Gadzooks! $2 mice?

Grr.. I needed to feed the hatchlings today, and the baby rats i have were just born and not up to size yet. So I got stuck buying a dozen mouse hoppers at 2 dollars a pop! Grr.. luckily by the time next feeding rolls along, the rats will be up to par..
Hatchlings grow fast!

yep, that's about what I pay. I just spent $40 today buying feeders and breeders. 13 for feeding, 8 for breeding. Got all my tubs set up with screen tops and hopefully won't be buying feeders for much longer.

Ouch, and I thought $1.25 was bad.

I can spend $30 per week on feeders pretty regularly... it's just one of those things!

There's a little mom and pop store by me that charges 5 dollars for a small feeder rat. And even more for larger ones respectively.

About a week ago i bought 3 (maybe 4) feedings worth and it cost me almost $200!!

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Originally Posted by Roswell

About a week ago i bought 3 (maybe 4) feedings worth and it cost me almost $200!!

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Yup, at this current time it costs me $300/month too feed all my snakes when I buy them from a pet store.

Last time I bought live mice, I bought 200 of them and it cost me $97, plus the gas(maybe $15-$20) to go get them. I get them for 45 cents apiece for medium adults.

For about 35 snakes(plus or minus some, since they are always coming and going), I can feed them for 3-4 weeks.

This is exactly why i'm beginning to breed my own.

Wow...I am soooo glad I breed all my feeders. It costs me about $0.45 per rat/ASF/Mouse (vs. $4 at the pet stores for small rats)

I couldn't imagine buying all of my own feeders for 9 balls and 6(soon enough it will be 9) boas.
2$ a pop isn't too bad. Thats about what I am stuck paying for mice here

Dang..I have the best pet store that isn't that far of a drive...about 20 min. They charge $1 for adult mice, $2 for small rats, $3 for meds, and $4 for large. It is the cheapest that I have found around.

However, the pet store that is less than 5 min away charges $4 for small rats... :eek:

I am so happy that I started breeding mice/rats. It not only is a money saver but is also quite fun and interesting.

i am in the same boat... i had some delays in my rat breeding so i have to feed 5 hatchlings tomorrow with pet store mice. petco is like $2 something each, and this family owned shop is like $1.25 apiece. just got to find the time between football games to make it out there.

$2.29 for mice here...Large rats are around $9.

Ouch :/ It is part of the territory. I definately am tweaking my rat-breeding for next year's hatchlings, though. See, if I feed off all of my rat babies, it leaves nothing for my larger snakes to eat.. it is cheaper to buy hatchlings' feeders this way. But grrr on spending money!

LOL @ the spending money part. My boyfriend, while accepts my animals and even enjoys them somewhat, is flabbergasted at the amount of $$ I spend on all my animals. He says if it were him, no way no how. Told him its a good thing if we ever get married, we will have seperate bank accts.

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Originally Posted by Ginevive

Ouch :/ It is part of the territory. I definately am tweaking my rat-breeding for next year's hatchlings, though. See, if I feed off all of my rat babies, it leaves nothing for my larger snakes to eat.. it is cheaper to buy hatchlings' feeders this way. But grrr on spending money!

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Thats a good point. I have found that I feed some of the 07's 1-2 fuzz then 1 pup the next week. Its an art, you have to get it down till it works for you the you should be set.

I currently go through
1 Biggest rats you can find every 3 weeks(usually 5-10$ if I need to buy locally)
1 fuzzy rat(can't find live rats of these sizes around here so I must breed my own)
1 Small rat a week
1 small rat every other week
1 weaned a week
7 pups a week
4-6 adult mice a week
I'm scared to add up how much I would have to pay locally for all of that

I'm actually defrosting to feed my guys right now. I just added 5 balls last weekend and this is their first feed with me. I had to buy a couple of live just in case because they were fed that before. When i tally up what i'm feeding this morning it comes to:

3 larger medium rats
1 small rat
2 weanling rats
10 rat pups
4 fuzzie rats
2 medium rats (live)
1 small rat (live)

This is pretty usual every week. Sometimes my smaller guys get something mid-week too.

I pay $1.58 for live adult feeders (non fancy) at the local shop.

I pay $.55 at the local reptile swap. Missing a swap means spending hundreds of dollars at Petco.

