Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I moved back home from Champaign, IL and I am now in Chicago. I found it easy to buy pinkies and fuzzies at champaign, but surprisingly I can't find vendors nearby. A few questions.

1) Does anyone know of a good place to buy live mice or baby chicks around Chicago?

2) Is there any good places online to buy live mice or baby chicks for a good price? (probably not since I've been researching quite a bit)

3) Do I really have to rely on frozen mice? (I love watching my snake eat live ones!)

Thanks for any help you can give me.

you dont have to rely on frozen, but then again, its not whats best for you (you like to watch em hunt and eat..its kool i admit it, but read on). in the wild snakes cant get frozen prey, but in the wild they CAN get away from an extremely aggressive prey item...not so in captivity. in the confines of a cage snake and prey, aggressive or dead or whatever, cannot get away from each other. which means the mouse or rat is scared to death and willing to fight for its life if it can, and if that snake isnt hungry it cant get away from this little annoying thing thats could be scaring the snake to death. every year there are tons of snakes brought to vets with massive tissue loss because the rodent got hungry, even more snakes that got attacked by a defensive rodent. not a pretty picture to see a beautiful snake twitching and dying because a live prey item was grabbed wrong drring constriction and the mouse or rat bit right thru the snakes head or eye...no im not making this up, im not exaggerating, it happens all the time. if your snakes will take frozen keep em on frozen...deader is better! plus even a small nip from a rodent can cause scarring and nasty infections. think twice about live just because you think its fun to watch...considering snakes usually constrict thawed rodents anyway, its not that much diffrent...

Jay

If it's a jungle, or even an Irian Jaya, I wouldn't be feeding it mice at all.

Jake

sorry it took me sooo long to respond. Anyway, it's a jungle carpet. I've been feeding it mice because that's what's around that I can fit in it's small mouth. Should I start feeding it small rats? I'm new to this. Thanks for any advice. Oh, and about the live mice, I always watch the snake and make sure the mouse doesn't attack it. Anyway, I don't think the fuzzies I feed it can do much damage