I only buy a month or two's worth at a time. Just my thing. It can be a hit or miss buying locally, some don't take as good of care of their rodents as I believe they should. Make sure you ask if the rodents are freshly killed/frozen. And if you can have a look at how they have them set up, you'll know how healthy they are. I have had a lot of misses before finding my local breeder I buy from monthly, who doesn't put his rodents down until the day before they're bought. I've bought from Rodent Pro before, and the rats I got from them smelled bad/went bad quickly. Other than that I haven't bought from the "big" breeders so I can't give you my opinion on them. Hope that helps a little. I would just experiment with local breeders til you find one you really like.