because of this. Buy local and support your neighbor.

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Now that actually makes a lot of sense. I keep hearing about people getting urine soaked feeders and I've never had that problem with Rodent Pro, they must drop ship from a supplier that is closer to me and they probably drop ship from a different supplier for others.

I wish I knew their supplier, I'd go to them directly and cut out the middleman.

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Originally Posted by DTK

Hmm..... WELLLLLL this is awkward... I came here to say I just got a shipment of medium/small/weaned/fuzzy rats from rodentpro and they all arrived pretty clean and well packaged. Shipping was only $29. Thought it was a good deal and nice feeders. Now ya'll making me feel like I need to burn the bodies and order from somewhere else! Yikes. Well Ill be on the lookout for any shady rats.

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You're probably good, just be on the look out when you're defrosting for any strange discoloration, textures or funny smells. If in doubt, throw it out!

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Originally Posted by Lizardlicks

Ah here we go http://www.reptileradio.net/showthre...-your-reptiles

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That looks like someone (tyler.beez) copy and pasted that text from the link at the beginning of his post. So we can't really see who said it or see any proof of what they said.

Plus, it sounds like even he has no idea what's happened and he's just making guesses. He tried to find out how the supply chain worked for them and couldn't even get a firm answer whether the multiple facilities were Rodent Pro owned and operated or privately owned/operated. It's like he just has 5 different versions of what Rodent Pro does with no proof or evidence of any of them. One of those versions is that they use lab rats, which JoshSloane has commented on being very unlikely. I wish we could see who originally posted it though, because according to the person that wrote that if you call in or order online you get what they produce but if you're a re seller then you get rodents from other sources (where the problems are occurring according to the original guy).

But none of that post really adds up, it sounds like the result of shoddy quality control from Rodent Pro and a lot of gossip from the community with no evidence either way. I mean he sounds so confident that it's a "silver bullet" issue and he can't just order some rats and test them, but somehow one guy lost "a large chunk of his collection". How is it possible that it's a rare occurrence but it killed most of someone's snakes? I could believe that they supplement their supply with other rodent breeders, and I could believe that some rodents arrive and they stick or are most likely not good anymore because they were thawed out a bit to separate and refrozen. But the likelihood of them sending out the rare rat that will cause regurgitation/diarrhea, color loss, scale loss and possible death just doesn't make sense. He claims that he's seen lots of others report issues like this and also claim that rodent pro was their supplier, but where are these other cases?

I got some med and rat pups from here. Package and price was pretty fair
http://www.northernrodents.com


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I drive to Rodents on the Road. Awesome people and healthy nice rats.

Well my shipment from Rodent Pro arrived today. I guess I was one of the lucky ones, the feeders are all clean and plump and still frozen solid. The packaging wasn't as good as Big Cheese, they are not vacuum packed and not well organized other than by size (just counted and tossed in the bag), two of the bags had a hole in them due to the lack of organization (tail poked through one and a claw and foot ruptured the second bag) since it was only two bags and two different sizes it's not that big a deal I'll just use those bags first to reduce the risk of freezer burn. This experience was not a bad one with Rodent Pro, however due to their lack of quality in packaging, along with the many other stories of non clean feeders, this will be my last purchase from them unless I get in an absolute pinch for feeders. I was lucky this time around but I'm not willing to gamble on a $500 order and have to deal with the cons of getting a poor quality 6 month supply of feeders. .......... I hope Big Cheese can get their supply and demand issues under control :please: because, as far as cleanliness, healthy appearance, and packaging ESPECIALLY .... so far they are superior all around in the quality department :gj:

When people get bad stuff from rodent pro, does anyone contact them? What do they say? Years ago I ordered from then, and they usually had missing feet and had wood chips stuck to them. Also, their shipping schedule sucks. I love big cheese. Although I called once, and he sounded super stressed. I hope he can get his problems sorted out, his product and pricing is awesome.

I've purchased from RP once before but because they were at the All Ohio Reptile show and I didn't have to pay for the shipping, just tax. I purchased a bag of small pinkies and the packaging wasn't the best since it looks like they just counted out the pinks then threw them in a freezer bag which was a problem after a while with freezer burn. I may consider paying for the shipping from big cheese or perfect prey based on the experiences people have had with RP. I guess it's easier for me at the shows though since I can see the feeders before I buy them. Right now I'm buying large pinkies for the hognoses and hoppers for the ball python. How is the packaging for Big Cheese and Perfect Prey?

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Originally Posted by andrewross8705

I've purchased from RP once before but because they were at the All Ohio Reptile show and I didn't have to pay for the shipping, just tax. I purchased a bag of small pinkies and the packaging wasn't the best since it looks like they just counted out the pinks then threw them in a freezer bag which was a problem after a while with freezer burn. I may consider paying for the shipping from big cheese or perfect prey based on the experiences people have had with RP. I guess it's easier for me at the shows though since I can see the feeders before I buy them. Right now I'm buying large pinkies for the hognoses and hoppers for the ball python. How is the packaging for Big Cheese and Perfect Prey?

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Yea, I deal with Big Cheese personally. I have a few friends who order from Perfect Prey.

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Originally Posted by Neal

Yea, I deal with Big Cheese personally. I have a few friends who order from Perfect Prey.

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How is the packaging with Big Cheese? I'll be ordering large pinkies and either rat fuzzies or pups.

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Originally Posted by andrewross8705

How is the packaging with Big Cheese? I'll be ordering large pinkies and either rat fuzzies or pups.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

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This is a review I did of them, which I've ordered plenty of times before, I just felt like I needed to do a video review.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeVg8a6AhX0

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Originally Posted by Neal

This is a review I did of them, which I've ordered plenty of times before, I just felt like I needed to do a video review.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeVg8a6AhX0

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Great video, it's nice to see just how well everything is packaged. Looks like I'll be spending the extra money for shipping. Do you have any trouble with any of the mice or rats sticking together or trouble pulling out what you need from the package/tray?

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Originally Posted by andrewross8705

Great video, it's nice to see just how well everything is packaged. Looks like I'll be spending the extra money for shipping. Do you have any trouble with any of the mice or rats sticking together or trouble pulling out what you need from the package/tray?

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Trouble as in frozen together? No. Now sometimes the tails may be crossed or when you grab one you may get 3-4, but all I do is gently wiggle and they come right apart, no force necessary. Most of the time though just one comes out.