Anyone buy frozen feeders from petco?

Ocasionally I have to buy them from Petco cause the small local store runs out.

I HATE it, I refuse to buy them anymore. I don't know if this is normal when you order frozen feeders cause I never have. At petco Almost EVERY feeder I get is covered in urine. They smell so horrible and I refuse to feed them to houdini. I would rather have him miss a meal than feed him that. He won't eat them if they are wet at all.

I guess maybe the owner of the local shop spoils us, she breeds her own, her frozen feeders are all so clean and well, healthly looking for being dead I guess.

I hate it, breeding my own is out because I only have one snake. I would like to order some frozen rats, but I wanted to know if I should expect them to be nasty and covered in urine? Or if this is just another down fall of the corporate pet world?

I've gotten pinkies for my corn there in the past, but 3 bucks for like 2 little pinkies is way too much. They haven't had urine or anything on them, that I've seen anyway. My experience with buying frozen rats from feeder dealers is that they're all pretty clean.

I buy frozen mice ocassionaly from them, they're in good shape...

Maybe its just the one here. I don't think I would mind it so much if it was just a little bit, but these things are saturated. Almost like they gas them, and leave them to sit in their own waste then toss them in the bad.

Price is ou of control, its 5.99 for a small rat here. I don't mind ordering them online and paying shipping if I am going to get nice clean feeders.

I have had petco rats blow up on me, I have had them come out rotten like they were thawed and frozen several times. Or with body parts missing.

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Originally Posted by Kristy

Ocasionally I have to buy them from Petco cause the small local store runs out.

I HATE it, I refuse to buy them anymore. I don't know if this is normal when you order frozen feeders cause I never have. At petco Almost EVERY feeder I get is covered in urine. They smell so horrible and I refuse to feed them to houdini. I would rather have him miss a meal than feed him that. He won't eat them if they are wet at all.

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Kristy, I also buy frozen feeders from Petco simply because I refuse to buy my mice from the mom n pop shop by my house. Their snakes are kept in terrible conditions and also have mites.

EVERY frozen feeder i've bought from Petco is also covered in urine. It's disgusting, especially when thawing them out. The smell is terrible. I'm switching back to live mice for this reason alone. Their live feeders are a little cleaner (not by much, but they're not soaked to the bone in piss).

I'm surprised at the responses to this thread. Do different Petco's get their feeder mice from local suppliers? That would be the only way i could understand the variation in frozen feeders.

In one of Kevin McCurley's books he talks about prekilling your own mice by hitting their head (similar to hitting a fish head on a rock after being caught). I think this is the best bet if you can stomach it.. just buy a bunch of clean live feeders and kill/freeze them.

Best way to get frozen feeders is to order online. Yes, the minimum I've seen is 50, and average is 100, but they last months if kept well packed and are always clean and spoilage-free when ordered from a reputable supplier. I believe there is a sticky somewhere in the Feeder forums that lists the good suppliers.

Since I only have one snake that eats FT, I get mine from Petsmart. They're $10 for 4 medium adult mice, but I get them reduced as overstock. :D I'm doing this until I can get my 1.2 mice to breed for me. Nagini eats live, so I get her weekly mouse at the reptile store after school.

I haven't ever bought any frozen feeders from PetCo, but I have bought live from there. Unless it was a last resort, I wouldn't buy anything other than perhaps bedding from them again. From my experiances there, almost all of their live feeders have an RI, or at least most of them do on a normal basis, so I can only imagine, if they don't take care of the live animals, how they would take care of the frozen dead ones. *ick* If you have a place to store them, ordering them online would probably be a better bet. That way PetCo doesn't get any more of your money for those filthy feeders....

I euthanize my own rats. I gas em and freeze em to MY standards. Kept clean and what not.

You know what?? At a local show we just had rodent pro was there and I had a chance to go through they're supply. After seeing them ill never buy from them. Sure they have good prices. But all they're rats were just yellow. It was gross.

I'm asusming that's because of the urine. It just doesn't look sanitary. Just my experience.

I know the petco here gets them from Gourmet Rodent. Don't know anything about that company.

