Ordering frozen: is it worth it?

[frankykeno]

Personally I'd go with The Mouse Factory if you're wanting top quality. Phone them and ask for Edna. Explain what you are feeding and she'll help you get the best bang for your buck. If you have concerns about how long any prey item is good to use, the folks that produce f/t prey items are the right people to ask I think.

Their product comes vacuum packed. Once you open the package and remove a few prey items simply put the whole package inside a good ziplock freezer grade storage bag, express the air manually and you're good to go. Either that or simply buy some Glad Press n Seal freezer wrap and wrap the left over prey in that (just leave it in it's original packaging and after expressing any air, wrap it solidly).

I can't see the need for an expensive machine really. If you're concerned about opening a big package every week, then just quickly re-pack the bigger quantities into weekly feeding packages. If you need 2 rat pups and 1 mouse per week then grab the Press n Seal and make your weekly packages up like that.

There is also a product sold at WalMart (sorry I can't remember the name atm) which pumps the air out of a freezer storage bag. My husband says it retails for under $10.00 so I'll have him get me the information on it for you. I think Robin also was telling me about seeing this new product recently.

[Mindibun]

Thanks a bunch, Jo - that was the most helpful answer yet! I'll have a look into all of your suggestions.

[frankykeno]

Here it is. Reynolds Handi Vac.

http://www.handivacoffer.com/?tid=33...FQQbFQod1gGRSg

It's a very nifty little item and one I'm going to purchase for my own kitchen but I think it would be of great use to you if you need to re-package frozen rodents. Can't beat the price really and since the whole point is to remove the air, well I think it would achieve that quite nicely without spending a ton of money.

My husband works for WalMart and says they stock this item plus the bags that go with it so I'm assuming it would be available in most major store chains.

[Argentra]

I have three of those, since I was in the right place at the right time and got two for free a week after buying one. If you like, I could send you one for just the shipping. And yes, they're at WalMart.

Thing is, they don't do as good a job as the actual vac sealers and they eat batteries like no ones business! Still, they're pretty good in a pinch, and we use ours for little things when we don't want to get out the FoodSaver. I would still recommend getting a vac sealer someday simply for the better job, but it doesn't have to be now.

[jknudson]

For my collection, and me living in a situation in which I am able to breed rodents I have been slowly switching everything over to FT. Doing larger orders is more worthwhile for myself. This last time around, I ordered roughly 175 items.

That order lasts me roughly two months for the 17 of 23 snakes that I've successfully switched over to frozen. The remaining snakes I just break down and buy live, they only get offered live after they refuse the thawed rodent that I offer.

So for me, it works REALLY well. However, it definitely is a LOT of rats and mice to thaw, and when it comes to reordering it isn't exactly cheap. But I go with American Rodent Supply because I'm in their free shipping zone w/$100 minimum purchase.

I LOVE the quality of rats, and haven't experienced "blowouts" like I have with RodentPro. All of theirs come simply bagged in ziplock heavy duty freezer bags, so for my two month use that's fine, but if I were making larger orders, say 6 months worth, I would rebag them in those space bag things.

Heck, even for a collection of three snakes, I'd say the savings in the long run versus buying from Petco or Petsmart would be worth it.

[anendeloflorien]

Heck, even for a collection of three snakes, I'd say the savings in the long run versus buying from Petco or Petsmart would be worth it.

Just about anything is cheaper than buying f/t from petco or petsmart. I went in to petsmart the other day to try and pick up some f/t mice, it was $10.95 for 4 medium mice! I get most of my f/t from NERD since their prices are pretty good and I can go in and pick them out myself but now my collection is growing even more and I'm looking into some of the mailorder places and I'm gonna compare how it breaks down with shipping and everything.