poll:Breeder or Buyer

hello I love all my snakes so I except the husbandry responsability of feeding my pets and they are just that my pets to care for.My issue is skyrocketing rodent costs,and believe me IM not bagging on breeders cause I know costs have went up recently for feed,gas, etc... Well so that is why I breed my own rats,but I still do buy my share still here and there to support local trade.
Was just curiose how many people actually sacrafice and put up with the extra smells here and there to save money or just the plain hastle of finding qaulity food for your babies hehe. the tinman

I breed all of my own rodents now, though before a friend decided to get out of the business, I bought all of my rodents from him. When he quit, well....I figured I had to take over, lol.

I could never breed as many as I need if I didn't have a place outside to do it though, we used to raise some in the house, and just couldn't deal with the odor. It cost plenty to get everything set up for them, but in the longrun, I feel much better having them here. And I know exactly what my rodents are eating, and know that they will be healthy for my snakes.

I really don't think the animal prices of any of the major rodent dealers are out of line at all, and I've had great quality rodents when I have ordered from Big Cheese, but the cost of shipping them has gone up so much (which is obviously out of their control), I just can't see paying what it would take to feed a good sized collection on ordered rodents alone. I still do order any mice I need from them (I don't like raising mice, lol).....but I don't go through very many mice, and make sure I order a good amount to maximize the cost of shipping vs. the number of rodents I get.

I order online and make it a large purchase each time to try and offset the shipping costs. The only place I have found that sends dirty, disgusting, unuseable rodents is Mice Direct. I would't use any of the feeders they sent. They did issue a refund for the feeders but I was out the shipping cost. IMO, they are one to avoid. Big Cheese and Rodent Pro are good.
I don't raise any here (smell, size of colony needed, etc) but ordering online is definitely cheaper than buying from a petstore.

I breed most of my rodents but every now and then supplement with some. Unless you have all your balls trained to eat F/T (which is a chimera) you will always need live rodents, particularly if your plans are to breed your snakes as the neonates will take live first most of the time.

Due to limited space I am not able to keep a colony of rats to support the needs of my snakes. I buy them regularly. I do keep a small colony of gerbils and softfurs for my fussy eaters.

I'm with John. I buy what I need, which is most of my feeders, but I do have a colony or two for pinks when I need them.

I spend about $55-60 a month for live right now (1/3 of those snakes are on PK & should be on FT soon), the rest are on FT.

Now when I've got a bunch of hatchlings... it'll get interesting again no doubt!

The only time I need a steady weekly supply of live is with hatchlings. In that situation, I have an arrangement where I order what I need. It's better IMO to pay a little extra for a few meals than to deal with raising my own.
I onyl have one live feeder left (thank God) and that is because she is a sporatic feeder (my female albino BP) so I do not push my luck and try to force her to switch. All the other live feeders have either been switched to f/t or were sold.

Well yesterday I placed an order from Rodentpro, have prices changed lately! It reinforced my idea of continuing to breed my own!

Regards,

well my 2006 female will not eat anything but live............... Went to my local pet store instead of my wholesaler and got charged 6.00 per rat........ my wholesaler only charges 2.00 whether it be large or pregnant. mice .50 jumbo mice.75 SOOO six bucks per rat kills me .I must say my breeders are just now starting to pay off.well like i said before I love my animals so I accept thier responsability but man if I can save a buck or two wwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.just kiddin I would really just half to give to my darn wife!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the tinman