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Ordering Snake Snacks online commentary.

Posted By:

iashia

Well, I feel professional. (not really, actually i feel broke)

i ordered my first shipment of rodents online at rodentpro.com

i checked out bigcheeserodents, but i got a quote from them, adn it was like $40 more than rodentpro. i spent a grip on them too. like $150 (and im okay with sharing this, because i dont care really)

i got 100 small mouse pinks
50 mouse weanlings
and 50 medium rats.

that should last my brood all year (hopefully, because shipment was a pain in my backside) all in all, i think it was a pretty good deal, concidering where i used to buy my snake food, it was like $3.50 ea rat, now multiply that by 50 students and tell me what an idiot i am. pinks (in my old store) were .99 ea and small mice were 1.50 ea. again, what a sucker i was.

anyone else have any stories about ordering snake food? any helpful tips on how to prevent freezer burn for a year? bad stories about rodentpro? (dont tell me til after they get here so i wont worry) goo stories about bigcheese?

share with me =)


Points:	50
Topics:	Feeding
Tags:	Feeding, Food, Mice, Rats
Administrative:	Show/Hide

Member Comment

9/10/2009 4:42:54 PM

BuddyB

I use rodent pro. I have never had any problems. The UPS guy dropped a shipment off and left it in the sun a few summers ago. When I discovered the order it was completely thawed!!
I called rodent pro explained what had happened, the new order shipped the following week...with out any addtional cost to me.

Buddy B

Member Comment

9/10/2009 5:15:23 PM

Floof

I personally prefer The Mouse Factory. Great service, great quality, good cost (unless you're ordering super-bulk)... I've only ordered from Rodentpro once, and didn't love it. Of course, I'd been "spoiled" by TMF's amazing packaging. TMF (not sure if Big cheese does, but they might) vacuum packs their bags. Rodentpro doesn't, which resulted in 5 (out of 100) headless pinkies in my order. The smaller companies (TMF included) also pack in smaller quantities.. 50 pinks per bag rather than 100, for example. Just a warning... Your corns will grow out of their pinkies before you're done with them. I did about the same thing with my first corn (only, it was a 50-count bag of pinks), and ended up doubling and tripling up toward the end just to use up the pinks before we ordered her some fuzzies. By that time, she was small for her age due to the "conservative" feedings (couldn't and wouldn't take more than 2 or 3 pinks per sitting), and she was almost up to hoppers. If it's not too late, changing your order to include some fuzzies and hoppers would be a good idea. Otherwise, traveling to your next local (or semi-local, as the case may be) expo or ordering from a smaller company for a small order of Fuzzies, Hoppers, and Weanlings would be a good idea. Of course, don't feel too bad about having extra pinkies.. They ALWAYS come in handy. Especially for the "impulse" buys!! =)

Member Comment

9/10/2009 6:10:19 PM

dalvers63

To keep the the freshest, get or borrow a vacuum packer. Pack them in convenient size packages, maybe enough for one month of feeding (though I feed enough animals that I'll often make weekly packs). That way, you can keep the majority vaccum packed and only open a bag that will have enough for a month. Less chance of freezer burn this way. If you happen to have a chest freezer, this will help too as it keeps the rodents from thawing a bit and then freezing again.

Member Comment

9/10/2009 7:27:30 PM

plausibledenial

Big Cheese does vacuum pack their bags as well when you order them (re: Floof's comment), and I've always been very happy with the quality of the snake snacks I pick up from them. :)

I definitely second getting some sort of vacuum sealing action when you bring them home, I ended up chunking some of mine in the beginning because they were beginning to get freezer burnt before the snakes could finish them. I use the Reynolds Handi-Vac Vacuum bags - cheaper than an actual sealing unit, but still seems to work pretty well.

Author Comment

9/10/2009 8:37:15 PM

iashia

huh, im not sure if i could change my order. it might be too late, ill email them or something. the pinks only come in 100 bags, and only cost 12 dollars. that, and i have 2 baby corns and 2 other babies that could knock back a few a week. i also ordered weanlings, probably enough that i could move them up so they wont be taking in a bunch at a time, ill just mix and match when they outgrow just pinks. like 2 pinks and a weanling, or, it if comes to it, my ball python will eat like 30 of them at a time (i had a friend that wanted to get rid of some a while back) man, that fat butt loves those pinks, he flips around tho, like hes got a problem, because theyre so small. theyre like mickey d's slammers for him, lol

Assisted Answer

9/10/2009 9:27:54 PM

Floof

Oh yeah, I forgot the vacuum thing. I ended up getting a Foodsaver when I got my first snake a couple years ago (my mom had been WAITING for an excuse to get one... Lol), but the Handi-vac types have since come out... There's a ziploc one, too. They're definitely a wonderful idea... I'm not good about keeping stuff shut and vacuumed, and I've had handfuls of pinkies begin getting freezerburnt after a week if I don't seal them up and a bag of fuzzies that has begun to get freezerburnt because I haven't fed them off fast enough since I opened them a few months ago.

