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Feeder question

D

dmayer5

New member
Unfortunately in my area the only types of mice I can purchase frozen are pinkies, fuzzies, and adult mice. And of course my two oldest are on the hopper/weaning stage mice. So right now I am spending $40 a month buying fuzzies because I have no other options in the area. I looked online and buying the hoppers would cost me about $20 for 50 of them but the shipping is $65!

So basically since I only have the three snakes would it be worth it to setup a small 10 gallon tank with 1 male mouse and two female mice to breed? Or in the end will it just end up costing me more than what it is worth?
 
It may end up costing you more than it is worth since it takes the mice several months to really get going. I think I had my mice for 4 months before I got babies consistently out of ONE female. The others cannibalized the babies or have never produced. I would order about 100 hoppers online and when your snakes get larger just feed them two hoppers till you are out and buy adults. If you can find someone locally who breeds mice that would be your best bet.
 
It might.....

I would do the math. One colony of mice takes a couple of months to produce steadily. After the initial cost of set up(tanks, bottles, ect... ), It should be cheaper than $20 bucks to maintain a month. The catch is time of maintence. For one tank, at the most it should take 5 mins a day, 20 mins on cleaning day. (Also figure in gas to and from the pet shop. For me it is 1/4 tank of gas, which gas is running $3.20 a gallon.)

You also must take in a count for the smell. Mice stink, Rats stink, and Asf have there own smell. Now how many colonies do you need? For 3 snakes I would suggest a 2-3 colonies and here is why. Not all colonies will produce all the time and often you get issues like cannibalism that effect production. You can always scale back if they are producing to much. It takes longer to get them producing when you need more. Always have a few for back up stuck in the freezer, for those time your rodents are not producing. (Also you need to have the stomach for euthanizing them.)

I personally just re-did all my colonies. It takes about 20 mins a day and 2 hours on the weekend for cleaning and maintaining. And I have a shed which the mice live in, on the other side of the property. It would take myself almost 1/4 take of gas to go to the nearest pet shop(and back). Not to mention the amount of mice I would have to buy at almost 3 bucks a pop. (21 adults 47 hatchlings and 11 subadults...)

Good luck either way you choose and I hope the info helped.
 
What you could do is just buy the adult mice and chop 'em in half.

IMO, mice are not worth breeding unless you plan to breed A LOT and sell the extra. They smell, they're noisy, they're stupid, they escape... just ugh!
You COULD try rats, as they're a lot better about it, but again, it may not be worth it for you.

ASFs I don't recommend period.
 
Everyone always says ASFs are so bad, but all the ones that I have worked with are just as tame as any pet rodent I've ever had. :/ You just have to get ones from a line bred to be friendly. However, I wouldn't breed them for corns. I feed them to my ball python and he loves them.
 
ASFs are hard to come by, and friendly ones are especially rare. The only place I even know of where to get them is from Kathy.
 
Not sure what ASF is, assuming a type of rat?

Anyhow, it's not recommended to feed corns rats b/c of the fat content from what I have gathered here.
 
African Soft Furred rat.


Most people here have, from what I understand, never bothered to feed rats on a schedule for more than a few feedings. All I feed is rats, and when I had corns, my two girls got a good deal of a muscle increase, and then had growth spurts and continued growing rather fast.

It also depends on what you feed. Feed a lot of cheap cat or dog food that's not really any good? You're definitely going to have a fatty feeder. Stuff like that.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone. I ended going to the reptile store near my work, evidently is a lot closer than I thought, and they carry weaned alive/frozen mice for $1 each So I think 9 mile drive once every six weeks or so is manageable! The owner is also interested in me making a website for them looks like I might be getting some freebies ;-P
 
If you opt not to go with breeding your own feeders, check out Layne Labs. They breed feeders for zoos & such. Their quality is much better than Rodent Pro, IMO, & they're in CA, so shipping is not going to be much for you. It's fairly cheap for me, being in WA state.
I have three colonies, & they can be a hassle. A couple weeks back, two of the colonies killed the males, out of the blue, they had been doing fine for a few months prior. I'm having to rebuild from another colony. I've had to cull cannibalistic females, until the colony seemed to be working perfectly together.
I started my colonies because I wanted the brand new pinkies when I had new hatchlings.
At some point, after I buy my house, I hope to turn one of the sheds into a rodent shed, & have a lot more breeders.
Buzz is right, they do smell, so you will need to deal with that if you go that route.

There are pros to having your own feeder colonies. It does cut down on the food bill, (I have my own feeder breeders, & I also order from Layne Labs, but I don't have to order as much, with my colonies.)
 
Thanks nwheather! They are actually pretty reasonable. 100 sm mice will only $80. That would last me almost a year between the two older ones!
 
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