I have tried buying them live and pre killing them, I don't like doing it. I think I have too much respect for the feeders to kill them myself.

Houdini was on live for a long time but they never have the size I need at the local shop. Petco won't sell live animals as feeders if you go in there enough and they catch on they won't sell them to you. Plus their animals are always sick.

This store has major ups and downs, they will be immaculate for months then its like they crash as far as the animal care goes. It sucks too because the employees and managers all know me, they really do care about the animals. I have had long talks with them about corporate, and how they have kind of banned together with other Petco stores around the North West to get somethings changed. I feel sorry for them, I have seen one of the girls in tears over the crested gecko incident. She was saying how she felt so helpless for them, all because of their ridiculous policies she couldn't do what was right.

I do have a good size freezer out in my garage so I definitely have a place to store bulk amounts of feeders. I think I will just go ahead and order some.

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Originally Posted by 2kdime

I euthanize my own rats. I gas em and freeze em to MY standards. Kept clean and what not.

You know what?? At a local show we just had rodent pro was there and I had a chance to go through they're supply. After seeing them ill never buy from them. Sure they have good prices. But all they're rats were just yellow. It was gross.

I'm asusming that's because of the urine. It just doesn't look sanitary. Just my experience.

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Gas them?? Is that healthy to the snake?
And the thing with rodent pro... hmm... intersting...

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Originally Posted by 2kdime

I euthanize my own rats. I gas em and freeze em to MY standards. Kept clean and what not.

You know what?? At a local show we just had rodent pro was there and I had a chance to go through they're supply. After seeing them ill never buy from them. Sure they have good prices. But all they're rats were just yellow. It was gross.

I'm asusming that's because of the urine. It just doesn't look sanitary. Just my experience.

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Exactly, the rats from Petco are yellow and dirty and sticky. Its like a film all over them and it is just gross. The smell is horrible.


I just remembered that they breeder I bought one of my cresties from is opening a reptile store here. So I may have to talk to him about feeder rats. Hopefully he will carry them. I need to find out who he will be getting them from though.

I have boughten from Petco in the past, but moved and now there isn't a petco near me. Petco was 30 miles from my house so I didn't buy from them much, but never had a problem. I work at Petsmart now, and I have looked through a lot of our frozen mice and they all look great. I have boughten about two dozen mice from my store so far and haven't had a problem. They are kind of pricey though, something like $10 for 6 pinkies and $11 for 6 fuzzies or "small mice" or "medium mice" and $11 for 4 large. More or less the small mice are hoppers and the med are normal mice. I know we get some animals in that die right away and look crappy, but we isolate them and take them to the vet and give them medication. I know since I've been there we've saved 15 birds and a dozen hamsters. I don't know if petco has this ability or not. But like petco we don't sell live animals for food (except feeder fish and insects).

Yeah it safe for our snakes. The way it works is it asphixiates (sp) the rats. Its not something that stays inside the rat. You gas em. Let em sit for a few minutes. Then freeze em.

There's nothing harmful that remains inside the rat. Its the same way any of the commercial frozen feeder retailers do it if any one was unaware. If it wasn't safe they wouldn't be doing it and selling em to the public and making a living/business of it.

Not saying that's all I based my information on. I researched everything and made sure I understand what I'm doing. I didn't wanna be making a mistake doing it or feed unsafe food to my snakes. But yeah to wrap it up. Its safe.

It's just an overdose of carbon dioxide. Everyone breathes it in every single breath they take. It is absorbed or it it just released from the lungs, and poses no harm to the snake.

You said it satanicintention!!

Its not something that gets absorbed into the body. Its just a gas that displaces the amount of oxygen thats available for absorbtion into the lungs.

Start slow to get em into a calm slow sleep state. Then up it a little more for a few minutes. That's about it. I don't know if it gets much more humane. Sure I could feed live. But why risk it.

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I know the petco here gets them from Gourmet Rodent. Don't know anything about that company.

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I dont think the Petco "Gourmet Rodent" is a brand name, but more of a description of the bags contents (albeit a VERY misleading one). That would explain the differences in quality.. possibly different breeders?

