how much and where?

i was just wondering what people are paying for their rats/mice?, their size?, and where do you get them?

i had stopped by a pet store on the way back from a dr's appontment today and can't believe what they are charging for rodents, $1 for pinks/fuzzy mice $1.25 for hopper mice, $1.50 for adult mice, $2.49 small rats, $2.99 med rats, and $3.99 for large rats :eek:

Those prices sound pretty reasonable for a pet store. I think I pay $2.75 for small rats at a local "mom & pop" store. Buying them one-at-a-time from any retail shop will definitely hit ya in the wallet when your collection grows beyond just a couple snakes.

You can get taken at the local store for much crazier sums:

jumbos 8.99
lg rats 5.99
med 4.99
sml 3.99


I am glad we breed our own now - and pretty much give away our overflow.

man the place i was getting them from was alot cheaper, from $0.49 for pinks to $3.29 for jumbo rats. but that is now 4+ hours away from me now.

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Originally Posted by Smulkin

You can get taken at the local store for much crazier sums:

jumbos 8.99
lg rats 5.99
med 4.99
sml 3.99


I am glad we breed our own now - and pretty much give away our overflow.

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no way i would sell out if i had to pay those, man

i am not for the breeding of rats, allergies to them. but at these prices i may just start.

I order online and got my XXL for $1.50 each!!!

The cheapest I find at a pet store are $1.00 for all mouse sizes and $2.00 for all rat sizes, but this store is uneducated in reptiles. Try frozen from rodentpro.com or americanrodent.com ;)

Petco rapes us on ours.

Its $1.99 for mice
$6.99 for a medium rat
and $5.99 for a small rat.
And you do the math, I go in each week and buy 3 medium rats, 1 small rat and 3 mice. I'm spending 30 some odd bucks each week...yes I am going to breed my own and freeze them very soon. That doesnt even count for the cost of housing them being that I cant get everyone to eat each week so I end up putting up with rats and mice every time, right now I have 2 medium rats and a mouse shacking up in here....I'm going to charge them rent!

What gets me is it's $7.99 for 3 small forzen rats. WTF? I know with cost for feeding and everything adds up, but what about killing the rats, freezing and packaging them and then running the cooler to keep them frozen? Why would frozen be that much cheaper.

Shipping is what kills you when you order frozen. I ended up paying $60 some on shipping for 50-60 lbs of rats and mice!! Thats not cheap at all.

Breed your own!! Counting all of our overhead, it costs us about $0.15/adult mouse and $0.35/weanling rat (the two sizes fed to most of our snakes). It's probably not as cost effective if you are only raising rodents for a few snakes, but it's cheaper than most pet stores, and I feel it adds another dimension to keeping snakes in general.

-Evan

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TheAudOne

Why would frozen be that much cheaper.

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Because they're dead? :)

I agree with Evan on his comment to adding another dimension. Heck watching rodents play on a rainy day can be VERY entertaining! And its still cool watching successful litters being born or maturing.

I'm trying to remember how much I paid for some medium (big medium) rats this last sunday...I'm thinking it was like 1.50. I'm raising mice but I've bought surplus mice from a lady at the last two shows I've been at for .50/mouse They are live and all sorts of crazy colors so I have used them as fresh blood lines in the breeding tubs.

There is another topic on this but I also just got some african rats that I am trying. They are very meticulous about cleaning themselves so far and are interesting to watch although nocturnal. They don't smell anywhere near as bad as rats/mice do so far but the real test will come on cleaning day when I actually have my hands in the down and dirty bedding.

Edit: I remember about a year or so now ago I was actually buying my mice from a petco as they had them regularly for like .40 cents, now they are at like .99 or 1.29....to much for me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TheAudOne

What gets me is it's $7.99 for 3 small forzen rats. WTF? I know with cost for feeding and everything adds up, but what about killing the rats, freezing and packaging them and then running the cooler to keep them frozen? Why would frozen be that much cheaper.

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Sho220 hit it on the head ... its alot cheaper to store inventory in the freezer instead of cages. Plus with dead you arent going to run into warranty problems, bad cage mates, deaths, mites, mange, parasites, etc.

One of the pet stores I used to supply had prices similiar to what smulkin posted.

On an irony note ... Some of my rodents go to petco ... I recently found out my cousin had a snake and offered to sell rodents to her ... she stated she only buys from petco so that she "doesnt have to worry about getting sick from a rodent bite". I guess people just think that animals at a chain pet store are worth more.

Bryan

At one time our rat bill from the local pet store was about $145.00 a month and that was for only 5 snakes. We started breeding our own rats and I really enjoy it, not only for the savings (11 snakes now) but for the interest of rat keeping and breeding. We are going to have to start breeding mice now as we have a number of BP's that are refusing rats and will only take mice and I hate having to buy rodents LOL. We sell our spare feeders to a friend from BP Net for half of what the pet store wants for the same size feeder rat.

well the frozens around here are the same price. so i am not saving anything there. i just wanted to hopefully avoid breeding them due to my allergies. last year i know my rodent bill was $150 + a week! i have seen scaled down from there. i did manage to get the one place to work on the price a little bit, but not much. so i guess i will deal with his prices fopr the moment till spring then start breeding my one then. thanks all

At the pet store near me, their mice are $1.99 live, 4.99 for small rats Live, 6.99 for medium rats.. live. Frozen thawed they're only a few buck and mediums and large rats around about $3 for f/t. Much cheaper and to me more convenient.

I order from http://www.frozenrodent.com/ . AND it only cost me $10 for shipping because I live 40 miles away :-)

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Originally Posted by PipeDADDY

I order from http://www.frozenrodent.com/ . AND it only cost me $10 for shipping because I live 40 miles away :-)

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i wish i could say that i looked into it but the shipping will cost me as much as my order, cause i live about 1500 miles away, lol.

editied to add: sorry i didn't look into them. i will though thanks

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jcaustralia

i wish i could say that i looked into it but the shipping will cost me as much as my order, cause i live about 1500 miles away, lol.

editied to add: sorry i didn't look into them. i will though thanks

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Do google searches. You would be surprised! I found frozen rodent suppliers in or around every major city in texas. Dallas/Austin/Houston/San Antonio. And if you live close, UPS can get it to you in a day anyway. (~$10) So check your closest major city or close city and google google google until one comes up :-) believe me it took me a while to find blum tx. :-)

I have a trio of rats and a trio of mice and 18 snakes. I still buy feeders every weekend, but not as many.