average cost

I dont know If this has been done before (sorry if it has), but i was just wondering what everyones monthly expenses for food, substrate ect. are for all your pets. I've notices some of you have rather large collections, and I'm just curious how much your spending each month (must be pricey).

Feeders: 120.00; thats 48 mice and 20 rats a month,
Food for left over feeders: 4.25 a month
Substrate: Newspaper 10.00 a month, aspen 4.00 a month (I buy in bulk)
Cleaning supplys (paper towels, chlorehexidine, ect): 50.00
Misc (power, water, general rack and animal up keep) 15.00

Total
$203.25

Having a collection that I am proud of .....Priceless :D (sorry I had to)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

Feeders: 120.00; thats 48 mice and 20 rats a month,
Food for left over feeders: 4.25 a month
Substrate: Newspaper 10.00 a month, aspen 4.00 a month (I buy in bulk)
Cleaning supplys (paper towels, chlorehexidine, ect): 50.00
Misc (power, water, general rack and animal up keep) 15.00

Total
$203.25

Having a collection that I am proud of .....Priceless :D (sorry I had to)

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:lmao:

I breed rats to feed so:

Food for Rats = $20 per month
Aspen for both = $8 per month
Utilities (water, electricity) est. = $40
Misc. stuff (chlorohexadine, towels, etc.) = $5

Total: $73

I agree with Ed having a collection I can be proud of is priceless (and still growing).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

Feeders: 120.00; thats 48 mice and 20 rats a month,
Cleaning supplys (paper towels, chlorehexidine, ect): 50.00

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Ed...you need to start breeding rats and mice quickly. :D

Also, how could you possibly go through $50 in cleaning supplies a month?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lord jackel

Ed...you need to start breeding rats and mice quickly. :D

Also, how could you possibly go through $50 in cleaning supplies a month?

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I am starting to breed my rats as we speak.I will be getting a rack going for them soon keeping them in tanks is a pain in the ass and the smell can get rough after a couple of days. I already got two girls ready to pop :D. And four more doing the deed with my male. The only reason I feed mice is because I can't get rat pups and weenlings.

As for the cleaning supplys it was a typo its only like $15.00 :D good catch.

We breed our own rats, so feeding the rats only costs about $260 bucks. Bedding, we use aspen, runs about $30. And, I have never calculated electric expenses, and don't think I want to know. Now start to add in other stuff, like phone bill, money associated with running a website, building/buying new racks to house snakes and rats, paypal and credit card charges, it all adds up after a while. But, I wouldn't give it up for anything, and believe it or not, I still love to go out and clean snakes eveery Sunday.

Hmm.. let's see.

food for rats/mice $20 month
bedding for rats/mice $10 month
disposable water dishes, cleaning supplies and substrate.. factors to $25 a month
electricity.. $50 month in the winter.. not sure in the summer, but less.
so...
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$105 a month for 36 snakes. Not too bad I think!

Wow, thats not bad for 30+ snakes. I only have one snake, so my expenses are a fraction of what you all spend. Its nice to see though how much I can expect to dish out when my collection grows.

Not taking into account the cost of building all the snake and rodent racks, converting a shed into a rodent building, or all the business expenses (like Tim mentioned) We spend about:

-175$/month in rodent food and bedding.
-30$/month in snake tub supplies (unprinted newspaper and deli cups).
-15$/month in cleaning supplies.
-Electricity....I also don't want to know :oops:

This is for about 100 snakes right now.

-Evan

I don't produce many rats, no mice and I've got a lot of snakes....

My rodent bill this week

75 fuzzy mice
2500 hopper mice
50 adult mice
100 wiend rats

12 shredded bags of aspen
2 bags of rat food

an extra (800) 9.75 deli cups, 1000 lids and 1050 disposable water bowls.

3 part time employees

I LOVE this time of year, no sleep (espectially with a 5 month old this year) but I truely love getting to go threw everything and enjoy the work.

hmmm, let's see...

snake related expenses:
rat food: $30
aspen: $25
frozen rodents: $25
misc. supplies: $25

i do breed my own rats but i have 30 snakes and not a big enough colony yet to feed them all, so i order frozen rodents for the f/t eaters about once every 6 months. i just upgraded 2 of my snake racks, so that was probably somewhere in the $1k range for everything (rack, tubs, heat). as for electricity--the rats are in the garage and we just installed a window air conditioner to keep it cool enough and i think it is pretty much going to suck the life out of me when i see the first bill (and it's not even summer yet!).


now for fun, gecko related expenses:
crickets: $50
cgd and supplements: $20
misc. supplies: $25
shipping supplies: $20

then there are caging upgrades, additions, etc. which i've probably spent about $300-400 on in the last several months and will spend a few hundred more as i prep for this summer's baby boom. :) i'm also starting my breeder roach colony up again, which may or may not bring the cost of crickets down slightly. and generally there is a gecko purchase in there here and there but i try to use funds from sellling geckos to buy more geckos. :P

in a way, when broken down like that it doesn't look like a lot of money, but at the same time there is always something that comes up that isn't accounted for on a list. a vet visit and meds, a new animal purchase, a new enclosure, rack, etc. plus utilities like water and electricity. i do spend most of what's leftover from each paycheck (after mortgage, utilities, groceries, etc.) on herp related things, but i wouldn't have it any other way. :sunny:

I have 25 snakes and don't breed rodents so all my food is F/T or purchased for the couple of live feeders. I have found that I value my time more than money, so taking care of rodents is not what I choose to do (besides the problem of no space for them at the moment!)

Food of various sizes, about $75/mo
Aspen $5/mo
misc cleaning supplies (gloves, clorhex, etc) $5/mo

Add into that the racks I have bought ($200) and need to buy ($700) and another t-stat (big herpstat for $350) and I don't want to think about the rest :-)

I enoy having snakes so I don't mind. Guess it's good I never had kids!

deb

Rat food-$20-$30 per month

Newspaper-free, i raid everyone else's house
aspen-$15/month
Converting my shed to a snake room has cost me over $1000 now and is still not complete
cleaning supplies-$+15 per month

Taking care of 18 snakes at the moment...

Racks: cumulative, not monthly ~$700
Electricity: ??

Feeders ~ $100
Bedding ~$5
Cleaning supplies ~$15

Rat colony is still in the works

Rat rack, 5 tubs with watering system: ~$160

Rodent block ~$20
Bedding ~$15

Right now I have 30-40 babies that need to grow to feeding size but still need quite a few more adults for breeding.

If we're counting caging too then tack on about $4000. :P