I work as a groomer at my local petco, and I only get frozen on occasion, and so far all the ones I've gotten have been in good shape.
It's rather odd, but everyone there knows I buy live mice for feeders, but no one ever has said anything about it not being allowed. We get a lot of people coming in buying rats and mice for feeders and I've never heard of it being against policy. Maybe it's just because we do have a tendency to ignore the rules :D .
The only complaint I have against my Petco (well it's mine until I move in a few weeks) is that we only have one person who knows much about reptiles, and he's only in 2 days a week. Everyone else is deathly afraid of the snakes, so I have to go help the poor girls out. That and we got some hatching chams in, and no one knew they had to be misted! Poor things! I did my best every day I worked, but unfortunately the 2 we got passed away. We do take sick/injured animals to the vet, but unfortunately something like misting gets overlooked in the course of the day.
Ah well. Don't think I added much to the conversation. :P

When I ran out of F/T this summer (I was trying to switch Auryn from mice to rats and I'd picked some up from Kara while I was a NERD), I went to PetCo for a bag of F/T mice, since Auryn was having none of the rats.

They were not only PUNY, they were the saddest, sorriest looking things I'd ever seen. Since Auryn hadn't eaten in a few weeks, refusing the F/T rats, I fed him the mice but I resorted to feeding a couple live for two weeks instead of feeding him those frozen things from PetCo while I figured out who to order F/T from online.

I used Big Cheese rodents ( http://www.bigcheeserodents.com/ ), their mice come in vaccum-sealed trays. They were shipped to me with dry ice, so the mice were frozen SOLID when they reached me, they were packed perfectly, look great and are the size I ordered. It's where I'll be getting my F/T from here on out. :)

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Originally Posted by HellPuppi

Ah well. Don't think I added much to the conversation.

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Don't be so critical of yourself. I enjoyed reading what you had to say. Didn't know Petco had a policy against selling live mice as "feeders". Everytime I buy live from them I specifically say "can i get a feeder mouse."

But yea, Petco = horrible at caring for snakes. The one near me has 4 BPs in a single tank with no hides, and a dirty water dish. It's pathetic.

Thats one of things I have noticed major slacking on, is misting. Some of those cages that require even a moderate amount of humidity are just bone dry.

They keep their cresties at 100 degrees, they can't tolerate temps over 85 at the most for very brief periods.
I talked with the employee's about that, and a few other things. They had no clue. These are some of the things they are fighting for to be changed in their policies.

It makes you wonder about the people who actually own these chains, how they can live out their lives knowing how many animals die every year, just from these chain stores.

Fortunately they aren't all bad, there are a few really good ones but they are few and far between. Way to few and far between.

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Originally Posted by AzureN1ght

I used Big Cheese rodents ( http://www.bigcheeserodents.com/ ), their mice come in vaccum-sealed trays. They were shipped to me with dry ice, so the mice were frozen SOLID when they reached me, they were packed perfectly, look great and are the size I ordered. It's where I'll be getting my F/T from here on out. :)

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Kim you just gave that website a new customer. If I was a snake, that's how I'd want my F/T to be. Link them to this thread and maybe they'll give you a discount. Lol.

I don't mean to sound rude. But if that's the care they need and it can't be provided. Then that's not something that should be sold in your or any store.

To me that's like not giving a dog its food. Simply because your scared of dogs. If it can't be done by the employees. Don't house and sell the animal.

Sorry to stray off topic.

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Originally Posted by HellPuppi

I work as. a groomer at my local petco.
Maybe it's just because we do have a tendency to ignore the rules :D .
The only complaint I have against my Petco (well it's mine until I move in a few weeks) is that we only have one person who knows much about reptiles, and he's only in 2 days a week. Everyone else is deathly afraid of the snakes, so I have to go help the poor girls out. That and we got some hatching chams in, and no one knew they had to be misted! Poor things! I did my best every day I worked, but unfortunately the 2 we got passed away. We do take sick/injured animals to the vet, but unfortunately something like misting gets overlooked in the course of the day.
Ah well. Don't think I added much to the conversation. :P

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Heh if it was up to me they WOULDN'T be selling reptiles, much less getting new reptiles in that no one knows anything about, but unfortunately my influence only goes to the grooming department. :P

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Originally Posted by chz

Kim you just gave that website a new customer. If I was a snake, that's how I'd want my F/T to be. Link them to this thread and maybe they'll give you a discount. Lol.

