Prices here for feeders are getting so high. If I want somewhat "cheap" feeders, I have to drive 30 minutes to a reptile store and 30 minutes back and even then, the feeders are often sick (though he always has the right size). The other option is to go to a pet store on the other side of town but their prices are so high and they don't carry live mice or anything smaller than a small rat, live. Even if they did, live prices are through the roof. A small rat (which is little more than a wean) is $4. A "medium" is $5! Frozens are just a little less, smalls being $3.30 a piece. The man at the store is always trying to get me to buy the mediums which are only around 100g or so (100g is what I need for my girls but they are soooo expensive. $4-5 each for 4 females. That's $16-20 a week just to feed four of my snakes!)
So I came up with a solution. Breed my own. And so far I've managed to get one litter of rats (I'm saving all females I produce until I get a nice colony going) and 3 litters of mice. I just bought a 50lb bag of Mazuri and its going to last me a few months with as few breeders/feeders as I have now, but hopefully my colony will start to grow. So I can easily provide my own, healthy, properly sized, humanely raised, feeders for less than $50 a month. (as opposed to spending $130-140 a month on feeders)
Then the thought came to me. What about other people in the area who have to rely on places like Petco ($2.50ish per small mouse) and the reptile store I go to. I thought, maybe I can sell extras to people around town. Would it be a good idea to make this into a small business? And would these prices seem fair?
Prices for mice:
0.10 per pinky mouse
0.20 per fuzzy mouse
0.30 per hopper mouse
0.50 per mouse wean (3-4 weeks of age)
1.00 per adult mouse (20+g)
Prices for rats:
0.20 per pinky rat
0.40 per fuzzy rat
0.50 per rat pup
1.00 per rat wean (3-4 weeks of age)
1.50 per small rat (up to 100g)
2.00 per medium rat (up to 200g)
And for those of you that sell to local people, how do you get the feeders to the customer? Meet somewhere? Deliver them to their house? Have them come pick them up? When selling frozen, do you just freeze them in ziplock bags or do you use vacuum "food saver" type bags?
I'm far from being able to sell surplus feeders but I want to get an idea on how to best do this.