I'm finding I have almost the same problem as the OP. One pet store is a long enough drive to be inconvenient, and the other isn't as reliable as I'd like with his stock. There have been several times he's been completely out of the sizes I need. Unfortunately, I don't know of any local breeders (I've asked in the FB Feeders group), so I've started doing research on what it will take to start and maintain a healthy feeder colony. My biggest problem atm is figuring out where to get the starting breeders. The most common answer I see is 'from a local breeder', but without being able to find one, where do you get the rats?

If it makes any difference, I would only be interested in producing enough for my own snakes and would either convert the excess to f/t or possibly sell to the nearer pet store, maybe making him a bit more reliable with stock for other reptile owners.