Why are all the online frozen rat suppliers out of stock? OMG

[Regius_049]

Just re-checked Perfect Prey. They are now out of 3 sizes I need !!! Weaned, Small and Mediums.

When you say best quality, what exactly are you referring to ?

The rodents themselves ? As in healthier for the snake ? Fed better food ? Cleaner ?

Or perhaps the way they are packaged ? Or customer service ?

I've never had bad luck with "bad" rodents where I buy from. They look clean and seem healthy, my snakes are thriving in any case...and never refuse.

The reason I want to check the other two are vacuum packing. But not if I have check nonstop and then hope for them to have all sizes needed. I never had to do this before.
Maybe that isn't normally the case, though. I'm not ready (yet) to give up. But if this continues on, I'll place my next order with my regular supplier. I'm not splitting orders or paying far more to buy small quantity packs. The vacuum packing is not worth THAT much to me

I am referring to the rodents themselves. They are as close to immaculate as I have ever seen - no fecal matter or fur stains to be found. Coats of fur on all feeder I have received have been very good. I know they feed their rodents purified water and a diet recommended by an animal nutritionist, but what that is, I could not say. I do know Perfect Prey feeds their own rodents to their personal reptile stock, which always a nice thing to see.

With rodent pro and big cheese, I have found some fecal matter (presumably from defecation after death) and rodent pro is not vacuum packed. Big cheese is however markedly better than rodent pro is this regard, but not as nice as Perfect Prey. Both Big Cheese and perfect prey appear to be vacuum sealed. According to the CDC and Kentucky Zoo, rodent pro awhile back had an outbreak of Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis in some of their rodent population, which is what prompted me to switch to Perfect Prey initially. I was rather disappointed that I never received a notification from the company or saw a PSA on their website regarding the issue. I also know a few people who have lost eastern indigos after feeding them quail from rodent pro.

Customer service is hard to say because I have never had an incident where I complained or was missing something on an order, which is where customer service usually shows how good or bad it is.

The out of stock thing appears to be a new phenomena among a few companies. I don't know if it is a down year or what, but both perfect prey and big cheese appear to be out of select items as you state. As a piece of anecdotal information, I recently ordered from big cheese for the first time and I have had a more difficult time getting my ball pythons to take the feeders than I have in the past. I however suspect this is a result of big cheese appearing to "flash freeze" it's feeders. When I received my order, the feeders were rock solid to the point of limbs breaking off extremely easily. This has its pros and cons. My other non-ball pythons don't appear to have a preference however.

Thus I usually rank them - Perfect Prey > Big Cheese > Rodent Pro

These are the only companies I have experience with.