how much per month do you spend on your feeders?

How much money do you spend on buying bedding, feed, etc per month? Also, how much are lab blocks.

Heh, I'm the wrong one to ask those questions. :D

Adult mice at the Scales n Tails I go to are about $1.80 a piece. My max pickup per week would be 3 adults and one fuzzie(for the rescue), and I'm debating on seeing if I can get a good FT supply from a reliable source or just picking up live adults and doing the PK thing. So, I spend about $30 a month... give or take, since I hand them a $20 whenever my card runs out and they sometimes don't mark the mice off. :)

As for bedding and food... well I get those practically free since I'm friends with the new manager at my old Petsmart and she gives me her discount, and sometimes she just gives me items that were returned but still good, or the packaging was messed up, or just plain overstock. That's how I have so much surplus toys and such. Now I just wish this store carried thermostats.

However, I can tell you that a 4.0 cubic ft bag of aspen (which lasts quite a while since it's compacted) is $12 and a 2lb bag of Mazuri lab block is $6 at Petsmart and $5 at the Mazuri web site.

I pay about $19.99 for 50 lbs of Mazuri

Bedding cost me about $4.98 per week, this is for 6 large rat tubs, 6 small mice tubs and 2 medium holdback tubs.

A feeder cost me about $0.36 to produce (this is based on the past 6 months taking in consideration, the food, the bedding and the number of feeders that where produced)

In the past 6 months I spent $167,22 and I produced 465 feeders

$0.35?? Woh...can I get my feeders from you?? :D

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Originally Posted by Argentra

$0.35?? Woh...can I get my feeders from you?? :D

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If I was at the point where I had surplus I would happily help out anyone that was local to me, the problem is this year I barely met my needs (hopefully next year will be better)

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Originally Posted by GA_Ball_Pythons

In the past 6 months I spent $167,22 and I produced 465 feeders

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did you mean $167.22? lol that coma is throwin me off!

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Originally Posted by GA_Ball_Pythons

I pay about $19.99 for 50 lbs of Mazuri

Bedding cost me about $4.98 per week, this is for 6 large rat tubs, 6 small mice tubs and 2 medium holdback tubs.

A feeder cost me about $0.36 to produce (this is based on the past 6 months taking in consideration, the food, the bedding and the number of feeders that where produced)

In the past 6 months I spent $167,22 and I produced 465 feeders

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Wow, that's impressive. Not to mention tedious that you figured all that out. I'd rather not know what I spend :D

BTW, where are you getting your lab block from?

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Originally Posted by AdamJB

did you mean $167.22? lol that coma is throwin me off!

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I meant 167 dollars and 22 cents ($167.22) French use comma that's why I wrote it that way ;)

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Originally Posted by ivylea77

Wow, that's impressive. Not to mention tedious that you figured all that out. I'd rather not know what I spend :D

BTW, where are you getting your lab block from?

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I get the lab blocks from a local feed store.

I did this so I could compare the cost of producing my own feeders to the cost of buying them (which I used to do when I was feeding f/t) Of course this does not take in consideration the time but it is way worth it knowing that I providing quality feeders to my snakes

All you have to do is write down what you buy and what you produce, not really much more tedious than making a budget.

Wow!! Thanks guys! Helps me get one step closer to getting some rats. I pay 180+ every 6 months for about 150 feeders. For 4-5 rats how long will 50lbs of lab blocks.

I have 4 rat racks, each rack has 5 bins. Each bin has 1 male, 5 females. I use 100lbs of grain a week and two large bags of pine shavings a week. The food costs me $20.00 a week, the shavings are $10.00. I produce enough rodents to feed my 50 ball pythons and 20+ tegu lizards, with enough surplus that I can sell the excess. I have one local herper who generally purchases off me each week and he gives me $57 a week. The local petshop also buys surplus off me when they need some, but it's too sporadic to count as income.

