Online vs Local F/T

Hi all, new to the forum and wanted suggestions. I have a single ball python at a little over 300g right now, and have been debating whether I should keep buying frozen rats locally or online. The price would only be a little less if I ordered online, and I’d have to get a few packs which would last over a year. Locally they don’t vaccum seal, so I’d have to go a few times a year.

It’s no big deal, but I keep wondering if I should get them shipped. Thanks for any input!

I always preferred locally for a few reasons:

1) Whenever I can, I try to help local businesses. And by helping a local breeder, you know in case you ever needed food immediately for whatever reason they'd still be in business.

2) I don't like having a hundred rodents in my freezer lol.

3) With a growing snake, their food sizes are going to be getting larger over time, so you'll have to take that into account if you go ahead and place a large order.

I have heard some people say they were concerned with the transportation of the feeders, thawing in the process. But I have no knowledge on that so best to wait to hear from someone who actually has experience with that.

Oh and unless I've been doing it wrong all these years lol I never had my feeders vaccum sealed. Always in a zip lock bag, so you can still buy a lot at time to safe you a trip.

Good luck on whatever you pick. I'd wait to hear from members who prefer Online to hear their points.

I prefer local because Im a huge supporter of local business ( my family has owned numerous restaurants). However, I don’t have any local places that sell good quality frozen so I buy online. To me, even though I love local business, I love my snakes more and getting the best quality feeders is most important. I get my feeders from perfect prey in southern florida and they are great. I live in northern florida so I love that they are semi local.


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Yeah good point Mstuppiello921! Forgot about that.
I think priority should be a quality, clean feeders, a place you trust. 99% of breeders I found are very good, and they actually care about their mice/rats, don't just see them as a money maker. So you should be safe, unless your local breeder just looks like a shady person haha and his set up looks dirty.

Those are some really good points, thank you!

I think the two places here order in bulk online, but I’ll keep buying from them because they’re still locally run. Don’t have to worry about size as she grows.

Agreed cottonmouth. Im originally from new england and had access to a lot of quality breeders. However, after moving to northern florida I had trouble finding a good one. Although I am the type of person who really values customer service. Their are a couple local breeders that had good quality but had really off putting service so I passed. My biggest complaint with online is shipping cost. I am not a breeder and I don’t have a ton of animals so I don’t get to order huge qualities for one shipping price. Most of the time the shipping is the same cost of my order....


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If I had a reliable local source who produced quality prey, I would go local. I like to support local when I can.

But...since I don't, I use perfect prey. Very happy with them. Pricing is fair, quality is second to none and packing/shipping and customer service are fantastic.

I patronize several local private sources who can fortunately supply me with bulk feeders at prices lower than online.

The local snake store sells frozen mice and rats and I prefer buying from them. You can keep rodents frozen for weeks and months, but personally, I wouldn't eat fish that had been in the freezer for a few months, so why feed something like that to another animal?

But the best reason is just to occasionally connect with the local snake keeping community. You never know, maybe the snake store has a nice new cage for sale for a reasonable price.

I don't have any trusted local suppliers so it's Perfect Prey all the way for me. I have (8) snakes and a separate freezer for their food so it works our perfectly. The pet store feeder prices in my area are ridiculous. :mad:

I'm new to the hobby so initially bought my feeders from a pet store which charged insane prices and seldom carried the size I wanted.
As I acquired more snakes, this option just wasn't practical so I started searching for rodent breeders.

Did find a couple but one was unreliable and the other was ... unpleasant. Back to the drawing board! I found another pet store, not local but doable, which specialized in reptiles. Customer service is really good, feeders are healthy, but prices were significantly higher than breeder prices. I did research online shopping, but once shipping costs were added I'd be paying as much, or more, than I would at the pet stores, and, as others have mentioned, there is no way of knowing quality of the animals until you commit to purchase. Acceptable if you are able to just buy a reasonably priced sample, but usually a minimum order is required. (which I understand, it just wouldn't be my first option).

Still on a "feeder quest", I answered an ad that led me to a "feeder breeder" with reasonable prices, quality animals and who is accommodating without being surly. I do have to drive a bit of a distance, but I simply plan other errands while I'm at it and buy enough for a month or two at a time. Hopefully, a time will come when I can find someone local who can provide what I want, but in the meantime, my first choice is the breeder, and as a back up I use the reptile store. It works. :-)

I've always bought my F/T rodents from my local pet store. I also am a person that likes to support my local pet stores and it's kind of like supporting my reptile community at the same time.
I have two snakes, and I can see how someone with a larger amount of snakes would really want to consider local rodent breeders and online rodent suppliers.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JRLongton

personally, I wouldn't eat fish that had been in the freezer for a few months, so why feed something like that to another animal?

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Whaaaattttt? LOL. That just made me remember recently cleaning out my grandmother's 2 large chest freezers in her home. She is 92 years old now and seeing as how she remembers the Great Depression where a lot of people didnt have enough food to eat, she didn't throw anything away. We found frozen food in her freezers that was labeled 1972!!. It took 4 weeks of filling her roll out trash can with frozen food every week before we fully emptied both freezers. I would hope that she never had intentions of eating that stuff from 1972 but she just can not bring herself to throw anything away. She even had stacks of many many thousands of the plastic bags that you bring groceries home in. She just couldnt bear to throw them out. She still had a working refrigerator in the house that had the date it was bought wrote on the inside of the lid. The date is Sept 1937.

I'm lucky to have a rat breeder 1 hr from here... and his prices are almost as good as the online vendors and I save on shipping.
I also have a co-worker that knows a farmer that sells quails and rabbits of any size you want 30 min from my house, so I'll be buying from him when my boa gets bigger.
I couldn't be happier, supporting local business and getting fresh prey for my boys.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JRLongton

The local snake store sells frozen mice and rats and I prefer buying from them. You can keep rodents frozen for weeks and months, but personally, I wouldn't eat fish that had been in the freezer for a few months, so why feed something like that to another animal?

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If the meat was vacuum-sealed before being frozen it will last many years. There are some vendors that ship feeders that way, or you could buy bulk and DIY.

I too try support local business as much as possible, however when saving a lot of money, I need to do what is financially in my favor. I was buying my feeders locally until I placed a big order and found I would save significant money with Reptilinks at the time.

About my local guy....VERY nice people - no complaints and his customer service was great when I bought weaned mice that turned out to be hopper weights (yes, I am OCD and weigh my feeders) and offered to exchange them all at no cost but I insisted on paying the difference. I guess he supplies the Buffalo Zoo (RickyNY not sure how close you are and forgot to ask in the PM I just sent you LOL) with their feeders and delivers within a mile of the zoo for anyone locally that orders through him.

He uses an old barn with very little air circulation so the mice/rats/rabbits reek of urine and so did I when I would leave after being there for a few short minutes to pick up my order. :puke::puke::puke::puke:But I like to help the local guy so I overlooked it....but money savings is something I need right now on a budget.

I'm currently looking to place an order so I'm "shopping" some of the online suppliers mentioned here, so this thread has come in very handy.

I've never bought frozen online I've always thought it must take at least 24 hours from there freezer to mine and surely it won't stay below 0 degrees with a ice pad. I do try to avoid pets at home here in the UK I always find there rats have a different smell just not a fan.