What frozen mice breeder to go with? And possibly help with sizing.

Buying rodents from petsmart/petco gets expensive. Im wondering if anyone is from the Montana area, and knows of some good breeders. Was looking at rodent pro, but heard some mixed reviews. Could also use some help determining what size to feed him? He's very underweight, thats just how i got him, and previous owner said he was on fuzzies. Im feeding him that now but they leave no lump so i think he would go a lot larger. I dont know his actual age, but hes 22 inches from head to tail maybe give some since he was trying to run away.

id post a pic but I'm not sure how, new to forums in general. I have a post on Instagram Kazarous, the only one there if that would work.

As far as posting pics here, many use Tapatalk, & this thread may help:
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...-Post-Pictures

I used to use Rodent Pro but then started getting really smelly mice that my corn snakes didn't like. The rats seemed okay but when I switched to Cold Blooded Cafe I have really noticed a difference in how well all my snakes are eating and looking. The quality is very good and all my snakes are eating more consistently.

Big Cheese, Cold Blooded Cafe, and Perfect Prey are all really good suppliers. We’d have to see the snake or know it’s age & weight to recommend the appropriate prey size. A general rule of thumb is to feed a prey item no bigger than 1.5x the widest part of the snake’s body.

I've used Rodent Pro for a long time and have not had any issues. I've placed three orders in the past few months and all were good. One they did forget one item but got it out asap without any fuss. That's been a mix of mice and rats. I like that they can use a unlabeled box to ship to you. When I lived in an apartment that was nice. What's in the box? Frozen meat. End of questions.

I raise my own rodents, but if I needed to buy them, I've heard great reviews & would buy from Perfect Prey (in FL), or Layne Labs (in CA) & Big Cheese (in TX, I think?). Unfortunately, none of them are close to you.

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I got some pics uploaded in the replies. Hope that works. I don't know how the rile of thumb goes for underweight snakes, and I don't have a scale on hand right now to weight him

Without having a weight, he looks like rat pups would be the appropriate size, maybe weaned rats, but I wouldn't jump straight from fuzzy to weaned anyway.

I've been using rodentpro for a very long time and never had problems but I have been seeing a lot of other people say they have recently.

The only other company I've used for shipping bulk is reptilinks but they do not currently sell rodents and I'm not sure when they will. They have been saying "coming soon" for a couple years now lol. As much as I love links, I absolutely would not recommend trying it as a novice BP keeper because of how difficult they are to get to eat new things.

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Originally Posted by nikkubus

Without having a weight, he looks like rat pups would be the appropriate size, maybe weaned rats, but I wouldn't jump straight from fuzzy to weaned anyway.

I've been using rodentpro for a very long time and never had problems but I have been seeing a lot of other people say they have recently.

The only other company I've used for shipping bulk is reptilinks but they do not currently sell rodents and I'm not sure when they will. They have been saying "coming soon" for a couple years now lol. As much as I love links, I absolutely would not recommend trying it as a novice BP keeper because of how difficult they are to get to eat new things.

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Oh interesting. I was told by previous owner they were feeding a fuzzy mouse once a week (but he didnt take from them for 2+ weeks before getting into my hands), but after feeding him one I noticed that it hardly made a bulge in his already skinny form so I started to question true sizing. He was super thin when I first got him so that may have caused confusion as well, but I was afraid of hopper mice being too large for him to handle. I guess they can take larger pray than I expected. I know about the 1.25/1.5x rule, but since he was bare bones and ribs when I got him I was a bit hesitant. I've been feeding him my remaining fuzzy mice about once every 4 days when he starts to prowl. I didn't wanna try feeding too large to prevent him from regurgitating at such a questionable state.

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Originally Posted by Kaz

Oh interesting. I was told by previous owner they were feeding a fuzzy mouse once a week (but he didnt take from them for 2+ weeks before getting into my hands), but after feeding him one I noticed that it hardly made a bulge in his already skinny form so I started to question true sizing. He was super thin when I first got him so that may have caused confusion as well, but I was afraid of hopper mice being too large for him to handle. I guess they can take larger pray than I expected. I know about the 1.25/1.5x rule, but since he was bare bones and ribs when I got him I was a bit hesitant. I've been feeding him my remaining fuzzy mice about once every 4 days when he starts to prowl. I didn't wanna try feeding too large to prevent him from regurgitating at such a questionable state.

