Where do you get rodents from?

[Humble308]

I prefer Rodent Pro myself. I know their reputation is not highly regarded by alot of folks but they have provided clean rodents every time I've bought them.

I've tried Big Cheese twice and I was initially excited about them as I only live about 15 mins away from their facility, but I doubt I'll ever be using them again. In both cases when I opened up my bags the stench of urine was overwhelming. The rats were dirty as well and several had feces on their feet and fur. Not to mention local pickup is a major PITA mostly because of their odd business hours.

I had an order put together on Layne Labs and went to go check out only to find that shipping was around $70, which is ridiculous

RP seemed to be the only place that had everything I needed rodent wise as well as trying some quail.

All the best

[sattva]

Originally Posted by Humble308

I prefer Rodent Pro myself. I know their reputation is not highly regarded by alot of folks but they have provided clean rodents every time I've bought them.

I've tried Big Cheese twice and I was initially excited about them as I only live about 15 mins away from their facility, but I doubt I'll ever be using them again. In both cases when I opened up my bags the stench of urine was overwhelming. The rats were dirty as well and several had feces on their feet and fur. Not to mention local pickup is a major PITA mostly because of their odd business hours.

I had an order put together on Layne Labs and went to go check out only to find that shipping was around $70, which is ridiculous

RP seemed to be the only place that had everything I needed rodent wise as well as trying some quail.

All the best

I'm glad to hear some positive feedback... Ya I looked at Layne Labs and they wanted $45.oo for shipping and I only live a couple of hundred miles away... Come on! I guess I'll find out next week... As long as their clean and healthy I'll be happy...

[Piggybuns]

My first purchase on rodents was Rodent Pro. I had some dirt on my pinkies, which was kind of gross. After that I ordered from Perfect Prey because I heard nothing but good things about them, and their shipping was actually cheaper for me. So I only order from PP now. I take public transit and that + store price for rodents just isn't happening; I'd rather bulk order online and stock up my food that way.

I'll have to look into a few others mentioned in this thread so far. Big Cheese seems to be well received but for some reason I've never heard of them.

[Minkness]

I've tried to order from big cheese a few times but every time I go, they are lut of half of what I need. PP has never let me down and I love their vacuume sealee packaging.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Originally Posted by sattva

What do you mean when you said that you may have to trust Rodent Pro won't kill your snakes? Am I missing something here?

They've had reports of zoonotic outbreaks that killed snakes, so I'm just supremely paranoid about using them. Some people say it's fake but when the other facilities I use have no such allegations I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Originally Posted by Aayrick

I get mine a few at a time from a local store. Shipping them to Alaska through the suppliers others have mentioned is prohibitively expensive for me. Shipping is stupidly expensive when coming to Alaska. I looked into it, order itself was about $100.00, shipping was around $150.00.

I live in NC and that's about the average shipping cost I pay (except nearly double at Layne Labs). Then again I'm ordering for like 13 snakes. haha Not sure how much you're buying.

Originally Posted by Humble308

I prefer Rodent Pro myself. I know their reputation is not highly regarded by alot of folks but they have provided clean rodents every time I've bought them.

I've tried Big Cheese twice and I was initially excited about them as I only live about 15 mins away from their facility, but I doubt I'll ever be using them again. In both cases when I opened up my bags the stench of urine was overwhelming. The rats were dirty as well and several had feces on their feet and fur. Not to mention local pickup is a major PITA mostly because of their odd business hours.

I had an order put together on Layne Labs and went to go check out only to find that shipping was around $70, which is ridiculous

RP seemed to be the only place that had everything I needed rodent wise as well as trying some quail.

All the best

Yeah, variations in experience with companies seems to vary a lot from what I've seen....

I usually order from BC, but when I had to order rats BC was out so I used PP. The rats smelled heavily of urine and had feces on them, which I don't like too much but it's whatever. I just washed them off. After a few months the smell went away. I've never had even a whiff of urine or a drop of feces in my BC orders, but as others say they're out of rats A LOT and most of my snakes are on rats now that they've grown some.


