Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is our hobby fast becoming a very expensive one? A year ago, our electric supplier had a 60% increase, and now is poised for another 6%. My electric bill has doubled in the past year.
I recently placed a large rabbit order, and the cost of a rabbit has risen by approx 12%, and the UPS cost was much higher.
I have taken the turtles, lizards, and frogs out of my collection, and now have only 11 specimens. I'm not a breeder, I got started doing this years ago just for fun. But that fun is fast becoming expensive.
How does everyone here keep costs down?
I've insulated my snake room. Switched to radiant heat panels on thermostats. Thats to keep my electric cost down.
Now how do I keep my feed bill down?

Switch from rabbits to Pigs. Pigs are cheaper and availble in much larger sizes. Just because you aren't a breeder doesn't mean you can't try to breed your animals. Selling offspring also helps to offset costs!
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John Light

You can also give some thought to buying a pair of rabbits, or 1.2 and breeding your own feeder animals. I know lots of folks can't use them as feeders after raising the bunnies up to size, but if you can get past that, rabbit food is pretty cheap. And they breed like crazy.

VinnyButch

yep, I breed all my feeder food and sell them also. It does take up some of my time but it does cut the cost of trying to find feeder food. It works for me.
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Education is Everything.......

I think the best option for the average big snake keeper that wants to raise their own feeders is to raise rats, guinea pigs and/or rabbits.

Pigs (swine) are outlawed in a lot of places, neighborhoods and you can raise a lot more rabbits in the same amount of space, same amount of time, and with less feed costs. Rats, guinea pigs, rabbits are also more accomodating, size wise, than pigs, & they also have less fat content & more protein.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not against feeding pigs to snakes, I'm just saying that I don't think it's the best all-around choice for the average keeper.

I've got plenty of room with no restrictions to raise pigs if I wanted to and I have thought about it, to feed the family as well as maybe a snake meal or two. If I were to want to buy a piglet I'd have to travel at least 60 miles in one direction. There aren't a whole lot of pig farms, pig breeders, like there are rabbit breeders. And I live waaaaaayyy out in the boonies. So far that I don't get Monday Night Football until Tuesday night.

By the way, you can thank stupid voters for putting stupid politicians on Capitol Hill for all the rising costs that's squeezin' us all. This is Congress' mess, not the President's. Trust me, it's a fact - Congress got us here.

Hang in there!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

www.natures-signature.com

Ya Mike, I can't raise pig's were I live. Plus the rabbits, my girls love to play with them.
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Education is Everything.......