Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Gosh, I'm feeling like the price of feeding 15 snakes (only one ball python)is beginning to not feel good. My ball python has quickly grown to where she needs medium rats. And by the time an order is put together for only a few months the total shipping is eating a chunk out of my pocket. I don't raise my own but order frozen. The thought of keeping a rat colony to feed my ball doesn't attract me at all. I've seen discussions on this forum and others about different/cheaper prices at various places. And I've also heard the comments about "stinky" mice and rats with feces and urine all over them. What are you all doing about the price of feeding?

You could always send a couple of snakes my way!

I try to buy my pricey feeders (large rats especially) at reptile shows. The prices are better and I don't have to pay shipping. Since I'm buying in quantity I can usually get a nice deal too. I've just about got everything switched to f/t so filling the freezer a few times a year saves me some bucks in the long run. Unfortunately, hurricane Isabel and the 10 day power outage that followed wiped out my last stock pile!
Lora

If your around Chesapeake ,VA.E-mail me

I only have 9 snakes, but was having some difficulty buying enough prey for them, also. I am now breeding my own rats. They are really clean animals, as long as you do weekly maintenance of their cages. It has already saved me a bundle of $$, and I don't worry about the quality of the critters I am feeding to my snakes. They really don't smell bad, especially if you keep up on changing the bedding. I would suggest you do some reading up on breeding your own critters. I used to have mice, too, but they did stink really bad. The rats I don't mind at all, and my wife has even come around! She has the maternal instinct thing going really strong, and loves watching the momma rats with the pinkies.
For me, it came down to either paring down my snake collection, or breeding my own rats.....easy choice! It was simply getting too expensive.
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Randy
www.ball-pythons.net

The problem with needing mediums or larger is that it takes some time to get them up to this size. I keep all types of snakes and all of them are fed rats. You just feed them off once they get to the size you need. My corns, kings, boas and pythons all get rats. The only rodents I need to buy are pinky mice for small baby colubrids. I would breed mice but they stink much much more than rats. Starting to breed rats was the best decision I've made and doesn't take a whole lot of time to clean and feed them. Another possibility is going in on larger orders with other herpers from your area thus saving some on shipping costs. Good luck with whatever decision you choose, Scott.
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