Where do I get Frozen food for my snake?

[DJFyrewolf36]

Its time to feed Mr. Salazar...and I can't find a decient place that sells frozen pinkies! The places I found all want people to buy in lots of 100 or more and I would do that if I had to but for one snake I thought that was a bit much. He is already used to frozen food (at least thats what the breeder I got him from says) unfortuneatly I got him from a guy from California and he didn't leave any contact information. Anyone know of a good place to buy frozen rodents? Thanks

[micki76]

Petco? Petsmart? Our Petco here sells them.

[Queen of Poop]

We get ours at Petland.

[CathyBogart]

Call around to local pet stores if you haven't already, a surprising number have frozen feeders.

http://www.lllreptile.com
http://www.bigcheeserodents.com/
You can order bags of 50 from these folks...not MUCH better, I know, but it's something....and LLLReptile has FANTASTIC customer service.

Hrm...I really wish I could be more helpful on this one, but most of the places I'm finding sell them in bulk. :(

[DJFyrewolf36]

Thats my biggest problem, and Ive noticed shipping is astronomical. Tomorow when I have the time, Im going to call some places in Reno(bout 30 mi away not too bad). None of the stores (we only have Petco and Petsmart where I live) sell feeder ANYTHING except for fish. Sigh, why sell the critters (petco has pythons) if you don't sell the food? :(

[wabbitwuver]

Around here they sell pinkies at Ruffin's for $1.09 I think!But I'm sure you don't live anywhere close. I think pinkies are better than live mice....much better!

[kingrattus]

DJFyrewolf36, u could do what I did. Its cheap & u get what u want. Safe, well fed snake food & u get pets aswekk.

Pick up 1 female mouse & 1 male mouse. Pick ones u like & get them at diff stores & make sure they r not related.

Allow the female to get pregnate (make sure they r adult mice too), once she is chubby, remove the male (pick up 2 small mouse cages, yard sales r best). Allow her to care for the young until they r the size u currently need. Get a margerine container & put some shavings in it to make it soft. Put the babies in it & put into the freezer. This is the ONLY safe humane way to make snake food, or in my case turtle food.

I did my breeding in a higher volume, personal feeders, sold to stores, many sizes, & sold & gave some to friends & little kids as pets. & if one got sick or died I replaced it for them for free or if the mouse wasn't cute anymore, I would switch the mouse for the kids. most parents got the mice for their kids to watch them have babies to learn about motherhood, then the family was returned to me & I gave thema new mouse to watch.

I bought & switched my breeders often. I would only breed a mouse a few times & retire her to a family or to the pet store that had a spot for my friendly mice for kids.

The mice paid for themselves & I taught several kids something special.

& yes I grew attached to several adults & kept them as pets. I retired them & put them with my pet Rat Mike. He babyed mice. I think I kept about 10 retired mice with Mike.

I spoiled all my mice rotten. They had those fun cages, where u can attach tubes & attach more then 1 cage. They had tones of toys, pleant of food & more then enough attention.

ALL mice were treated well, even the turtle food. I have respect for my food & same with my animals food.

[DJFyrewolf36]

Thank you Kingrattus! I would do that if I had the space, but with the cat and all the other zoo members here, breeding is kind of a pain right now. Lucky for me I found a really good mouse breeder who sells frozen mice as well as live feeders for a good price. And I don't have to go out of town either. Wish I lived near you, you'd have a regular customer :D

[molucass]

Actually, freezing live mice or rats to death is NOT humane, at all.. :(

Those poor meecers.

[wabbitwuver]

They freeze them to death!:eek: WHAT A SIN!

[wabbitwuver]

OH MY! Poor mice! Can't they just eat insects or whatever! I sure hope does this with rabbits, if they do....OH they're in for it!:mad: That's just terrible....sure they have to eat but GRR what a sin! Those little mice could have grown-up to be beautiful wonderful pets!

[kingrattus]

Thanks DJFyrewolf36. I don't breed rodents right now. I don't have any right now either. Long story. But my MIL/landloard told me no. So I have to spend $3.00 on a mouse I have no idea where its been or eaten.

So I've switch Axle's diet to Nutro's canned cat food & smelly can's of salmon.

Make sure this breeder feeds her mice good foods. Like lots of veggies & some meat, also GOOD cat or dog food for the mommies (not the cheap stuff) as an extra, it a good way to fatten them up & keep the mice full of vitimins & minerals, including the babies inside her tummy.

Go talk to a reptile vet to see if u can stuff the feeders full of pill vitamins & minerals, cause on just a mouse diet & not living in wild conditions, the reptile isn't getting everything.

Axle gets 1 human senior pill once a week. He was getting weak in his back legs, & now hes super strong & can walk 100% normal & not get tired after a few mins of walking.

DJFyrewolf36 also ignore the bad/poorer comments made by others. & just remember how our own meat is killed?? Very bloody, very painful & Very scared. Also every ones gotta eat meat, people are meat eaters & so are many of our pets :D

[micki76]

Originally posted by kingrattus
& just remember how our own meat is killed?? Very bloody, very painful & Very scared. Also every ones gotta eat meat, people are meat eaters & so are many of our pets :D

And nature's way really isn't any more pleasant. We all gotta eat, and get food some way.

Many animals inject their prey with a paralyzing agent and then eat the meal alive.

That's far more gruesome IMO, but just one of nature's ways.

