Anyone use Layne Labs?

medusacoils said:

I just did a price comparison.

I Picked

100 day old pinks
100 Hoppers
100 Sm Mice

LayneLabs = $154.14
Rodentpro= $134.88

:shrugs:

Wayne

Click to expand...

I'm in so cal, my shipping is $36 with layne
it was $71 with Rodent Pro..
Big difference to me..

I mentioned this in another post. They make up the price difference in shipping savings. Overall, I saved a few dollars with Layne and they had the mice I needed in stock versus having to wait a couple of weeks only to find that if you didn't get on the exact day they said it would be available, then Rodent Pro had run out again.

I know volunteers at one of the raptor programs in Colorado who have used them for a while and really like them. And they were cheaper than most other options to Colorado as well.

I checked out Layne Labs about a year ago and their prices were so high they weren't even competitive. I'll stick with mice from Mice Direct. They are close enough that shipping is UPS Ground. Even better now that they are irradiated!

What you should know about Layne Labs

When I saw this thread, I know I needed to set up an account and share what we know about Layne Labs... because those people are really cool.
OK, here's how it went down...

About 4 years ago my son and I came out of a shopping mall just in time to see a owl bounce off the front of a car. It was all busted up, so we started making calls to see what to do- finally got someone who said they would come pick up the bird. We sat down and waited. About 30 people walked by, looked and then kept walking (nice, right?).

Then a lady and her daughter saw the bird, stopped and took out her phone. We got up and went over to tell her we already called for help. The lady (sorry, don't know her name) said she would wait with the bird, but my son Justin was REALLY committed.

The lady took out a business card and wrote something on the back and gave it to Justin to pass it along to the person who picked up the owl. As soon as she left I took the card to check it out. The lady was the owner of Layne Labs, and on the back of the card she wrote something like "It's not looking good, if you can use him for education, I'll be his sponsor". Someone finally came for the owl and we handed over the card.

Justin talked about 'the night he saved an owl' and 'his owl' a lot, and called to check on him a bunch of time. OK, that was three of four years ago.....
fast forward to this summer.

We signed the kids up for science camp and on one of the days they had someone bring in local wildlife. You see where this is going.... the owl was there... and it's name... wait for it... Justin.

My son almost lost it. The person at the fair confirmed where the owl was found, that it's wing was broken and it couldn't hunt, and all the details. And that Layne Labs was it's sponsor. That's five or six mice a day... for 4 years and counting.

That lady from Layne Labs could have just walked by that owl like everyone else did. But she stopped, and ponied up to give away 6 mice everyday, to one of their paying customers, for then next ten years. That's really cool.

Sorry for the long post, but those people are really cool, and I thought it was worth the effort to say so.
(We love this website, and learn a lot from you guys. Keep up the good work

dickdeuel said:

I checked out Layne Labs about a year ago and their prices were so high they weren't even competitive. I'll stick with mice from Mice Direct. They are close enough that shipping is UPS Ground. Even better now that they are irradiated!

Click to expand...

This proves the east coast stays with mice direct or rodent pro,
and us on the west coast stay with Layne..
Layne cheaper for us, others cheaper for the east..
I WONT pay $71+ for shipping..

Thank you for confirming what they claim on their website.

Your story really touched me since I'm a teacher that brings in animals to my classroom. Justin, and you, should be proud of the time that you took to make a difference for this owl -- and all of the people that he helps educate.

Layne will be my new suppliers from now on.

Thanks for the heartwarming story that seems to fit my limited experience with Layne Labs, which is confined to only two orders placed so far -- the first one for 50 pinkies I ordered when I bought my first two cornsnakes, the other for 100 fuzzies which I ordered several days ago when my two babes downed the last of the pinkies. My second order arrived yesterday, preceded by something no other Internet vendor has ever done for me: I got a phone call day before yesterday from Layne Labs -- a real person, not a recording -- alerting me that my order had shipped and would be delivered by FedEx the next day; then I got a second call yesterday reminding me that the order would be delivered within hours. The fuzzies arrived on schedule, and my two corns scafed down one fuzzy apiece. I can't compare Layne Labs to any other vendor, and right now I have no reason to try.

nlt71 said:

Thank you for confirming what they claim on their website.

Your story really touched me since I'm a teacher that brings in animals to my classroom. Justin, and you, should be proud of the time that you took to make a difference for this owl -- and all of the people that he helps educate.

Layne will be my new suppliers from now on.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words. It's amazing what a positive influence animals have on kids. Justin's teacher last year had several classroom pets. I'm not sure how he pulled it off, there must be 'rules' against it. One of the classroom pets was a corn snake, which I'm sure influenced birthday gifts in our home this year

We're snake newbies, and I didn't even consider frozen as an option before learning about it on this site. We'll definitely order from Layne Labs. I imagine the shipping will be quite reasonable!

