Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just wondering if someone could give some insite on the most economical way to feed ball pythons. I will probably have 4 soon (small potatos to alot of you I'm sure), and as of now I just have one...which I have been buying 3-4 adult frozen mice at a time from Petco. Most of the online places charge like $40 shipping or more, so at this point, that fact has negated any savings of buying online. Can anyone recommend a good (and cheap) store to get them from in bulk, or a breeder in the Kansas City area, or some way to get a cheap food supply for my BP's? I DONT want to breed my own food at this point, I dont have the time or desire for that.

Thanks

Neal

Most of the online places charge like $40 shipping or more, so at this point, that fact has negated any savings of buying online.

Have you really checked this? Try going to rodentpro.com and looking at their online rate calculator.

Assuming you feed 4 adult mice a week to your snakes, I figured that you could buy a 6 month supply of adult mice (100 mice) for 4 medium sized BPs for $1 a mouse including shipping. Even if they are $1 each at Petco, you have to factor in the sales tax and cost of travelling to Petco every week in gas. Those expenses would quickly increase the price of the petco mice.

It is cheaper to buy frozen online. The more you buy, the more you save. If you have a vaccuum sealer, you can break the mice up into single serving packets (1 packet feeds all your snakes once) and these single serve vacuum sealed pacs will last a year in the freezer. So now you could buy even more at once and save even more money.

If you know any other herpers in your area, why not put a couple of orders together?

Furthermore, it is very convenient just to be able to walk over to the freezer and pull out a single pack to thaw and not have to dig around finding exactly what you want or driving to a petstore and hoping they have what you need.
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Chris Harrison

I did check rodent pro, and their shipping seems very fair. It was about 20 bucks. I could get 100 small rats shipped for just under $100. I hadnt looked online for f/t food for over a year, maybe shipping prices have dropped since. Looks like I'll be going with rodent pro

thanks

neal

go out and buy yourself 1.2 rats..put them in a ten gallon feed em..and your set. It will be tons cheaper than trying to order frozen and a less pita when you wanna feed...i hate thawing..LOL

www.bigcheeserodents.com - call them and tell them what you're looking for, say you want 2 day delivery, and they will get it to you. a lot cheaper than rodent pro.
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-Chris

The reason mainstream thought is thought of as a stream is because it's so shallow. -George Carlin

A fool doesn't learn. A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Which one are you?

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Current snakes:
0.1 Licorice Stick Black Rat (Lola)
1.0 Black Rat (Frankie)
0.1 Texas Bairdi (Rosa)
0.1 Blue Beauty (Brunhilde)
1.0 Green Tree Python (Monty)

try going to a reptile show too, they dont tend to have the frozens at the tables with them, but asking a few of hte vendors tends to point you to the rodent suppliers, or even asking at the entrance. its about the same as getting them online, minus the shipping. well, you can think of the entrance fee as shipping, lol.
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1.3 Dogs (max, tasha, kaya, screw)
1.0 Ghost Corn (Ghost Faced Killa)
0.1 Normal Corn (Tigera?)
1.0 Yellow Rat
0.1 Central American Boa Constrictor (Achilla)
0.1 Burmese Python
0.1 Rose Hair Tarantulla (Grumpy)
0.0.1 Usambar Starburts Baboon Tarantula
0.1 White Knee / Zebra Tarantula
2 ferrets (Otis, Milo)
1.2 Emperor Scorpion
0.0.1 Nile Moniter
0.0.1 Tegu
Jack Dempsey Tank...