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Haha! Well, I doubt that. But when I really like a product, I like other people to know about it, too (CoBigelow, a company that makes my favorite lip gloss should seriously send me royalties--I've converted many friends over to it :D).

I really liked them! The customer service was a little awkward over the phone, but everything got to me as promised. Auryn seems to like them, too :D I figured out the price per mouse (including the shipping) and it came out to WAY less than I was paying at PetCo for crappy, sick-looking F/T and for their live mice (which were on the small side)--so it was worth it for me.

Edit: Um...I accidentally replied to my own post

the petco i work at we get them from rodentpro but our freezer blew up so we werent carrying them for a while and now that the freezer is fixed we havent had any complaints like that. but i have had experiance like that from buying frozen before from other places.

The Petco nearest me tends to have opened bags of mice that I was able to look into and go... um, no. The Petsmart had better mice (T-Rex Arctic Mice I think?), but way too expensive (individually packed mice is chic but pointless). I go to a local small store and the mice are always in good condition (and they'll give me a nice size variety of pinkies for my various age snakes).

At Petco I've had the lack of experience experience. I went in to get a pet Emperor scorpion (they were the only local sellers at the time that I could find). Firstoff the poor things were under bright light, which is not good for them. Their tank was too dry, too. The best part came when they had to get one out. None of them were trained to handle scorpions, and they didn't even have gloves. None of 'em WANTED to handle a scorpion. I watched as they tried alternately trying to herd my chosen scorp into a box with a stick pen, then moved onto a fish net. I guess they weren't thrilled with my picking the sole feisty one (He was a full grown adult of undeterminated age). I asked if they wanted me to come around and try and get him out since they were all terrified of the critter and didn't want to put their hands in the enclosure. They said no, it was a liability to let a customer handle a dangerous animal... Which made no sense to me because they were SELLING it to me... Finally they got the poor fellow into a box and home with me he went. http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...oteImage-1.gif

Caesar lasted a good eight months with me before quietly passing away. http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...eImage-120.png

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Originally Posted by Kristy

Exactly, the rats from Petco are yellow and dirty and sticky. Its like a film all over them and it is just gross. The smell is horrible.

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EWWW! thats not good! in the past i have brought rats from rodentpro! but i'm going to give Big Cheese a try! we'll see what happens!

Kristy here's a couple of suggestions. Since you are only feeding one snake per week you could approach the private pet store that breeds the f/t's you prefer and ask them if for a slightly higher price they could reserve an entire litter or two for you. Then you'd have a big bag of frozen feeder the right size to take home. Or I'd suggest trying www.themousefactory.com They are a bit more than RodentPro but their customer service (ask for Edna), their shipping and their product is just about as perfect as it comes.

I got some this week and when I went to feed them, it looked like the bag was a crime scene. This one mouses whole upper body was covered in blood.

If you wanna look at this in a positive light, I'm sure the snakes LOVE the smell of rat piss. Mmmmm, food.

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Originally Posted by chz

Didn't know Petco had a policy against selling live mice as "feeders". Everytime I buy live from them I specifically say "can i get a feeder mouse."

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Same here... I'm guessing that's just a local policy, or the person in the store feeling sorry for the mice/rats... I'm currently buying 13 live mice a week for my 6 snakes while I wait for my breeder mice to get going (got one preggo for sure, hopefully she'll pop this week). I ran the "reputable" pet shop right out of mice in 3 weeks, so I'm waiting for them to get caught up... In the mean time I went to PetCo last week to get them ($2.50 each.. ugh...) and while boxing them up the girl asked me, "So, what're you feeding these to?"

As for the petco policy on the feeders, it really isn't a policy. Its the manager, or one of the managers. I don't even argue with him on the subject. Plus their live animals aren't the best quality either.