Thanks for reminding me, Pretty Boy. I also got a personal phone call when the order shipped and when it arrived.

GothPixel said:

I've been looking at rodentpro, but the smallest bag they have is 100, and that's just too many mice of any one size, as I have only the one snake.

Click to expand...

Sorry, have to hop in here. You have only the one snake...so far. lol. I buy from RodentPro (no shipping as I pick them up at shows) and use to think the same thing. "The smallest bag you have is 100?" Now I have 2 corns, 1 leucistic texas rat, and a sand boa that all eat them. I'm running out of mice and it's only been 6 months since I bought the mice! Time for another order.

I received my first order and used them last night to feed. I weigh my pinky's because I am enough of a geek that I want to know how big they are. And the promised "2-4 grams" was actually a consistent 3-4 on about a dozen of them. Since I was using some from a local store I was looking for a small one as the previous 2 meals were both 2 grams or less (one flipped back and forth from 1 to 2 g on the scale). I ended up giving up because I figured it was worth it to get my snake fed and just gave her one of them. Besides that, they arrived frozen and the overall quality seems good. All intact mice, nicely packaged.

I would like to throw a monkey wrench into these thread and say not to forget about Big Cheese Rodent Factory because for me they are cheaper then other rodent supplers for me. I live in South Texas and Big Cheese is in Dallas/Forth Worth area.

I guess what I am trying to say is that prices are all about the same for the mice or rats but it depends on where you live as to the shipping charge.

So be smart shoppers and find out the total price = mice + shipping for your order.

Love the Fatman

this is, to me, quite an interesting thread. i am about ready to order some pinkies myself. the only places i have seen are in florida and dallas. i am in tennessee so shipping would be about the same, so i am still researching. whichever way i go would be cheaper than the somewhat local petco... which takes about an hour each way

I ordered from Layne Labs. Bought 50 small pinky mice. I also live in SoCal so the delivery charge was cheap and all and all, it went quite well. Mice were still frozen when i got them and they looked great. Quickly vacuum sealed them in a new bag. I'd order from them again, no doubt.

carnivorouszoo said:

Sales pitch. Come on you think a place would say "bulk raised in large bins pulled as ordered"? I never trust what I see on a website. I go by referals. No one has heard of these folks so . . . I will let you guys be the proverbial guinea pigs and see how you all like them. :shrugs:

Click to expand...

I have ordered from them many times and they are awesome!
Cleaner than I EVER got from RP/Big Cheese/TMF.
If you are in the west the shipping is a big difference,
but if in the east half the shipping is higher, so cheaper for you
to get from RP.
I also order on a FRI or SAT and they are shipped Monday for a
Tues AM fed ex delivery.
I ordered from RP on a Fri and didnt get the mice for 2 Weeks via UPS!
The convenience of fast delivery is a big factor for me also.
They are at many shows here in Cali also, so not a "No Name" here.
They supply mice for wildlife/Bird sanctuaries and shows too.
You are not being a "Guinea pig" they are an established and well
run feeder mouse supplier. Their mouse "Size" is more consistant also,
from RP I recieved "Hoppers" that were the same size as the "Weanlings".

Layne is highly recommended from me!

Layne Labs is awesome I have bought frozen at the san diego show and then I bought frozen and live at the pomona show. I needed some females for my colony and the owner of Layne hooked it up with some big healthy females for the same price as the feeders. There mice are healthy clean and I would say some of the best out there.

I ordered my first bag of f/t mice from Big Apple Herp last week. I almost immediately regretted my decision after I was able to find better quantities and prices elsewhere. I got the box in today and while all but one of the 100 pinkies were in tact, at least half were missing legs or tails and the bag wasn't even vacuum sealed, but I will say that other than a few missing appendages they seem to be good quality. I made the best of it and sealed them up into month long servings and fed my little guy the headless pinkie (he didn't mind one bit). I think when I make my next order I will definitely try a different supplier though.

I placed an order with Layne Labs not too long ago, & was more than pleased with the whole experience!
One of the reasons I initally ordered from them was that it would have been a good two weeks before I would get my order from RP, so I decided to give LL a try. I placed my order over the weekend, & I had the order at my door on Wednesday! The quality is much better than RP, they're not all squished up & such.

Shipping is better than RP for sure, being on the West Coast.

I will say, I did a comparison order for a large order (over 1000 rodents) with LL & RP, & RP was cheaper by $100, but the amount I ordered this time was fairly close, plus I got it a LOT sooner.

I got a call the day before my order arrived to let me know when it was set to arrive. I also like their packing better than RP.

LL will definitely get my business again!

For any current prospective buyers-- when they say "Large pinkies" (mice) they're not kidding around. These are monster pinkies!