[kingrattus]

micki76 don't forget how Hyena's (really bad spelling) eat, they eat their pray alive, screaming, fighting & terrifyed.

But I still have the option to do it a bit more humane. Its hard enough killing ananimal & theres no way I could beat it to death. & I cannot poison it of my pet would die too.

I do my best.

[wabbitwuver]

but freezing them to death is just plain wrong! We don't freeze chickens,cows,ect. to death! That would be mean! I do see how soem kill animals and it is HORRIBLE! Like meat rabbits I tell those peple to eat chicken because rabbits are pets no matter what breed!I am currently writing a story(it hasta be about an escape) about a meat rabbit and how everything is around her, she will escape....life.

[Desert Arabian]

Originally posted by kingrattus
& yes I grew attached to several adults & kept them as pets. I retired them & put them with my pet Rat Mike. He babyed mice. I think I kept about 10 retired mice with Mike.

That is EXTREMELY odd- 99% of the time mice housed with rats are killed by the rats.

My rat Punkin almost killed a chipmunk but luckily I got to the cage in time to let the chipmunk out before she killed it. She attacked the crap out of it though. :(

[kingrattus]

YellowLabLover, I know Rats would kill mice.

But I was stuck with this sweet mouse I had (I only had the mice for a short time at this point). He had the doo doo kicked outta him & then I put him in with the jumpers to allow him to heal & the jumpers ended up licking & chewing on his wounds making them worse.

I never named him, but I did try to bring him back to health, with polysporn. Then his eyes closed & the poor thingcouldn't see & I couldn't be around all day to hand feed him, I was still in High School.

I saw Mike Kill 5 adult mice in under 5 seconds, 1 chomp to each mouse killed it.

But I need something largeenough to cary the mouse around with out killing it.

So I thought it through & came up with this plan.

Mike would never bite me, not even for food. He was a human loving rat.

So I thought, well Why not make the mouse smell like me!!

SO I ran around & allowed myself to get sweaty & gross. & then rubbed the mouse all over me to get my sent on him.

He was thin enough to fit inside my closed hand. I took out Mike & held Mike tight with my other hand & let him sniff the mouse through my hand. He forced my hand opened but not in anagressive way. He then took the mouse & set him on the bed & started to flipthe mouse all over, sniffing him everywhere. Mike picked the mouse up & ran off my bed & into his cage & built the mouse a nest & babied him back to health.

Heres pics for proof. The right button isn't working so I had topaste the webpage & not just the photo.
http://jess.iahu.ca/modules.php?set_albumName=album67&id=mike_drinking&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php
http://jess.iahu.ca/modules.php?set_albumName=album67&id=mike_drinking2&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php
The tank was the temp cage, not the real cage they lived in. The black mouse is the injured one & the rest were retired mice. The black one no longer had his boys thanks to the other mice so there was no breeding worry. He was lucky he still had his penis, if it wasn't for Polysporn I'm sure he would have his penis, I'm sure it would have fallen off. 50% of of his fur was missing, some was pulled out & the rest fell out because of damaged skin. If it wasn't for the Polysporn & Mike, he would have died.

There r no small rodent Vets in the area I was from, not even in thenext town, so I was the vet. We didn't have the internet & the library selection was filled with books so old they were out dated, by 30 some years!!

[CathyBogart]

The company I get my frozen feeders from gasses them to kill them. The rodents fall asleep and never wake up, and it doesn't hurt the snake.

Wabbitwuver: Many reptile people have a very different view of "fuzzy" animals than the average "fuzzy" owner does. No matter which way you look at it, rabbits are prey animals. They are very intelligent and make wonderful, engaging pets. I've had many over the years, particularly when I was showing them with 4-H. I loved each of my rabbits dearly, and they were all spoiled little fuzzbutts, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to deny a predatory animal food just because I happen to like the species the prey is. (I'm an avid rat lover BTW :D)

HOWEVER....NO, the snakes cannot "Just eat insects or whatever". As any animal does, they have particular nutritional requirements that have to be met. Can your rabbits "Just eat lettuce or whatever"? I know mine couldn't. :)

Finding a source for frozen prey can be very difficult. Training some snakes to EAT frozen prey can be even more difficult. The fact that DJFyrewolf took the time to find a breeder who starts their babies out on frozen food (The most responsible way to do it IMHO) and is now seeking a source for frozen food is a WONDERFUL thing....too many reptile owners won't even try to train them off of live food.

[kingrattus]

Thank u WolfChan :)

We had a pet bunny once. It was my sisters but she got sick of it & my mom ended up caring for it, then my mom got sick of it & I said fine. Shes mine. I took her for walks with RB Max in the park. Max was there to protect her just incase a dog got loose & wanted to eat Zoe. RB Max was very protective of her when other dogs approached, he would stand over top of her & dare the other dog to make a move at her.

People thought she was a cat, cause its unheard of having pet rabbits & taking them for walks, same thing goes for Rats.



WolfChan what kind of gasses did they use?? I thought all gasses were bad because that gas would be digested by the reptile & it would either make them sick or kill them!! I asked lots of people how to kill feeder mice & most said to drown it. I did it once & will never do it again. It was horrible!!! I was so mad at the people who said it was painless for the mouse!!

& in school my bio teacher told me freezing would be the best way. The mouse would get so cold it would fall asleep & then it would pass away painless.

I was just doing my best & trying to do the most humane way to kill the mouse & still be able to use it as food.

But if the gas is as good as u say. I'll start that for next time.