Feeder mice

As a first time snake owner, I’d like to insure I’m doing the best I can to keep my baby healthy. I bought it at an expo this weekend. I was informed it was feed live mice(hoppers). My nearest pet stores with live feeder mice is about an hours drive away, so I was hoping to combat this by buying about a months worth, so 4ish, at a time. What would be the cheapest setup for maintain the mice you would recommend just to start. Over time I’ll work on making everything work better, however I’m looking for a quick temporary solution

You cannot keep hoppers alive, hoppers are not weaned and still need their mother.

As for keeping weaned and holder mice a tub (no ridge) , keeper critter or 10 gallons tank with food hopper and water bottle as well as pine bedding will do.

It wouldn't be a good solution to breed your own either, since you're going to need more or less the same size for [only one snake?] for some time to come.

If you get weaned mice, they won't be the same size after a month (though probably not too big for your snake). Have you tried asking around, like thru
veterinary offices, to see if anyone local is also breeding rodents for snakes? Be careful how you ask...those breeding rodents as pets may not appreciate them
going for snake food.

I was told hoppers or weaned, I assumed they were the same. I’ll have to make sure I get weaned then. Thank you!

Just a heads up if you plan to keep mice alive for feeding.

1). If you have kids, set the ground rules about why you have mice on day one! My daughter has a “pet” mouse now thanks to my mice breeding plan.

2). They will breed and breed quickly.

3). They are really fun to breed and keep. I enjoy taking care of them and watching how they take care of each other.

Good luck!


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I do not plan on breeding, but thanks for the advice.

Wouldn't/couldn't hurt to try initially a F/T mouse just to see if your snake would take it

Just buy what you need. I can tell you from breeding first hand that you'll end up with way more than you know what to do with. I had one rattlesnake that would only eat live, so I started to breed for him and ended up with so many babies I had to start giving mice away.

You could buy what you need and then freeze them. There should be plenty of info here on how to do it safely/humanely at home. When I had 2 snakes I didn't want to get into breeding mice and I couldn't afford large packs of frozen. I ended up buying about 10 live and freezing them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GoatBoy

You could buy what you need and then freeze them. There should be plenty of info here on how to do it safely/humanely at home. When I had 2 snakes I didn't want to get into breeding mice and I couldn't afford large packs of frozen. I ended up buying about 10 live and freezing them.

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Not trying to be rude here, but if you read the original post, he said it's eating live. You want to keep the animal what it's on at least while it settles then you can try switching later.