@Lenny: Where I live there are two choices for feeders locally. Petsmart which charges an arm and a leg. Or a badly run local store. This store is disgusting, it should be shut down.
Here would be a reason to feed f/t...no access to local live feeders. Some people, such as yourself, don't drive or live out in the country where it isn't feasible to drive to a pet store. I know there are some people here that are 45 minutes to an hour away (if not more) from their closest 'big' town where there may or may not be a pet store that supplies live.
Not always. There was even just recently a post on one of the threads here where they contacted a supplier with their concerns and they never got an answer. I also have a friend who had this same issue. Her and a few others spent a couple hundred on a mouse order for their ferrets only to have them show up with bedding and feces mixed into the frozen mice.
No matter what supplier you buy from, there is always going to be small amounts of bedding and feces. It doesn't hurt the quality of the mice, except potentially in large quantities or if the feces gives some indication that the mice were ill at the time of freezing (diarrhea or odd color). Rodent suppliers breed thousands and thousands of mice, it isn't possible to insure that each and every bag that gets shipped out is poo and bedding free. I'd still rather deal with a little typical mouse/rat dirt than spend $1.29-$6.99 (pinky mouse-large rat prices, both live and frozen, at my local pet store). I would say that as long as the rodents themselves aren't dirty (urine stained fur, diarrhea stained bottoms, etc.) then the supplier is doing a good job. Also, a reputable supplier will do anything in their power to make things right if something happens with a shipment (incorrect amounts, not frozen on arrival, dirty, etc.). I've heard plenty of stories about The Mouse Factory and RodentPro, among others, that have made their mistakes right in a very timely manner.
@GSDlover
We do breed our own and like I posted above, even with the cost of bedding and food each month (runs us about 20$), it is cheaper because of the price gouging that goes on in our area.
I bred mice and rats for some time, mostly as pets, but used some of the mouse pinks as feeders. Even with a feed bill around $20 (and I made my own rodent mix), bedding bill around $20, and a few extra bucks here and there for 'treats', vitamins, and the occasional toy (yep, enrichment of their environment), that's still more than what I pay for frozen feeders in bulk for my entire collection in a month. My food bill is less than $500 for a year (and that's without shipping, as I pick up my orders at a reptile show). In addition, I wasn't even breeding anywhere close to what I would have needed to feed all my kiddos, so if I was, I'm sure my food/bedding bill would have been at least double. And then there's the time it takes to clean, cull, and otherwise take care of the rodent collection. I don't have the kind of time (or space for that matter) to take care of a collection that would be capable of feeding my snakes.
Pros for F/T:
As for the stink, I was battling that for awhile, we would clean, a few days later it would stink. We found a way around that and we still clean just as often as before, but now the stink is not noticeable unless you go right up to the bin in the rack and take a good sniff.
Just curious, how did you take care of the smell? I've been thinking about getting back into rats (just as pets), but I live in a small space and the smell just about the only thing preventing me from getting a few. I'm always interested in hearing smell reducing tricks and tips
@Nanci I think this boils down to the individual snake. Each snake has their own personalities and quirks.
It is still anthropomorphism no matter how you look at it. And as for the 'enrichment' in zoos that Kali mentioned, the enrichment is being used for birds and mammals, animals that are known to need the enrichment due to 'higher brain function' (not exactly what I'm trying to say, but I think you know what I mean). As far as I know, and I could be wrong as I haven't been to a zoo in years, they aren't providing the tarantulas, roaches, snakes, fish, etc. with toys and such.
@strasevol
Good point. But then what do hunters do that go out hunting deer, turkey, boar etc every hunting season?
Providing food for themselves and their families. For most (at least the hunters I know) it isn't so much about the 'joy' of killing the animal, it is about spending time outside and putting food on the table. Also, they aren't chasing their prey on food, taking it down with their bare hands, and eating it raw in the woods.
@Outcast A chest freezer is another valid point. Not everyone has access to one so freezer space is at a premium (especially when feeding people with the appetites of teenaged boys).
Even if I go out and buy a chest freezer (which I have been contemplating, but that brings up my lack of space again...plus I use the chest freezer at my parents' house to store the majority of my rodents and keep a small supply in my house, going over to their house to get more when I run low), they are rather inexpensive these days and would pretty much pay for itself in a few years by holding my bulk frozen feeders.