Joanna thats a good idea, I didn't even think of that. I know the owner pretty well, that place has been there for more than 20 years. I don't think she will have a problem doing that, especially if I offer a little more than what she charges considering I'd have to pay shipping anyway to order them.

If not then I will check out a few places online that were recommended.

They are putting in a Petsmart here too, hopefully that store is nicer than the petco we have.
There is a Petsmart out in spokane but I don't like driving out there, that store is always immaculte, great customer service there, the animals are kept very clean and they always look great, they house most of the reptiles seperately provide hides, proper temps. I just wish they were closer. Its always a good experience going there when I am already in the area.

at my petco its not a policy to not sell live feeders but the persons personall prefrence we had this one girl who yelled at everyone that came in the store to buy live feeders and thats one of our biggest sellers well needless to say she was fired because of the revenue we lost from her saying that cuz the people refused to buy frozen but since she has been gone we got all those people back. and for the matter of the petsmarts around here they wont sell live feeders period



not to get off subject but if your working at a petstore the point is to keep the animals in a healthy safe enviornment just
like you would your own pets that being said thats how i keep all the animals at the petco i work at. and i keep getting repeat customers since they see how much i genreally care for the animal an thats all they say to my managers.

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Originally Posted by Kristy

As for the petco policy on the feeders, it really isn't a policy. Its the manager, or one of the managers. I don't even argue with him on the subject. Plus their live animals aren't the best quality either.

Joanna thats a good idea, I didn't even think of that. I know the owner pretty well, that place has been there for more than 20 years. I don't think she will have a problem doing that, especially if I offer a little more than what she charges considering I'd have to pay shipping anyway to order them.

If not then I will check out a few places online that were recommended.

They are putting in a Petsmart here too, hopefully that store is nicer than the petco we have.
There is a Petsmart out in spokane but I don't like driving out there, that store is always immaculte, great customer service there, the animals are kept very clean and they always look great, they house most of the reptiles seperately provide hides, proper temps. I just wish they were closer. Its always a good experience going there when I am already in the area.

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I have yet to find a petsmart that sells mice and small rats, other than the overpriced frozen ones...

Since you're in the northwest, check out Slippery Creek Ranch. They are based in Renton, WA (right down the road from me, basically) and sell at good prices. If you were local, Billy would even deliver to you for free...

Yeah, you won't find live feeders at Petsmart. They only sell frozen. And I agree they are way to expensive even with my employee discount. I suppose if you really wanted a mouse or rat you could just act like you where buying it as a pet but I don't think I'd want to play $8 for 1 feeder mouse.

Yeah I won't be looking for live feeders, not since I have Houdini on f/t finally.

I'm about 45 minutes from Spokane though, I am not sure how far Renton from here.

I will figure something out, I am going to talk to the Local Petstore owner first about seeing if I can buy in bulk from her. Then we will go from there.

Once that Reptile Specialty store opens I may have some more local options. I think he is planning on having us order from the company, then bringing in our receipt for a in store credit for shipping charges. Not sure how I feel about that.

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Originally Posted by Kristy

I'm about 45 minutes from Spokane though, I am not sure how far Renton from here.

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About 6 hours. They ship though.

Ah on a side note we're getting someone to look into the reptile situation at the Petco I work at. The grooming department is in enough trouble (in a fiasco over which spritz we were allowed to use on dogs, of all things), so we figured we'd go for broke. We've had absolutely NO luck with the local humane society (a really sad story about an Akita, so we're not even going to bother going to them about snakes), so we're trying a few other routes.
Hopefully the situation will be remedied soon :D

good luck man i got :cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r: under lock and key on reptiles at my store

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Originally Posted by HellPuppi

Ah on a side note we're getting someone to look into the reptile situation at the Petco I work at. The grooming department is in enough trouble (in a fiasco over which spritz we were allowed to use on dogs, of all things), so we figured we'd go for broke. We've had absolutely NO luck with the local humane society (a really sad story about an Akita, so we're not even going to bother going to them about snakes), so we're trying a few other routes.
Hopefully the situation will be remedied soon :D

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That's cool that you guys are trying to fix that. I know I'd be all sorts of mad if my store treated the animals poorly.

