The Good & Bad of Mail Order Rats

[chapskis1]

A few months ago I decided to give one of the online frozen rat suppliers (rodentpro.com) a try. I had heard mixed reviews of most of the companies -- some people got perfect rats, while some were dirty with feces, etc.

I ordered two sizes from them -- small and medium. The small rats were as good as a frozen rat should look (I guess), but the mediums were rather dirty, and a few of them were even missing feet. This was my first experience with frozen prey, and I honestly wasn't sure if the mediums would make acceptable feeders or not. I repackaged all of the rats with a foodsaver, and decided to keep the mediums, and not complain to rodentpro.

Well, I finally fed the last of the small rats to my bp last week, and on Sunday it was time to dip into the medium ones. Yeah, I should have called rodentpro on them right away. It smelled kind of funky upon thawing, but not overpowering -- plus, it's a dead rat, right? Is it supposed to smell like roses?

Then came the feeding. When my snake started to eat it, tons of feces started to ooze out of the back end. It was disgusting, and I had to clean the cage after the feeding.

This prompted me to send an e-mail to rodentpro with my complaint. This was on Sunday, but they called my by 9 am on Monday. They were very apologetic, and even though this was an order from 4 months ago -- they offered to replace the bad batch of rats before I even got a chance to ask them to.

I told them I would prefer to got with the smaller size, and they said that they would gladly me send me a bag of small ones as replacement. I also figured since they were fipping the bill on shipping (and shipping basically costs the same whether you get 20 or 200 rats) that I would go ahead and order 2 more bags. So, I ended up getting 60 rats for $30 -- 50 cents a piece -- not too bad!

Anyway, sorry for the long post, but just wanted to pass on a good experience. The moral of the story is -- if you get a bad batch, let them (or whoever you get them from) know. If they are a good and reputable company, they will be more than happy to keep you happy!

Thanks,

George

[RichsBallPythons]

RP has good custoemr service but lack in the quiality department on packaging thier rodents. I no longer order from them due to this nastiness of thier prey.

Next time you need a good high quality rodent order from www.themousefactory.com all rodents are vacuum sealed

[ScottyBoa]

Yeah I won't order from RodentPro mainly because they don't vacuum pack their products. Didn't have a problem with the quality of the feeders though. Big Cheese vac seals everything but they only take orders over the phone, no online store. I've heard good things about South Florida Rodent but I haven't actually ever ordered from them. Their website says they vac seal everything and they do discounted shipping to certain parts of the country. I recently used American Rodent and about half the order came vac packed and the other half didn't? Quality was good though.

IMO the best thing to do if you can is to go to a reptile show with a big cooler and just load up. You can see what you are getting before you buy and no shipping costs. With what you save on shipping you can just buy a food saver and vac seal everything yourself. I know of a BP breeder around here who goes to White Plains twice a year and just loads up on 6 months worth of food so he never has to buy online.

[littleindiangirl]

I'm just curious, the feces was coming out of the right hole correct? Rats don't excrete all of their feces immediately on death, and it's quite possible that when you squeeze the buggers after death, the feces will then evacuate the body (if possible at that moment anyways).

I don't see how that can be held against any feeder business, because, lets be honest now, would you expect a company to go around squeezing the butts of all of their dead feeders to make sure the colon has been properly voided?

[chapskis1]

I'm not sure if it was just feces, or other fluids that were coming out, and I do understand that you are going to get a few "turds" mixed in with your frozen rats. But compared to the batch of small rats that I bought from them at the same time -- there was a significant difference.

And, it wasn't that there was some fecal matter in the same package as them, there was literally feces matted into their hair, like the had been living in it (or spent some time dead in it) for quite some time.


Later,

George

BTW -- I just received the replacement shipment yesterday, and the rats are perfect!

[AZ_Equine]

I have had my first BP since June. Have been getting frozen rodents at Petco. "Gourmet Rodents" Brand. Wanted to stock up so looked into mail order. Seen some good reviews for "LayneLabs.com on the west coast so decided to give them a try.

Shipping was less than $40 I ordered 25 Jumbo mice and 25 Sm-Med Rats.
Total order came to $93.56 And it arrived today by Fed Ex in just 3 minutes short of 48 hours.

I ordered them Saturday and they sent them Monday. They arrived frozen solid just 3 minutes short of 48 hours!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...16264388_n.jpg

And their Jumbo Mice are as big as Gourmet Rodents Small Rats!...

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net...39923141_n.jpg

I am sold on LayneLabs. They sent a $5. coupon for my next order too!

[AZ_Equine]

I have had my first BP since June. Have been getting frozen rodents at Petco. "Gourmet Rodents" Brand. Wanted to stock up so looked into mail order. Seen some good reviews for "LayneLabs.com on the west coast so decided to give them a try.

Shipping was less than $40 I ordered 25 Jumbo mice and 25 Sm-Med Rats.
Total order came to $93.56 And it arrived today by Fed Ex in just 3 minutes short of 48 hours.

I ordered them Saturday and they sent them Monday. They arrived frozen solid just 3 minutes short of 48 hours!

And their Jumbo Mice are as big as Gourmet Rodents Small Rats!...

I am sold on LayneLabs. They sent a $5. coupon for my next order too!

[2kdime]

Holy almost 2 year old thread Batman

[AZ_Equine]

I did a search for a thread that was already about this subject instead of starting a new one