PetCo Frozen Feeders

[Squirtle44]

Is it okay to buy frozen / thawed feeders from PetCo? I ordered from Big Cheese Rodents but they came thawed and unusable due to weather and a shipping error. Now in a pinch to feed my snakes and want to make sure it is okay.

I saw an old thread on this but it was 1) very old and 2) turned into a discussion about euthanizing live animals and not about the quality of frozen feeders at PetCo and whether they are okay to feed to your snakes.

[redshepherd]

Is it okay to buy frozen / thawed feeders from PetCo? I ordered from Big Cheese Rodents but they came thawed and unusable due to weather and a shipping error. Now in a pinch to feed my snakes and want to make sure it is okay.

I saw an old thread on this but it was 1) very old and 2) turned into a discussion about euthanizing live animals and not about the quality of frozen feeders at PetCo and whether they are okay to feed to your snakes.

Dang, I hope you got a full refund for it! That stinks

I think Petco allows you to actually open the frozen box and check out the rodent. Sometimes they are bad quality. Unless your snake is a tiny hatchling, it will be okay to wait a week or two for another online order though. Your snake will be fine.

[Mike17]

I buy mine from Petco, it's great because they sell by piece so I only buy one the exact day she's eating, no need to get rodents on my freezer or anything else, no rodent smell on my house, nothing... I love that, and I even get to choose the exact mouse from the bag I want to feed. They sell pinkies, semi-adults and adults, I've been feeding my 7 months old BP the biggest semi-adult I can see every Monday and seems to be doing great. Hope it helps!


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[dkatz4]

I've always gone to my local PetCo for feeders (i've had just one boa until recently, so bulk online makes no sense for me) - They have always gone through The Gourmet Rodent, and have always been very healthy and clean. The only imperfection i've ever noticed was an occasional broken tail.

[dkatz4]

Say, while we're on the topic, i was thinking of switching my nearly 3 year old male to medium rats, smalls are ok, but seem a little too easy as of late. So last week i went to grab a medium but it was HUGE! I was expecting the difference between small and med to be noticeable but not dramatic - this seemed like a pretty dramatic difference in size, no way my guy is ready for these behemoth mediums, anyone else have this experience or some insight??

[WastelandExotics]

Not seeing anything negative about their feeders out there at the moment (and I'm sure if there were issues with them, the whole reptile community would know at this point).

With that being said, I would take Red's advice and wait if your snake isn't too young as their feeders, especially their frozen feeders are HORRIFICALLY overpriced (at least in my area).

If you do opt to buy from Petco, make sure they have a return policy in place for the frozens too if they won't let you check in store. I would imagine that if you can return a huge bag of open dog food and get your money back, one little feeder rat would also be returnable if it wasn't up to snuff? Just double check and make sure you thaw completely.

[tttaylorrr]

only negative i've found is the price + running to the store every other week. i hope you get a refund for your online order!

[Lizardlicks]

Yeah, PetCo price per feeder is ridiculous. One time my husband forgot to pick up rats from our normal place and they were closed before I got off work, so I had to go to PetCo... and the rat they labeled as a 'medium' wasn't even 70g, more in the small rat range, and they charged me $7 bucks. For a a single small size rat. I get 150g meduims for $3 from my usual guy, is was mind blowing. Easy thing to overlook if you only have one or two snakes, but more than that, I'd go broke trying to pay those prices!

[dkatz4]

Yeah, PetCo price per feeder is ridiculous. One time my husband forgot to pick up rats from our normal place and they were closed before I got off work, so I had to go to PetCo... and the rat they labeled as a 'medium' wasn't even 70g, more in the small rat range, and they charged me $7 bucks. For a a single small size rat. I get 150g meduims for $3 from my usual guy, is was mind blowing. Easy thing to overlook if you only have one or two snakes, but more than that, I'd go broke trying to pay those prices!

Yeah, after tax i end up paying about $5.50 per small rat, but with just one boa eating them (my other is on mice) an order of 25 from a supplier would would take about 2 years to go through, and thats without factoring in the likely possibility of the snake needing to size up to mediums before getting through them - but those are moot points since my wife will have murdered me well before then for keeping 25 rats in the freezer.

[Lizardlicks]

lol rats in the freezer is completely normal to my family, but i still want to get a separate chest freezer, because keeping a supply for soon to be 10 snakes takes up a lot of space!