PetCo Frozen Feeders

Is it okay to buy frozen / thawed feeders from PetCo? I ordered from Big Cheese Rodents but they came thawed and unusable due to weather and a shipping error. Now in a pinch to feed my snakes and want to make sure it is okay.

I saw an old thread on this but it was 1) very old and 2) turned into a discussion about euthanizing live animals and not about the quality of frozen feeders at PetCo and whether they are okay to feed to your snakes.

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Originally Posted by Squirtle44

Is it okay to buy frozen / thawed feeders from PetCo? I ordered from Big Cheese Rodents but they came thawed and unusable due to weather and a shipping error. Now in a pinch to feed my snakes and want to make sure it is okay.

I saw an old thread on this but it was 1) very old and 2) turned into a discussion about euthanizing live animals and not about the quality of frozen feeders at PetCo and whether they are okay to feed to your snakes.

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Dang, I hope you got a full refund for it! That stinks :(

I think Petco allows you to actually open the frozen box and check out the rodent. Sometimes they are bad quality. Unless your snake is a tiny hatchling, it will be okay to wait a week or two for another online order though. Your snake will be fine.

I buy mine from Petco, it's great because they sell by piece so I only buy one the exact day she's eating, no need to get rodents on my freezer or anything else, no rodent smell on my house, nothing... I love that, and I even get to choose the exact mouse from the bag I want to feed. They sell pinkies, semi-adults and adults, I've been feeding my 7 months old BP the biggest semi-adult I can see every Monday and seems to be doing great. Hope it helps!


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I've always gone to my local PetCo for feeders (i've had just one boa until recently, so bulk online makes no sense for me) - They have always gone through The Gourmet Rodent, and have always been very healthy and clean. The only imperfection i've ever noticed was an occasional broken tail.

Say, while we're on the topic, i was thinking of switching my nearly 3 year old male to medium rats, smalls are ok, but seem a little too easy as of late. So last week i went to grab a medium but it was HUGE! I was expecting the difference between small and med to be noticeable but not dramatic - this seemed like a pretty dramatic difference in size, no way my guy is ready for these behemoth mediums, anyone else have this experience or some insight??

Not seeing anything negative about their feeders out there at the moment (and I'm sure if there were issues with them, the whole reptile community would know at this point).

With that being said, I would take Red's advice and wait if your snake isn't too young as their feeders, especially their frozen feeders are HORRIFICALLY overpriced (at least in my area).

If you do opt to buy from Petco, make sure they have a return policy in place for the frozens too if they won't let you check in store. I would imagine that if you can return a huge bag of open dog food and get your money back, one little feeder rat would also be returnable if it wasn't up to snuff? Just double check and make sure you thaw completely.

only negative i've found is the price + running to the store every other week. i hope you get a refund for your online order!

Yeah, PetCo price per feeder is ridiculous. One time my husband forgot to pick up rats from our normal place and they were closed before I got off work, so I had to go to PetCo... and the rat they labeled as a 'medium' wasn't even 70g, more in the small rat range, and they charged me $7 bucks. For a a single small size rat. I get 150g meduims for $3 from my usual guy, is was mind blowing. Easy thing to overlook if you only have one or two snakes, but more than that, I'd go broke trying to pay those prices!

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Originally Posted by Lizardlicks

Yeah, PetCo price per feeder is ridiculous. One time my husband forgot to pick up rats from our normal place and they were closed before I got off work, so I had to go to PetCo... and the rat they labeled as a 'medium' wasn't even 70g, more in the small rat range, and they charged me $7 bucks. For a a single small size rat. I get 150g meduims for $3 from my usual guy, is was mind blowing. Easy thing to overlook if you only have one or two snakes, but more than that, I'd go broke trying to pay those prices!

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Yeah, after tax i end up paying about $5.50 per small rat, but with just one boa eating them (my other is on mice) an order of 25 from a supplier would would take about 2 years to go through, and thats without factoring in the likely possibility of the snake needing to size up to mediums before getting through them - but those are moot points since my wife will have murdered me well before then for keeping 25 rats in the freezer. :rofl:

lol rats in the freezer is completely normal to my family, but i still want to get a separate chest freezer, because keeping a supply for soon to be 10 snakes takes up a lot of space!

I've fed my BRB petco mice/rats from time to time. you have to watch for freezer burn, they are not vacum packed and sometimes are degraded. that said, ironically, my snakes have pretty consistently readily eaten Petco rodents which is not always the case with other sources, perhaps they add some scent.

The biggest problem is the price, but I've never had any issues feeding my snakes F/T from Petco or PetSmart. I used to buy from there when I only had one snake. Now I buy bulk. I also have two juvenile corns who I have been feeding F/T from there til I pull the trigger on bulk for them too, just not positive what size to order bulk for them just yet.

My problem is they don't do weaned/pup rats. Their smalls really vary in size. I just got a second baby who is on rats and do not want to go through switching her to mice and then back. I get the petco discount and usually by 3 packs of small rats for my Riddic. I have gotten one bad rat from them, i could tell by the smell! I also had him act sick for a couple weeks after a feeding, would not come out of hide and stayed on warm side the whole time... but he is ok now and had a terrible poop, so I think it was the feeder. Otherwise, the price is ridiculous, as you easily beat it even with the shipping. Shows or a local feeder producer is your best bet.