I ended up ordering a small order of rodents from Perfect Prey because with the holidays coming up I won't have a chance until they start shipping again in January. Layne Labs is too expensive to justify, and Big Cheese is out of the things I need most: rats. We'll see how this order turns out!

[aaron_cg]

Searching for a local source would be your best bet. If there are local facebook groups for reptiles in your area, that's how I connected with my source.

Right now I have a small collection of 4 snakes, but I would estimate I spend $200 a year to feed all of them by buying in bulk from this guy.

Keep in mind that any online retailer will have big shipping cost due to having to overnight ship as well as having to pack ice-packs to insure your feeders don't defrost.

[aaron_cg]

Originally Posted by bigsnakegirl785

They've had reports of zoonotic outbreaks that killed snakes, so I'm just supremely paranoid about using them. Some people say it's fake but when the other facilities I use have no such allegations I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Right now the most common Zoonotic is Strep Zoo. Unfortunately its going around the shelters right now and there is no cure.

[NeverLift]

I stock up at the reptile expo, there are a few dealers but I always stick with the local guys who have been there the longest- komodo reptiles.
I've got it down to a science how much to buy. I used to run out have have to buy expensive feeder rats from the pet store, if they even had any available.

[Thatjanelady]

I just got mine from petco but I am only feeding one snake.

[serpentgirl123]

Originally Posted by Minkness

Why is rodent pro before perfect prey? Just curious. =)

No worries For me, it is mostly a shipping and sometimes a price cost thing. Nothing to do with the quality of their products. I have gotten excellent rodents from all of them. Rodentpro and Big Cheese are closer in shipping for me given where I live and tend to have more "deals." Also Perfect Prey tends to sell out faster on what I normally need (small, medium, and large rats).

[sattva]

Well... Bigsnakegirl got me reading... I guess you all pretty much know all this but it turns out that back in 2012 RodentPro learned that a portion of the mouse breeding colonies {around 20%} at one of its suppliers tested positive for Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis virus, known as LCMV. It never infected the rats or any of their other animals... Only 14 orders went out before they caught it... They eradicated their entire mouse population and started over... They seem to take care of the problem right away... So I'm not to worried... As far as the urine smell goes isn't that like chocolate on strawberries to them?

[cameronlyt]

Please do not use the online company Perfectprey! the products are horribly inconsistent in size and quality and the staff is extremely rude when you try to express your concerns. Do not waste your time or money because if you do get lucky and receive halfway decent feeders it takes a week to receive them. I am located in Florida as are they and about 2 hours away from their shipping location and after paying the ridiculous $17.50 for overnight delivery on December 14 it is now December 20 and i have not received my order. When i contacted them they said that while the website says it is next day that doesn't really mean next day. Do not post information on your websites shipping page if you know it is inaccurate. My order was placed before end of business day on Wednesday as per their policy i was told that i should have sent it out earlier in the day as if i am a mind reader! if there is a cut off time to order then post that information on your shipping policy page. To make things worse they decided to wait until the following Monday to even send it to fed ex instead of utilizing the 3 other normal delivery days that fed ex ships on. Anyone who has purchased frozen feeders know they are time sensitive and when you order them its for a reason, THIS IS MY PETS FOOD! not like i can run to the corner store and grab some and if i did have a local pet food store i really wouldn't have thought there was a need seeing how the website says it is next day. Maybe a courtesy email telling me that do to time constraints i would not receive my order for 6 days so i could cancel and purchase them elsewhere!

