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Frozen Feeders and Size

Gemini8910

Gemini8910

New member
Hi! :) So after feeding Lorenzo a live pinky, I decided to go frozen from now on (it's a long story, there's another thread on that one). I looked into online stuff but you have to buy A LOT of mice for it to be worth the shipping, and it'll go bad waaayyyy before he eats it all. It turns out the best deal is actually Petco on pinkies. :shrug: I haven't gone and looked yet but got prices over the phone. They have a three pack they said was $2-3 (I couldn't hear that well on the phone and missed the exact number). At the high end that's $1 per pinky. I know that's really expensive but the best I can do. :/ I have no idea if they have other sized mice too, so I have to figure something out when he out grows pinkies. As usual, I have questions! :grin01:

1. About how long will it take for Lorenzo to out grow pinkies? I don't want to buy too many and waste them.

2. How long can I store them in my freezer? I've heard a lot of different numbers. I'm pretty sure my mom owns a vacuum sealer, so that's helpful.

Thanks! :)
 
I'd say get at least 3 of the 3-packs. They will last long enough in the freezer as he'll be eating every 5-6 days at this point and once a pink leaves a smaller feeding lump you'll be moving on to 2 pinks anyway
 
I just wanted to add a little side note. Make sure You are the one picking out the bags of pinkies. Because they are in bags you cant see thru, Feel the size. Sometimes what they call pinkies are quite large and once in awhile too large for a hatchling.

Not sure about the Petco there but the one here Does carry many different sizes :)
 
I would buy less at a time but it saves gas money going to the store all the time. :p

Thanks for the all the advice! :) When should I move to the next size above pinkies do you think? I don't think feeding more than 3 or 4 pinkies at once makes sense. :p When the lump from 2 pinkies is really small?
 
In that case, get about 6 packs to save gas. You won't waste them, because they will slightly vary in size so you can use them in an insanely obsessive way if you are like I was with my first babies...... Weigh your snake before the first feeding of every month. Chart the weight against 'The Munson Plan'. Weigh your pinks and keep them in labelled ziplock bags according to their size.......
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118271&highlight=munson
The plan is a pretty good basis for learning what size prey for a new owner. Over time you'll just get used to learning to judge by eye and by how fast your snake digests its food. A lot of people feel the adult feeding regime on the plan is a little heavy, but for babies it's pretty well spot on
 
Wow that's a really helpful chart! :D I have to see if I have a proper scale though. If not, I'll add it to the list of necessary expenses. :p And I have no idea my snakes gender, I'll have to come up with a better feeding plan when he gets that big. :shrug:
 
the line about the different sized pinks in the same pack is quite true. my girl put on a lot of weight in a month. I'd recommend looking into expos in your area. they usually charge admission and there will be a gas cost, but if you're paying $1/pink now you could save a whole heap of money by buying in bulk at ~18 cents/pink. I have a hatchling too and I'm working her through a bag of 50 that I expect to finish by March/April, when she'll move to fuzzies. hope this helps.
 
My mom is so against those it's stupid. "blah blah blah I'm not paying stupid admission to buy a product blah." >_> That's where I wanted to get my snake too, at an expo. >_> Nope. >_>
 
Also yes, gas, and parking. My brother is going on about math and marginal savings and if the power goes out we lose all the pinkies we bought in bulk. >_>

Some actual, exact math would be VERY HELPFUL. You say it's a huge savings, I would appreciate an actual value since aparently "I don't know anything". >_>
 
I know that at our local Petco the 3 pack of pinky mice was $4.49 about the time I stopped going there. The next sizes up were about .75 to $1 more. Buying online, my orders are $100, give or take a little and depending on the sizes I got, were around 150 to 200 mice. Of course with online, the shipping is so expensive that it only is cheaper if you have at least five or more snakes to feed or someone to split the order with. I can't remember exactly how much we paid but the last time we bought mice it was from an Expo and we got around 150 mice for somewhere around $60 to $70. Vacuum packed, mice can last up to a year in the freezer, so if you make a decent guess about the sizes your snake will need, you can buy a year's supply at one expo and just vacuum seal the bigger sizes until needed.
 
i'll give the actual costs of my Armand's food since the beginning.
I bought 14 pinkies of various sizes at about 1$/pinkie in new york city. if i had bought 50, the overall cost would have been ~$50.
The expo, all told, cost me close to that amount, what with public transport being $7-10 each way ($14-20), $10 admission, and a bag of 50 pinks for $14, or $0.28/pinkie. I imagine that a car could make transportation cheaper depending on your distance to the expo and the parking costs.
I prefer to buy at expos despite all of that for the experience as I do plan to purchase more animals as soon as I have the space. Tavia is right though, in saying that bulk shipping is only worth it for multiple animals. You may just have to buy from the petstore for now, since I doubt your mother wants the extra animals that would make a bulk order more worthwhile. :p
 
Why not breed a pair of mice, just one pair would feed a single baby just fine, freeze the whole litter and there you go. It's really easy. Sorry if I missed it somewhere that raising your own isn't an option.
 
Hi Gemini - I just looked at my order and after shipping (I ordered a bunch of different sizes) my pinkies came out to .25 each. You might not get that good a price buying a smaller lot, plus shipping will hurt on a small lot.

So a show I guess would be your best bet. Tell you mom, to drop you off, so she doesn't have to pay to go in, promise you won't buy any more snakes/reptiles. Agree on a meeting time, or call her when you are ready to go. Look at everything there. Ohhh and ahhh. Enjoy yourself. Have fun. Window shop and find the best deal on pinkies you can. Have a lunch box cooler with you with a cold pack,and see if the dealer will hold them till you are ready to leave. Check at the vendors that are close to where you live. See if they will sell you smaller lots from their large orders. If so, you've just made it worth the money to go to the show. Oh, and have fun!
 
I'm not comfortable with breeding my own mice. :/ I don't really want to go through all that work of maintaining two mice, and I don't think I could slaughter all those babies. D: I'm cool with it when they're already dead, but I'd rather not kill it myself. :( I fed a live pinky to Lorenzo once, and never again. If it doesn't die quickly it squeaks all the way down his stomach. D:

Yeah I want to go to the September show! :D My mom was like "You just want to go to the show don't you? -.-" I tried to say it was just for the mice but she wouldn't believe me. XD She probably won't let me go by myself though, I'd take my brother along. :p I'm definitely not coming home with any more pets. XD One is enough! ;)
 
I can understand that, it took me a while to get desensitized to it, with my own mice though I know my snakes are getting healthy and well taken care of food. Healthy happy mice make healthy happy snakes. Of course I'm sure I'm not the only one breeding healthy mice, buying frozen just works better for some people, everyone's different.
 
Yeah it depends on the person. Plus, I barely convinced my parents to let me get the snake, I doubt they'd agree to mice. XD
 
i know this is a pretty silly question but my son just got his corn he was so excited about it. but this morning he comes to me and said he couldnt fine his snake. i have looked every where does any one have any suggestions on where i should look to find it
 
Um this thread isn't exactly the place to ask that question. :shrug: Did you check all the hides? Was the lid unlocked or partially open? I'd check for any little gap in the cage that he couldn't gotten out of. Check under the substrate too, maybe he's just hiding in a burrow. :p When I first brought my corn home that's where he went, underneath the bedding. :p
 
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