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Or I'd suggest trying www.themousefactory.com They are a bit more than RodentPro but their customer service (ask for Edna), their shipping and their product is just about as perfect as it comes.

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Thanks for recommending them! I just placed an order for 50 fuzzy rats, and it came to less then $1 each after s&h. I didn't want to pay $35 to ship from some of the other suppliers since I don't know of my BP will take f/t.

I wish you lots of luck, HellPuppi, on getting that stuff fixed. I worked (notice the past tense there) for a Petsmart a while back and was APPALLED at the conditions the animals were put in...especially the reptiles. But whenever I tried to do something about it, like tell the management proper care methods or fix something myself, I was yelled at, told to put it back the way it was, and threatened. You see why I left... I couldn't take seeing those wonderful animals treated like that just because of 'store policy'.

And yeah, Petsmart will NOT sell mice or rats if they even suspect the person is buying them for feeders. Not like anyone would really want to give their snake a $5 mouse meal that isn't really assured to be healthy, let alone a $10 rat. Heck, even their frozen feeders are $10 a package with only 4 medium mice in there. As far as I'm concerned, all any Petco or Petsmart is good for is supplies...and even then you have to look sharp to make sure the food and bedding isn't moldy or the toys warped...

Sorry... just my rant for the night. :)

I've been using the Gourmet Rodent pinky 3 packs for Xena. She just loves them but I have a mouse colony started in a tank 1m 2f, that should be producing in a couple weeks......Man I gotta get some pics up for y'all, damn procrastination.

I found a solution... that I am really happy about.

So by accident, I met this guy who breeds corns, boas, and leopard geckos. Who lives about an hour away from me. I was getting him some feeder roaches and we got to talking. He breeds rodents, and supplies people all over the Northwest, any size, live, frozen, pre killed. Great prices too, and he delivers for free as long as you buy in bulk. I am really stoked.

No more nasty feeders from petco. :banana:

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Originally Posted by Argentra

Best way to get frozen feeders is to order online. Yes, the minimum I've seen is 50, and average is 100, but they last months if kept well packed and are always clean and spoilage-free when ordered from a reputable supplier. I believe there is a sticky somewhere in the Feeder forums that lists the good suppliers.

Since I only have one snake that eats FT, I get mine from Petsmart. They're $10 for 4 medium adult mice, but I get them reduced as overstock. :D I'm doing this until I can get my 1.2 mice to breed for me. Nagini eats live, so I get her weekly mouse at the reptile store after school.

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Lol my snakes name is Nagini :p and I usually buy from Vipets but they r overpriced x.x

Old thread but I'd like to share my experience though.

I bought FT from Petco a couple of times, and each time there was at least a rat that smelled horribly bad and looked disgusting, covered with urine and having poop below his tail. Beside that they look completely smashed and shapeless, not sure what those poor little animals go through.

2 times my BP refuses to eat those smelly rats. I'm pretty sure the urine smell is way tougher than the rodent itself; I myself almost threw up when heating them, both times.

Tonight, same scenario, he refused to eat it. So I got to skip this day and try again tomorrow with another rat that hopefully will be less dirty and smelly.

Not sure if washing the rat then drying it would solve the problem... anyone tried this?

This is so weird. I work at a Petco. I am in charge of all the snakes. We feed them the same as what you buy. I have never had one smell/ have feces/ or flat. That is so weird! All of our snakes eat what we sell so I am not sure what is going on. I myself buy in bulk from a local person because its way cheaper for me to do so with my own snake. Sorry a lot of you are having issues. I would suggest you call petco corporate and let them know what you are experiencing. If enough people are having a problem they will take care of it. I have seen it happen. Hope that helps.

I've been buying F/T hoppers and adult mice from petco for about 2 months now. They sell gourmet rodent. They are packaged in bags. All the mice I have gotten have been clean. They are usually a little flat, but they're packaged in bags lol. My BP hasn't turned one down yet. I also bought a couple from petsmart. They were arctic mice. I checked the mice out before buying, and I found a few that had some poo in the bags with the mice. So, I wont be buying any from petsmart anymore.