Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I live in Alaska and we only have have one good source for reptile supplies, feeders etc. Well guess who's moving to town...

There are a few supplies I'm currently unable to find here- aspen bedding, sphagnum moss and rat pups for instance. Will Petco have these items? What other herp stuff can I expect to find at the big P. when they open their doors?

Thanks.

No rat pups. It is against petco and peta to sell live babies as food. You can get adult mice live or frozen mice of all sizes and ages but you can get adult live rats or frozen live rats of all sizes but all will be adults. I dont think they will have aspen bedding but they may have moss.

Mine has the aspen. They have all sorts of cage decor and food/water bowls. They have a few of the bulbs and heat pads, but I have not seen much else.
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"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are." - Kurt Cobain

"You laugh at me because I am different; I laugh at you because you are all the same."

~~ Krystal ~~

Grrr. I was hoping for rat pups. As for live rats, we can't have them (period) in the state because they're not part of our eco system and we don't want them to be. At one time they infested one of our islands by jumping off a ship (they're still there), but we don't have them on our main land.

Why would a store sell something like frozen pinkie mice but not rat pups? What's the logic?

I have our BP hatchling feeding on F/T mice but I would like to cut him over to rats ASAP. Small F/T rats are the smallest rat I can currently get my hands on. It'll be awhile before our friend can tackle one of those guys. I'm sure the longer I wait, the harder it will be to move him over. Oh well...

From what I have witnessed, A good feeder is a good feeder and you shouldnt have a problem. I move from multiple adult mice to small rats and have had no problems. Swiching from garter snakes, to tysons chicken parts (ex. thighs, gizzars, etc), to ft chicks, to ft rodents tied to chicks, to scented mice/rats, and finally just ft rats was a hard one. ALL steps needed to be done and she was very picky every time. She seems to be doing well on the ft rats alone now ...THANK GOD. My friend fed an incredibly awesome feeding yellow anaconda a rat tail just to see if she would...and she did. This was from the same litter of yellow anacondas I got my granites from (Mark Petros) and although I have never tried a rat tail...they know how to eat (and they are docile when handled and are not nippy one mit). So if you want perfect yellow anacondas....get them from Mark Petros quickly.

Can you raise your own rats to feed the snake? I don't know your laws there but it's a thought....

Live rats of any kind are illegal in Alaska. It's frozen or not at all. The locally owned pet store has frozen rats in small through jumbo but no rat pups. I was hoping that Petco would have them. The space Petco is renovating is huge. They're converting a retired K-Mart store and that's a lot of space.

Just curious as I worked at a petco a for a couple years a few years back and we always had them. We never advertised it, but if someone asked...well.

I worked at a petco as well and even years before that I could not get a live baby feeder at any petco. I had to get them from smaller private stores. I think every store might be a little different and you might have been in one that was not full of managers who did not have their heads up their...ya know. I was told before to dumb things down a little because my knowledge was making the other employees (and managers) look stupid. Customers never minded the extra info on care...only managers that looked bad when they were wrong.

And I've been in Petcos in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Every Petsmart I've been in does NOT sell feeders, as that is against company policy (rumour is: CEO's wife doesn't like the thought of cute-n-fuzzy widdle rodents being snakey food)
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~Sasheena

They sell feeders, just not live babies...they have no rat pups or fuzzy mice for sale that are live. they do not even sell young rats frozen. All live animals are adult animals. All frozen rats are adult rats. Is that more clear? I might be having a hard time stating this and maybe its my wording lol...but nobody seems to pick up on it : /

I've gotten a few to sell me live feeder pups (rats or mice) but that only because the petstore guy raised his own. Been a LONG time since I bought feeders. I got into snakes, bought feeders every weekend for 3 months, and went out and started my own breeding colony... so much easier.
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~Sasheena

the petcos should sell frozen rat pups.. locate a sku for them.. the vendor they get their stuff might not have them available.. the place we got our waxworms and mealworms from did not have butter worms available..

raising some live rat pups take time and money.. and then they may not even be available on a reg. basis.. what happens id the rat pups don't sell.. if your laws says not live rats, well then there is not much you can do.. why not just order like 200 frozen and have them shipped.. is it really a big deal to to feed live rat pups..