Heads Up: Salmonella outbreak tied to PetSmart mice

I saw this on one of my newsfeeds for work (I'm a livestock journalist) and thought it was important for people here to be kept aware.


http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/i..._with_sal.html

Here's a better article, giving the source of the mice.

A small rat is $12.99 at my local PetSmart. I'm surprised they've ever sold one.

Originally Posted by Chip

A small rat is $12.99 at my local PetSmart. I'm surprised they've ever sold one.

Wow. I've never heard of prices being that high, even in canada! Is that live or frozen?

It's a single frozen packaged sm rat. I guess people think "It only cost $13 a week to feed my BP, that's not so bad."

$12.99 across the board....PetSmart has a strict policy of no live feeder mice sold to customers or offered to in-house livestock (= snakes and lizards for sale). I always loved peoples reactions when I'd inform them I couldn't sell them a live mouse, rat, gerbil, guniea pig for feeder purposes. Back to strict policy, it was 2008 and I was a Museum Naturalist curating a Nature Center. I remember walking into the local PetSmart, and the Pet Care Manager whom I had a great professional relationship with, heard I was in store and came up to me all excited because corporate was finally clearing stores to sell snakes. The strict no live policy was "loosened" so the company could start selling snakes. The policy, as I was originally told, was in place due to PetSmart not believing in selling animals as food for other animals; nevermind the thousands of feeder fish and insects though. :/

they are packaged as follows:
6 pinkie mice, 6 fuzzies, 6 small mice, 4 medium mice, 4 large mice, 2 small rats, 1 medium rat.

When I started in 2010 they were $9.99, when I resigned in Dec 2013 there was talk of another price jump coming on them, feeder fish, and live feeder insects.

Typically for $20 + shipping you can get a 100 count of pinkies from just about any frozen rodent supplier.

Originally Posted by HerpsOfNM

$12.99 across the board. they are packaged as follows: 6 pinkie mice, 6 fuzzies, 6 small mice, 4 medium mice, 4 large mice, 2 small rats, 1 medium rat.

Typically for $20 + shipping you can get a 100 count of pinkies from just about any frozen rodent supplier.

And "across the board" also applies to most pet shops and feed stores. I just paid $13 for 6 pinkies the other day from our local feed store. That was okay when it was one snake, for 5 or 6 who were eating all the way up to XL mice I would be in the poorhouse. Amen for suppliers and living near other corn owners to share shipping expenses!

Originally Posted by smigon

And "across the board" also applies to most pet shops and feed stores. I just paid $13 for 6 pinkies the other day from our local feed store. That was okay when it was one snake, for 5 or 6 who were eating all the way up to XL mice I would be in the poorhouse. Amen for suppliers and living near other corn owners to share shipping expenses!

Yup, local mom & pop type store charged $1.49 for pinks IIRC. I'd get the rest of my feeders from petsmart due to my employee discount. The fact that I maintained an accurate inventory within our pet care dept also equated to a constant, assumingly fresh supply of feeders and pets so long as the vendors had stock.

Even then, it wasn't cheap though.

Let's put numbers to it, based upon petsmart's pricing and what we as a community know WE can get the mice for from a supplier (let's use Rodent Pro as an example). Keep in mind, this pricing isn't whatever deal Reptile Industries gets for outsourcing frozen rodents (per the article). This is a comparison of petsmarts pricing ($12.99 per box) against Rodent Pro's current pricing (orders under 500) to show what you the consumer pay. This does not factor in shipping, discounts, and all those other fun business degree equations. Oh, and revenue per unit is calculated using the rodents per box I listed in post #6.

Also keep in mind, what I know as a medium mouse, the petsmart box has as a small adult. What I know as a small adult, the box has as a hopper. What I know to be a large mouse, the box has a standard adult. Small rat, more like a weanling rat. Medium rat is more like a small rat. I adjusted pricing to reflect such. It's rather a joke on the sizing and frankly a ripoff.

Originally Posted by Nanci

Here's a better article, giving the source of the mice.

Thank you for giving the source. I don't have much of a loyalty (=I needed a paycheck) to PetSmart any longer, but one thing that always p***ed me off was we'd get the beating if we got crappy fish or reptiles in and not the vendor. Neither of those groups of animals went through any type of quarantine period before hitting the store sales floor. Only small animals (=rodents) and birds had a quarantine and that was 3 days for rodents and 5 days for birds.

Oh the stories I could give of the condition some of the reptiles we received from some of the large, well-known names in the industry and the crap I'd get for the vet bills my store would have at times.

These crazy prices of feeders and knowing the condition they are kept in are a couple of the many reasons I breed my own.