Oh! My bad... I didn't realize you had more than just the corns feeding on pinks. Anyway, Weanlings are about three steps up from pinks. Jumping straight from pinks to weanlings is dangerous (if not impossible), since the snake would be eating at least half a dozen pinks at a time before they were ready. The sizes go Pinkie, Fuzzy, Hopper, then Weanling... Pinkies average 1-3 grams, and Weanlings are 15-20 grams.

This feeding guide, the Munson Plan, is a pretty accurate and good estimate of what your corn snake should be eating and at what size.

"-When they're on single pinks (2-3g), I feed every 5-6 days. (Snake = 4-15g)
-Double pinks (3g x 2) every 5-6 days. (Snake = 16-23g)
-Small fuzzies (5-7g) every 6-7 days. (Snake = 24-30g)
-Regular fuzzies (7-9g) every 6-7 days (Snake = 30-50g)
-Hoppers (9-12g) every 6-7 days (Snake = 51-90g)
-Weaned (14-20g) every 7 days (Snake = 91-170g)
-Adult (20-30g) every 7-x days (Snake = 170+) See below.

Note: Adult females are fed more frequently than adult males (especially following brumation). Adult females are fed every 7-12 days; adult males are fed every 11-14 days.

This is by no means scientific, and not all corns will cooperate 100% with the schedule. The weight ranges I gave for the prey and snakes are approximate."

Author Comment

9/10/2009 9:37:54 PM

iashia

why, thank you =) right now, im not going to feed them for a week, i want them to settle and be happy with no added stress, so no ones getting fed, lol, i dont wqant any drooling going on. i need to get a scale for them, i dont know the weight of any of my snakes (im probably going to get reemed a new one for that) what kind of scale shud i get? like a mail scale ( lol, male scale for snail mail)

Member Comment

9/10/2009 9:49:14 PM

Floof

There are plenty of people that go without weights.. I generally only weigh my corns, but I'll occasionally toss my boas on to see how much they've grown... Otherwise, I've weighed each of my (adult) BPs once and left it at that. Any gram scale that is large enough to hold the snake in a container (or the built-in bowl, if it has one) will work. You can get one at Walmart.. You should get one that can hold at least 2000 grams if you want to weigh your BPs (more, if you want to weigh your boas), but one with a 700 g limit will weigh all but the most huge-mongous corn snakes. A mail scale would probably work, too, but I wouldn't know. =P

Good call on letting the corns settle in first. Any snake should be given a week (or two, in some cases!) to settle in before being fed. =)

Accepted Answer

9/10/2009 10:46:48 PM

aaron

email casey@rodentpro.com and tell him Aaron from iHerp sent you.

I've used them almost exclusively for 6+ years, and I have no complaints.

Member Comment

9/11/2009 4:05:56 AM

shellboa

FYI, there is a rodent distributor using the name "Snake Snacks" not online but the whole name thing you know...

Member Comment

9/11/2009 9:07:14 AM

JohnJohn

Deb,

That's a great idea! Thanks.

I usually store a lot in my freezer. I never have any problem with the bigger mice and rats, but sometimes the pinkies get pretty "stale".

Author Comment

9/11/2009 10:00:18 AM

iashia

i never knoew that! ive been using the term snake snacks since i was little, lmfao! those sheaters. i dont wanna get charged with copyright infringement, so ill refrain from using that word, and thanks aaron =)

Author Comment

9/11/2009 10:02:46 AM

iashia

i didnt change the order (exclusivley because the shipping is so expensive) so ill do the vaccuum sealed weekly lunches or something. =)

Assisted Answer

9/11/2009 10:01:25 PM

Triangle Reptiles

I use RodentPro, Mice Direct and Big Cheese. I just shop them for the best price. RodentPro and Mice direct are usually cheaper than Big Cheese, but BC vacuum packs their animals. And I occasionally get up to Ft Worth and pick mine up directly. BC has great, really clean facilities. I am perfectly satisfied with all 3. I usually order about 1000-1200 mice of varying sizes with each order. Freezer burn hasn't been a problem for me, except for the occasional small pinkie, but the snakes don't seem to mind.

Author Comment

9/12/2009 2:38:39 AM

iashia

sweet to the ness =) they should be here before my moms wedding in the 18th

Member Comment

9/12/2009 5:37:35 PM

vonnick52

Iashia, there is a function on here in which you can award points to the people who best answer your question and close it out, that way the unanswered questions are still displayed. It's not very obvious and it took me a couple times to figure it out.

Author Comment

9/12/2009 5:48:24 PM

iashia

i know about it, lol i just dont lik using it, coz everyone posts and deserves points, but i hate speading them out.

Member Comment

10/25/2012 1:14:14 AM

Scottie

Any good kichen scale will work. I like the digital Starfrit one so you at tare the box first.

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