am i missing something? (frozen mice)

I hear all the time buying online is soooo much cheaper...well i find it is a lot more expensive.I pay 2.12 for 2 adult mice every week. For 50 mice from places like rodent pro would have cost me 45 dollars plus 70 in shipping. Am i missing a
Cheaper site?

To get in cheaper you would have to buy in bulk..many of us need bulk and to pay pet shop prices would be ridiculous..I go through hundreds of rodents every week, so that's where the discount comes in.

How many snakes do you have? Buying in *bulk* is cheaper online for many people because they have many snakes. People who have just one or a few snakes (like me) are in the same boat as you. For me, it's much more expensive to pay shipping charges than to just fork over the price of pinkies at my local petstore.

I think the trick is to find an online supplier that is close to you so that shipping costs can be minimized. For people with one one or a few snakes, waiting until their full grown, and no longer switching prey sizes, would make online purchases a better choice. Since mice last quite a while when frozen, I can buy in bulk, pay much less per mouse than a pet store, and have food for years.

Do you have shows near you? I bought several 10 count bags of mice at our last one, for about the cost of buying 10 from the pet store, and they've lasted Wadjet nicely. I don't know that they'll last until May, when the next show is, but it's dropped the cost of having a pet snake quite low.


I haven't yet found a good way to get feeder insects cheaper, though-when I bought in bulk at Repticon, the "small crickets" were escape artists. The cats loved it, because they had lots of insects to stalk and chase, but relatively few made it into frog stomachs. They didn't LOOK smaller than the pet store ones that I'd been buying, but apparently they were.

--Donna

Sounds like you only have two snakes? Those of us with 20+ snakes find it way cheaper to buy online. I'm lucky enough to have a breeder in state that sells mice cheaper (and WAY better quality) than any online source or other source.

expos are great

expos are the best if you have only a few snakes. I bought my all that i needed months ago at 14 cents/mouse and still have enough to go until march if not april.

Expos are great because you might run into a vendor in your local area who has reptile pets, who already purchases in bulk, and may be willing to re-sell smaller quantities to fit your needs. Perhaps there is a zoo, pet rescue, reptile vet, serpentarium, environmental center or similar facility in your area you could contact, and perhaps they could pass along your contact information to someone they know in your area. There are a couple persons in my area that I help out whenever I can.

I actually buy my mice from the breeder we bought our snake from. I think I paid $0.65 for fuzzy mice and $0.87 for rat pinkies. It was less than $15 for a 6 month frozen supply. I would definitely recommend what Dave suggested.
Buying from the petstore is ridiculous, I'm very thankful I have our breeder to go too.

Oops, my math is off. Fuzzies were 38cents.

I agree expos are the best for finding a local source and catching a break on the shipping and mark-up. I went to a very (VERY!) small local expo yesterday that was completely disappointing in terms of the animals available, but hit the jackpot with a local breeder of rodent feeders who has both live and f/t. After chatting with her a few minutes, I learned that she does the breeding and attends the expos while her daughter makes deliveries each Saturday to supply area pet stores. She gave me her phone number and told me as long as I give them a day's advance notice, they can bring whatever I need on their delivery route and meet me at the grocery parking lot. I could not have been more thrilled! I now have a source for live or f/t on a weekly basis for no less hassle to me than meeting in the parking lot of the store where I'm already there to shop for groceries! That whole arrangement with her is priceless because I have had the worst time finding appropriate sized live rat feeders for my ball python who refuses to convert to f/t.