Rat Feeding Problem

Callista is up to 207 grams as of about 10 minutes ago. The store where I bought rats has closed down, and I am unable to get my hands on any rat fuzzies here in Flagstaff. I’ve even tried Craigslist, which, I know, is not a good place to buy them. I’d prefer a known source.

This weekend I’m planning to go to the Phoenix Reptile Expo, mainly to see if there’s a rat vendor there. If not, I’ll probably need to run around the valley looking for rats. Saturday is feeding day, and I have two rat pinkies left in the freezer from when she was smaller. That’s what I’m planning to feed her. Together they come to 17 grams, which is small for a meal.

I also have rat pups in the freezer. Big Cheese was out of fuzzies when I placed my order, and their rat pups are up to size, so there aren’t any small ones in that batch. Petsmart has rats that are bigger than the ones that I have in the freezer, and Petco has a reputation for selling rats that cause the death of snakes.

Should I feed her a pup next weekend, even though they are too big, if I can’t find fuzzies? I don’t want to feed her prey that is too large and cause problems.

Advice, please!

Why don't you order some frozen rat fuzzies online? I order all mine from perfectprey.com , they arrive within 2-3 days, and are all well packaged with dry ice and insulation to keep them frozen. I just checked, rat fuzzies are $18 for 25. Plus $45 for shipping (has to ship fast because of frozen animals) so the total comes out to $66, which if you think about, the rats will last you a 6 months if you feed once a week, and in my opinion that's totally worth it.

I just tried it with the flagstaff zipcode and it said it would be $58 actually.

OK, I may have this figured out. I have a few 18 and 20 gram racks in that pack. I didn't notice the little guys the last time I looked. They are smaller than what Big Cheese says would be in that pack, but this time it may have worked to my advantage. An 18-20 gram rat with a 200 gram bp means that it's about 10% of her weight at most, and posts I've seen said to feed 10-15% of their weight, so this should be small enough, right?

*fingers crossed*

Sounds right to me.

Yessss!!!! Thank you.

At least now I won't need to worry about keeping rats frozen on the trip home. :)

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Originally Posted by Snizards

Why don't you order some frozen rat fuzzies online? I order all mine from perfectprey.com , they arrive within 2-3 days, and are all well packaged with dry ice and insulation to keep them frozen. I just checked, rat fuzzies are $18 for 25. Plus $45 for shipping (has to ship fast because of frozen animals) so the total comes out to $66, which if you think about, the rats will last you a 6 months if you feed once a week, and in my opinion that's totally worth it.

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Yeah but in less than 6 months, if consistently feeding, the snake would be big enough to eat something bigger than a fuzzy. My Mojave is a huge eater. I've only had her for 2 months and she is already on small rat pups. And I started her with hopper mice.. so me personally, I wouldn't buy anymore than a 2 or 3 month supply. These guys grow fast when they're young.


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Ahh.. that's very true. Unless you have multiple babies it probably would be too many fuzzies. Sorry, been a while since I had a young snake.

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Originally Posted by Snizards

Ahh.. that's very true. Unless you have multiple babies it probably would be too many fuzzies. Sorry, been a while since I had a young snake.

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Well I was under the impression that the OP only has the one snake. Maybe I'm wrong. But yes, obviously if you have several snakes of the same size, then a larger quantity would work.

All of mine are CLOSE to the same size. But a couple are on rat fuzzies, one or two on rat pups and the rest are still on hoppers/small adult mice. It's a fine line. Gotta thread the needle.


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mangiapane85

Yeah but in less than 6 months, if consistently feeding, the snake would be big enough to eat something bigger than a fuzzy. My Mojave is a huge eater. I've only had her for 2 months and she is already on small rat pups. And I started her with hopper mice.. so me personally, I wouldn't buy anymore than a 2 or 3 month supply. These guys grow fast when they're young.
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I agree with Mangiapane85 especially with the females, so since Perfectprey have
Lower Quantity Packages

too someone can order 5 of one type and 5 of a bigger type and so on.

That sounds like a good idea, buy you're right, I only have one bp that size. She's more than doubled in weight since she came home in June. Rather than pay shipping for 5 fuzzy rats, I think I'll go with feeding her the two pinkies tomorrow, then the 18 gram rat the week after, and the 20 gram rat the week after that. As fast as she's growing, she should be ready for the rat pups by the time those are gone. When I first started this thread, I didn't realize I had a few rats in the pack that are smaller than what they should be for the size they are labeled.

Thanks for letting me know about being able to order smaller quantities. My only order so far was with Big Cheese, and I didn't know you could order smaller quantities somewhere else. :)

In the 5 years I have had Cleopatra I have tried various on line suppliers for mice and rats...the only company I will deal with now is PerfectPrey.com. Their rats and mice are just the cleanest and healthiest looking. They smell like rodents, not like urine or worse.

I also use Perfect Prey, though I've never tried another place for frozen rats so I can't compare. They work for me though, so why fix it if it isn't broke? ^_^