I suffered the blow of the $30 shipping for ordering from here, but they offer a "smaller quantities" option for ordering. As I only have one ball, i was much happier ordering 5 weaned rats than having to get 20 and likely have some get freezer burned or grown out of and wasted. It was still $43, but it's the price I have to pay for this sucker. It's also still a month worth of food, so I'm not going to be complaining in a couple weeks
There's really not a way to avoid the price of shipping unfortunately unless you can find a local retailer.