[bigsnakegirl785]

Originally Posted by cameronlyt

Please do not use the online company Perfectprey! the products are horribly inconsistent in size and quality and the staff is extremely rude when you try to express your concerns. Do not waste your time or money because if you do get lucky and receive halfway decent feeders it takes a week to receive them. I am located in Florida as are they and about 2 hours away from their shipping location and after paying the ridiculous $17.50 for overnight delivery on December 14 it is now December 20 and i have not received my order. When i contacted them they said that while the website says it is next day that doesn't really mean next day. Do not post information on your websites shipping page if you know it is inaccurate. My order was placed before end of business day on Wednesday as per their policy i was told that i should have sent it out earlier in the day as if i am a mind reader! if there is a cut off time to order then post that information on your shipping policy page. To make things worse they decided to wait until the following Monday to even send it to fed ex instead of utilizing the 3 other normal delivery days that fed ex ships on. Anyone who has purchased frozen feeders know they are time sensitive and when you order them its for a reason, THIS IS MY PETS FOOD! not like i can run to the corner store and grab some and if i did have a local pet food store i really wouldn't have thought there was a need seeing how the website says it is next day. Maybe a courtesy email telling me that do to time constraints i would not receive my order for 6 days so i could cancel and purchase them elsewhere!

1) $17.50 is actually ridiculously CHEAP for overnight shipping on dry ice. You're either only getting a handful of rodents or it's cheaper because you're in-state.

2) They ship Mondays and Tuesdays. If you ordered it last Wednesday they won't have shipped it until yesterday. They only ship orders on Mondays if the order was made by a certain time, just because you ordered it last Wed doesn't mean you're going to get it that Thursday or even Friday. If you're getting 2-3 day shipping times like me, expect the package to arrive this Wed or Thurs. Did you not get a Fedex tracking number in an e-mail?

THIS IS IN THEIR INFORMATION PAGE.

Shipping - Feeder Rodents: Frozen Feeder Rodents - PerfectPrey.com

"Our orders may require a one, two or three day transit time by FedEx, depending on the destination. For example, if your order is shipped out Monday with a 2 day transit time, it should arrive on Wednesday."

"To ensure that all packages arrive by Friday, we utilize the following shipping schedule:

3-Day Packages: Mondays only (for delivery Thursday)
2-Day Packages: Mondays and Tuesdays (for delivery Wednesday and Thursday, respectively)
1-Day Packages: Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays (for delivery Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, respectively)"

"To guarantee your order will go out on these days, it must be placed by 11:00 PM on Sunday. If it is received after this time, it is possible that it may still be shipped out that week, but it is not guaranteed."

The order has to be placed by that SUNDAY, not that Wednesday. So, when you ordered last Wednesday, that order was for next week. You would have had to have ordered your rodents by 11pm on Dec 11 to have gotten your rodents last week.

Your order is on time.

(I suppose if you had ordered last Monday or Tuesday you MAY have gotten it last week, but ordering the day of on their last shipping day doesn't give them time to process and ship out your order.)

[aaron_cg]

Originally Posted by cameronlyt

Please do not use the online company Perfectprey! the products are horribly inconsistent in size and quality and the staff is extremely rude when you try to express your concerns. Do not waste your time or money because if you do get lucky and receive halfway decent feeders it takes a week to receive them. I am located in Florida as are they and about 2 hours away from their shipping location and after paying the ridiculous $17.50 for overnight delivery on December 14 it is now December 20 and i have not received my order. When i contacted them they said that while the website says it is next day that doesn't really mean next day. Do not post information on your websites shipping page if you know it is inaccurate. My order was placed before end of business day on Wednesday as per their policy i was told that i should have sent it out earlier in the day as if i am a mind reader! if there is a cut off time to order then post that information on your shipping policy page. To make things worse they decided to wait until the following Monday to even send it to fed ex instead of utilizing the 3 other normal delivery days that fed ex ships on. Anyone who has purchased frozen feeders know they are time sensitive and when you order them its for a reason, THIS IS MY PETS FOOD! not like i can run to the corner store and grab some and if i did have a local pet food store i really wouldn't have thought there was a need seeing how the website says it is next day. Maybe a courtesy email telling me that do to time constraints i would not receive my order for 6 days so i could cancel and purchase them elsewhere!

First post and this is what you say? Seems a bit fishy to me.

[sattva]

Well I got my order today guys and I have to say I pretty happy... Their clean, with uniform sizes, well packed and frozen... If I had any complaint it would be it took 11 days to get it, but that could be the time of year... Either way if I know this ahead of time it's no big deal...