The other cost I have is electricity (heating & venting fans) this time of year, which is $70.00 a month to keep the rodent building heated and ventilated. This cost may come down once I get switched over to propane fuel.

So..

My monthly costs for food/bedding: $190.00
My monthly income from the rodents: $228.00
My rodent costs for the rats I use: $0.00
Surplus Income: $38.00 (we use this to buy new stock, treats, chews, bottles, etc)

To me, breeding is the only solution. I hate using frozen rodents that I have no quality control over. Buying rodents locally from petshops would not be cost effective. (100+ rats a week at $3.95 to $5.95 each). Plus that don't always have the sizes I need.

Rick

I spend $50 a month.. Which is why I'm going to try breeding- save some money for some new snakies :D

i would guess somewhere in the neighborhood of 800-1000 a month

hes asking about feeder colonies, not food for your snakes

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Originally Posted by Gib

i would guess somewhere in the neighborhood of 800-1000 a month

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:O

About $1,500 a month in the winter, $2,000 a month in the summer for just Rodent Chow and Bedding.

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Originally Posted by Larry Suttles

:O

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LOL...Double :O:O
BT

How long will 50lbs of lab blocks last a breeding group of 4-5 rats?

oopsy...misread that LOL

LArry bad part of that is i get my feeders dirt cheap....and alot for free!(that is when you have surpluses)

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Originally Posted by stangs13

How long will 50lbs of lab blocks last a breeding group of 4-5 rats?

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Excuse my ignorance but what is a lab block - food?

In Ireland I have a big problem getting feeders, especially live ones - it is illegal here for a pet store to sell rates/mice as live food.

With that in mind I have just started to breed my own feeders but have no idea yet of what it will cost to do so and any tips on minimising cost without compromising on quality would be appreciated.

Tony

1 bag of mazuri roughly once every 2 months. 20$= 10$ mo
1 bag of equine fresh every 2 weeks. 6$= 12$ mo
1 bag of aspen once every 3 months. 11$= 3.6$ mo
Add in some odd's and ends= avg 5$ mo.

Roughly something like 27-30$ a month.
Give or take. As our numbers grow, our food bill goes up. I may be close to buying a bag a month.


wow, I thought it was more than that I'm spending, but I should actually keep track... lol

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Originally Posted by stangs13

How long will 50lbs of lab blocks last a breeding group of 4-5 rats?

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I would guess 3 1/2-4 months. I don't know how much your rats eat, but my boys are PIGS (I have a lot)! I've also got something like 22 rats, varying size, so their food intake is slowly increasing as they come up to breeding weight.

Ok, thanks! Defanantly helps me out.

What ever 100 lbs of rat food and a bag of bedding costs to feed....9 redtails, 2 dumerils, and 4 balls

LOL I breed rats to feed 20+ snakes every week so for me I buy

2 - 50lb bag of rat block Muzzri (sp) 6f

I change their bedding every week so I buy 4 bags of pine shavings.

Food 32.00 17.00 a bag
Bedding 24.00 6.00 a bag.

and I produce around 30-40 rat pups a week :D

Hmm. I wonder how many tanks you have for rats. 1 bale of pine lasts me a month or 2 for 50+/- breeder rats

Well I sale some of my rats to a local herp store for feeders and the fancys as pets. My rack is 4 wide and 4 high with the 7" deep bus tubs as tubs. :D of course if you are using less bedding or are buying larger bails than me that would account for it also.

Lets see.. I have 40 females in breeding rotation and 8-12 males my lower two rows are for raise ups birthing and nursing mothers. So at any one time in my one and only rack I have around 70-80 adults and count less babys. :D so I typicaly have at least 3 litters of rats born ever week of litters between 10-15 babys so in one birthing tub I can have 3-4 moms and 30 + pinks when they get to be weaning size they are either food or sold. I rarely keep any hold backs unless I have a mom die or a cool male I want to keep.:D