Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'd like to know if anyone can tell me where to buy clean, healthy mice in the Austin, Texas area.

I made a huge blunder and bought a juvenile (captive bred and eating well, thank goodness) ball from a pet store. The store was a reptile specialty place and came highly recommended but... of course she has mites. We are following the advice on Kaplan's website for treatment.

I don't want to go back to that store and risk re-introducing the mites. I know they came from the store as we have no other reptiles.

Don't knock yourself for making a 'rookie mistake'. Mites happen, and sometimes very hard to detect. We bought a jungle carpet x diamond python a few years back from a reptile show, saw no signs of mites, but he had them, around his eyes. A shot of ivermectin and a coating of mineral oil cleared them right up. I don't have any recommendation for where to buy rats, I just wanted to say that things happen and at least you're doing something about it.

I breed and raise my own mice for my snake. My kids have allergies to just about every animal but mice and snakes so they are also pets. If you lived near us I could always give you some but we live in Minnesota and only go to texas once a year. To see my in laws.

I'm in the Austin area, which store was it? I usually get my f/t rats from ZooKeeper with no problems.
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1.0 speckled kingsnake
1.0 leucistic texas ratsnake
0.1 tricolor hognose
0.1 water python
0.1 spider ball python
1.0 green tree python

Herpeton. To be fair,the mites may have come in on the bedding. But we bought the bedding at Herpeton so they're still suspect.
The vet said to stop using wood shavings at all and to put her on astroturf. She doesn't seem to mind it now but she was tentative when we first put it down.
Anyway, Isabelle is eating live mice quite happily so we don't really want to change anything on her. Is f/t the only way to be sure your mice don't have any reptile mites hiding on them? We are treating her with ivermectin but we'd really like to never go through this again.

To be honest I was wondering if you'd say them, which is why I was so quick to put up ZooKeeper's name as I believe they're a good outfit. I just keep hearing more and more bad things about Herpeton, and haven't set foot in there for a while.
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1.0 speckled kingsnake
1.0 leucistic texas ratsnake
0.1 tricolor hognose
0.1 water python
0.1 spider ball python
1.0 green tree python

To touch on another point since I hit reply too early. Is there any reason you're on live mice other than 'she seems happy for now'? If it's no skin off your snake's back I'd be switching to f/t rats, the pros just outweigh the cons for me.
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1.0 speckled kingsnake
1.0 leucistic texas ratsnake
0.1 tricolor hognose
0.1 water python
0.1 spider ball python
1.0 green tree python

Would you mind running the pros and cons for me? I'm still learning the tips that make life easier for a snake and her handlers.
There's no reason she's on live mice other than I don't want to mess with a ball that is eating consistently. I've heard so many stories of balls that won't eat. It would really freak my kids out if she stopped.
Thanks for the tip about ZooKeeper. I'll go check them out.

Quick article here:
http://www.kingsnake.com/articles/PreKilledPrey.html

The quickest benefits of f/t for me:
-all the food is in the freezer, making it easier to feed everyone when *I* want to and not when I have time to go out to the store
-this is negated if you raise your own, but f/t rodents are always cheaper than buying live from a petstore
-nearly all mites/parasites/diseases on the mice are killed with the freeze
-not such a deal with ball pythons, but other snakes will calm down overall if switched to f/t
-minimally noteworthy, but I'll put it here anyway. It's more humane to the food to be killed by CO2 than bitten and strangled.
-stubborn feeders can be left with their food overnight with no danger
-the last and biggest: immediate physical danger. Lots of people will say that live is okay because they monitor the feeding and are willing to go in if the snake is in danger. I have heard too many stories about snakes, even a huge burm in one case, killed with one extremely well placed bite by the prey animal directly to the head. Barring fatality, bite wounds to the mouth, body and eyes are also a possibility. And barring the vet bill those could all cause, my snakes are my pets first and foremost so if there's an easy way to avoid endangering them, I will take that path.
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1.0 speckled kingsnake
1.0 leucistic texas ratsnake
0.1 tricolor hognose
0.1 water python
0.1 spider ball python
1.0 green tree python

It sounds like I should try to switch her over. I have to tell you I won't miss watching her kill those cute fuzzy mice. What's the success rate getting a live feeder to give up "prey" and eat something already dead? Have you ever switched one of your snakes? Any tips? I'll be sure to ask the staff at ZooKeeper too. And thanks for your time.

I've switched over two and they gave me no problems. Just warmed everything up properly and wiggled it about with the tongs, and they both just treated it like a live one. I was probably lucky though, you'll have to look to other people on special tricks to switch 'em if you run into problems.
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1.0 speckled kingsnake
1.0 leucistic texas ratsnake
0.1 tricolor hognose
0.1 water python
0.1 spider ball python
1.0 green tree python