When I was ramping up my rat breeding (and even now), I didn't want to have to feed all the pinks off to hatchlings. So I got all the hatchlings eating FT. FT pinks/fuzzies take about 5 minutes to thaw in hot water and they are extremely cheap, allowing me to grow up the live for the bigger snakes. There is also the added bonus of being able to sell them as eating FT which a lot of people like. Of course, they will eat live if offered as well. Fuzzies are about .43 each frozen.

I just spent $35 yesterday on 11 small rats ($2.99 each). I was at Petco yesterday (supposed to met a girl there from Craigslist who ended up being a no-show) and a lady was buying feeder mice. They were $2.29 each - AND you had to fill out a form when you bought them. I would hate to have to fill out that form each week just to feed my animals.


I have a local mom/pop store, their mice are $1.65 each - still more than I think you should have to pay for a mouse - but I won't breed mice, so when I need them, I have to pony up. It's also where I bought their small rats.

SOMEONE cough**mxrider**cough, had been in earlier and had bought about 30 rats and 20 mice before me, so there were slim pickings.

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Originally Posted by rabernet

I have a local mom/pop store, their mice are $1.65 each - still more than I think you should have to pay for a mouse - but I won't breed mice, so when I need them, I have to pony up. It's also where I bought their small rats. .

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Robin and others...I am curious since mice won't outgrow your balls, if you feed several mice a week why not buy a bunch in bulk (live ones)? You could then just keep them in tanks (if they breed great if not no biggie).

I only have 2 girls that eat mice but I still buy 6 months worth of live feeders (30 cents each) and keep them in a few large tubs...and then just feed them off over time.

Just curious.

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Originally Posted by lord jackel

Robin and others...I am curious since mice won't outgrow your balls, if you feed several mice a week why not buy a bunch in bulk (live ones)? You could then just keep them in tanks (if they breed great if not no biggie).

I only have 2 girls that eat mice but I still buy 6 months worth of live feeders (30 cents each) and keep them in a few large tubs...and then just feed them off over time.

Just curious.

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The only place that sells mice in bulk at a reasonable price is Mice Direct, which is a 2 hour drive. I have converted my entire collection over to rats now, so I have no need for mice any longer. I'm breeding my own rats, but had a female that was previously a good mother who had a horrible litter several weeks ago - she gave birth but did not remove any of the umbilicals and placentas. I was able to save about 1/2 the litter and foster them off.

She's now going to be a companion female to my resting females. Interestingly enough, this was my only blue hooded female. I've had horrible problems with the blue hoodeds. The first one died after multiple treatments for a RI and inner ear infection, the second one died in birth from her second litter, and this one looked like she just felt horrible after giving birth, and frankly, I thought I was going to lose her as well. No more blue hoodeds for me!

We pay about $1.50 for hopper mice here. Adult mice a litte more. We only buy two hoppers a week at the moment. Our other feeders are f/t we got from a show and are still using.

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Originally Posted by catawhat75

Yup, at this current time it costs me $300/month too feed all my snakes when I buy them from a pet store.

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Yikes, find yourself a good feeder breeder and stop getting gouged! I pay 0.85 for a large mouse, and 3.25 for jumbo rats(these things are beyond jumbo as well, they look like freaking beavers ...lol). Those prices drop further when i buy bulk as well. I never end up spending more than $30 - $40 a month, and that is to feed 2 Boas and 6 BP's

Robin

I had to buy live a few times this summer while I was deciding where to get F/T from (ended up order from Big Cheese). They were SMALL mice and $2.25 each--I had to buy two per one feeding for Auryn because they just weren't very big. $5.50 a week for one snake for three weeks made me appreciate my order from Big Cheese even more!

OMG You feed your snakes beavers! That's just cruel.

Heh ;)

You should see some of the jumbos Big Cheese rodents has.. Wow! Talk about water rat sized things, jeez.

If only I could find a nice frozen rabbit breeder(or live, whatever, I'm not picky). I'm tired of paying $15 per rabbit(from a little old spanish lady) or paying $3 per rabbit(the woman lives way out in the boonies of Texas and rarely ever has the size I need).

You would think, that in Texas, we would have TONS of meat rabbit breeders.. What, with all the FFA going on.