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Nothing wrong with starting off slowly if the snake has been neglected and isn't used to eating.

Is this your only snake? Shipping frozen gets expensive really fast unless you're placing a large order and filling the shipping box/cooler. You might have better luck if you can find a local breeder who will sell you a few feeders at a time.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

.......Is this your only snake? Shipping frozen gets expensive really fast unless you're placing a large order and filling the shipping box/cooler. You might have better luck if you can find a local breeder who will sell you a few feeders at a time.

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This is true, I use Perfect Prey or Big Cheese, depends on what's in stock at the time I order.

I'm ordering for 6 snakes, now 7, and I order 6 months at a time, So I can almost fill a box.

Doesn't matter how many in the box, It's $30.00 shipping from 1 package to a full box, So only ordering a few local might be cheaper

even it's more per rodent to start with. I'm in Virginia, so if your farther away the shipping could be more, which will raise your cost per rodent more.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kaz

Oh interesting. I was told by previous owner they were feeding a fuzzy mouse once a week (but he didnt take from them for 2+ weeks before getting into my hands), but after feeding him one I noticed that it hardly made a bulge in his already skinny form so I started to question true sizing. He was super thin when I first got him so that may have caused confusion as well, but I was afraid of hopper mice being too large for him to handle. I guess they can take larger pray than I expected. I know about the 1.25/1.5x rule, but since he was bare bones and ribs when I got him I was a bit hesitant. I've been feeding him my remaining fuzzy mice about once every 4 days when he starts to prowl. I didn't wanna try feeding too large to prevent him from regurgitating at such a questionable state.

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FYI, fuzzy mice are way too small for even a hatchling BP, unless it's undersized. Many BPs are started on hopper mice. If previous owner was feeding a "fuzzy mouse once a week"- poor snake! :(

Always make sure whether you're talking about mice or rats when discussing feeders- there's a huge difference between baby mice & baby rats, & not everyone uses the appropriate labels, which is why it's more helpful when actual weights are given (both for the snake & their prey items). ;)

BUT, even though he's been underfed for a while, don't upsize too quickly or he may have trouble handling it. I'm sure glad you came here to ask about all this. :gj:

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Second Big Cheese. The cheapest would definitely be finding a local supplier to cut out the shipping cost. But when I tried doing that the store would constantly be out of rats when I needed them. I gave up and just started ordering online. You may have better luck.

The last three orders I made with RodentPro I got free shipping for spending over a hundred bucks for each order. My chest freezer is FULL! I made each order worth it to get the free shipping. I'm set on feeders for a good while.

I’m going to be in the minority and much prefer RodentPro over Big Cheese. When I ordered from Big Cheese, about 20% of the rodents were underweight (below the advertised weight range). I think there was a YouTube video from someone else complaining of the same thing. Second their rodents are very bloody when thawed ( most likely from being vacuum packed). While that’s good for storing long term if you don’t need them right away, it is more messy. I’ve not experienced smell or bloodiness from RodentPro. And it’s free shipping over $100 right now and their prices are very comparable and they always have sizes in stock unlike Big Cheese.

I’ve always used south Florida rodents and cold blooded cafe. Never had a issue with either


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Since you mention you're in Montana, if you wanted to go with a more local supplier, there's The Rodent Barn out of Bozeman.

https://therodentbarn.com/

I haven't used them personally, but know a good breeder in Montana who uses them exclusively.

I prefer Big Cheese, but when they're out of stock, I use rodent pro. I'll have to check out Perfect Prey for next time.

Perfect Prey 100% - I've never had an issue with them and when my snake was growing and between sizes I called and asked for the smaller end of the range for the weaned rats if possible and while they didn't pre-weigh the rats, all of them were on the smaller end of the range. Their rodents are always clean and healthy looking too. No signs of overcrowding or stress either.