I am moving Riddic to mediums and weaned for my girl, so ordered from perfectprey and hoping for the best. I'll know tomorrow. I'll have enough feeders for a while [emoji23].


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I cannot believe my snakes name gets censored!!! It's the main character from Pitch Black!


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Originally Posted by Jollyrogers

I cannot believe my snakes name gets censored!!! It's the main character from Pitch Black!

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Got to love programming....... I "fixed" it :rofl::rofl:

Back on topic, I cannot see spending the prices they charge.
I was in a bind and needed some pinky mice for my kings........ I was not impressed because all the parts of the mice were frozen together.
I say parts because they were just that. 2 bags and I think 3 of them were complete and unbroken?

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

Got to love programming....... I "fixed" it :rofl::rofl:

Back on topic, I cannot see spending the prices they charge.
I was in a bind and needed some pinky mice for my kings........ I was not impressed because all the parts of the mice were frozen together.
I say parts because they were just that. 2 bags and I think 3 of them were complete and unbroken?

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Lol. It's the spelling R I D D I C K is how it's actually spelt [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23] Thanks for fixing [emoji1360]

I have never experienced that with the rats from Petco, but they are frozen together when i get the 3 packs. Hopefully they ones I ordered will be individually wrapped. My local pet store is moving and called me (my wife frequents there for her chihuahua) about carrying frozen/thawed. I ttried to steer him towards perfect prey or the such for bulk, or find a local provider... He promises me he will carry them because he gets so many inquiries.

If you have a PetSmart nearby, check them out too. Their mice just look cleaner and I can't predict what your noodle(s) will like, but my boy vastly prefers the PetSmart ones. With my boy, I have to set them down in his cage and let him check it out for a few minutes before he'll take it, whereas the PetSmart ones he'll snatch right from the hemostat.

When you (whomever wishes to answer) buy from petco/smart, are they reselling from a larger distributor or, like, "homegrown" in ziplock bags? Theres a little local place by my folks (local for them, not me) that i'll buy from if i'm visiting, prices are better, but they are just loose rats in baggies. I dont necessarily think one is better than the other, just curious as to how various places do it. I know my petsmart uses rodent gourmet and the petco uses arctic mice

I used two large mice from petco to see if the snake would eat frozen, it was great

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Originally Posted by dkatz4

When you (whomever wishes to answer) buy from petco/smart, are they reselling from a larger distributor or, like, "homegrown" in ziplock bags? Theres a little local place by my folks (local for them, not me) that i'll buy from if i'm visiting, prices are better, but they are just loose rats in baggies. I dont necessarily think one is better than the other, just curious as to how various places do it. I know my petsmart uses rodent gourmet and the petco uses arctic mice

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Yep, those are the brands my stores carry, actually I think it's the opposite though. My little worm likes the Arctics way better than the "Gourmet"

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Originally Posted by dkatz4

When you (whomever wishes to answer) buy from petco/smart, are they reselling from a larger distributor or, like, "homegrown" in ziplock bags? Theres a little local place by my folks (local for them, not me) that i'll buy from if i'm visiting, prices are better, but they are just loose rats in baggies. I dont necessarily think one is better than the other, just curious as to how various places do it. I know my petsmart uses rodent gourmet and the petco uses arctic mice

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They are from a larger breeder. PetSmart carries "Arctic" and Petco carries "Gourmet. I prefer the "Arctic" from PetSmart myself 6 packs as opposed to 4 packs and a slightly better price, however still robbery by comparison to buying bulk. Both stores have run out on several occasions while I was there to just grab a few for the corns. Petco has given me some of their "store use only" feeders that they use twice though. I can't wait for the corns to get big enough that I can buy bulk and get them and the King all the same size and I won't need to keep buying different size prey. By then the BP should be on rats though, so I guess still two sizes...oh well

I'll have to checkout Petsmart... Artic. Petco a gourmet rodent are not all that.


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NOTE: i just realized, as some have pointed out, that i switched the stores and their respective rodent brands - incidentally, at my local stores, PetSmart (Arctic Mouse) only carry mice and not rats, and at PetCo, they carry both and the mouse prices are better.

My experience with petco feeders was not good. I don't know how some people are able to look through the selection and pick the ones they want, my petco sells them in solid white sealed zipper bags. There were at least two occasions where I ended up throwing the mouse away because it smelled "off".

I have a small chest freezer that I put everything in. I also sell to other people in the area so I'm constantly ordering from BigCheese. If you had an issue with them, talk to Chris and he'll make things right. I've spent thousands with them and I'm always happy with their customer service.

Just to follow up - and thank you for all the responses - I ended up getting a full refund (new repeat order sent to me free of charge) from Big Cheese Rodent Factory. These guys are awesome!!!! They gave me no flack at all and instantly gave me this when I told them of what happened.

In terms of what I did in the interim - I did go to Petco. They use gourmet Rodent Branded. They had various sizes of both rats and mice. The process was easy enough. My snakes took the food no problem. Only downside was the price. Was ~$8 for a frozen adult mice and weened sized rat. But for a temporary solution - definitely worked no problem despite the cost.

I would only pay that much as a last resort. Missing a feeding is not a huge deal in most situations.

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