Buying Rodents in Bulk?

[Entomancer]

Hey.

So, I think I have enough snakes (8 now) that buying rodents in bulk makes more sense than buying them in smaller packages.

The question is, what price should I expect? I have three juvenile snakes, three subadult snakes, and two adult snakes (all things that wouldn't need anything larger than small rats, probably).

Any recommendations? I'm aware that I could order online, but there are three different independent pet stores in my general area that sell frozen rodents in bulk, so I was going to go see what they have price-wise before ordering anything online.

 

[Munch]

I do not about not so much about how many you will be buying ,but they have a shelf life of about a year if that helped.

 

[Illuminati]

Depends on what your stores locally end up being price wise because with out shipping costs it could be the way to go, but some bump prices up since you don't have to have them shipped in. Shipping itself runs anywhere from 30.00 on up normally on orders. I get my rats from theratdeli.com because of the reasonable shipping prices and bulk rodent prices, though they only do rats. Prices you should expect completely depend on the size of rodents, type (rat or mouse), quantity and where you are purchasing from so unfortunately pricing that would be something you would need to do off what you would want to order there would be no way to give you any kind of estimate exactly.

 

[Jessie]

We get our stash from Glacier Rodents at the expos. 100 pinkies for our 2 corn snakes were $31 (my husband's corn eats 3 pinkies a week, my corn eats 2). 10 medium rats were $30 for our newly acquired ball python.

 

[Munch]

Rodentpro anyone?

 

[3skulls]

I was always happy with Rodent Pro.
I now buy from a local guy.

Check for local Reptile Expos / shows.
If you can find someone you are happy with, most will let you preorder and pick up at the show.

If you go with Rodent Pro, buy enough to fill the box. Make the shipping cost worth it.
Use a food sealer or double bag them in heavy freezer bags and throw them in a deep freeze. Should last for a while.

I think Layne Labs is other online source. Have never used them but they get great reviews on BP.net

 

[Munch]

I buy from an expo, so if you do have expos around go to those, also petsmart has overpriced rodents, if that helps.

 

[Entomancer]

Yeah, for a while, I only had two snakes I was feeding, but then I managed to land a new job and now I have nine.

I was buying rodents from PetStupid for a while, only because I didn't have the time to go look for a place with better prices. Then (over a period of about six months) I ended up with seven new snakes, and I knew that I needed to find a new source. I was buying from a local independent pet store for a while, but they had an odd price system and availability was spotty for the bulk packages.

Then I tried one of the other local stores (this was shortly after I started this thread) and they had better pricing, plus a discount for buying ten or more rodents at once. I walked away with 33 rodents of various sizes for less than 50 bucks.

(The store, by the way, is the House of Reptiles in Tigard, OR. If anyone viewing this thread is in the area and is looking for a good herp/invert store, this is the place!)