Where to get mice?

[ConcinusMan]

Yeah, my vet said that according to fecal exam, one of my snakes needed Drontal Plus. Only thing is, that medication is prescription only and so I needed to bring the snake in person for an exam to the tune of $65. That's out of the question because it's not only too expensive but they can't treat garter snakes by law here. They will do fecal exams however, without seeing the animal so that's what I do.

Pancur does not require a prescription.(It's not effective against tape worms) Neither does either of the ingredients in Drontal plus. You can buy Pancur and the two drugs in Drontal Plus (one is for tapeworms, the other drug is for other worms) separately and they then do not require a prescription. Makes no sense does it?

So, my snakes do not see a vet and I still bought the drugs without prescription. All I have to do is weigh them in grams, do the math to calculate the dosage, then dose them myself. That's what quite a few snake keepers around here do. Seems to be working out just fine.

I know you're supposedly not supposed to dose them unnecessarily but I went ahead and dosed them all for tape worms and round worms without doing fecal exams on all of them. Some passed dead worms and they seem none the worse for wear and are doing fine. You can skip the vet, and buy the drugs yourself. You just have to be extra careful that you get them weighed accurately and get dosage correct. Correct dosages for various reptiles are found online.

Steve is right. If this is a wild snake or has been eating wild caught fresh amphibians or fish, chances are, the snake has internal parasites. Wild frogs and fish are intermediate hosts for a wide variety of parasites that target birds and reptiles as the final host. Tape worms seem to be the most harmful of them. They can live with other parasites and not seem ill at all but stress and confinement to captivity can tip the balance and then the parasites get out of hand and injure the overall health of the snakes. In the wild, these parasites act as health enforcers. Healthy animals can live with them for years but if the snake isn't in tip top health... well, you get the idea.

You don't want your snakes to have parasites. In the wild it's no biggie but you don't want that in captive snakes. You can still feed WC frogs to your snakes after they are treated for parasites but you must freeze the frogs at 0 degrees F or colder and leave them that way for at least 60 days. That will kill the parasite larvae which are inside the frogs.

[ConcinusMan]

Well yeah, I see the price your pet store charges for rodents and I'm like OMG!

I thought petco was outragous. Anyway, after some months of paying a lot I got to searching craigslist and found several people near me that raise rodents. I can get them cheaper than online and I don't have to buy hundreds. On top of that, they deliver to my house if I order $20 worth or more.

I have enough snakes to make having a pair or two of breeder mice worth while, but like others, I can't stand the way they smell. Doesn't matter how clean you keep the cage, they stink!

[kibakiba]

Yeah, paying 70-90 a month for about 20 pinkies is a bit much... But until I can get some sort of income myself from my products, I cant really get anything better.

[Enneirda.]

Steve, ConcinnusMan, thanks for the info. We do the same kind of thing with our dogs, normal wormers are way pricy! I'll look into getting some wormer and dosing her. =)

How do I worm her?

[ConcinusMan]

Yikes. I'd skip the mice at that price. You can keep your ordinoides and concinnus perfectly healthy without them. Maybe give it to them one rodent meal per month as a treat.

I kept a pair of concinnus for many years Chantel, they didn't eat a single rodent and they grew huge.

[Mommy2many]

Chantel, got any Petco's out there? My Petco here sells 3 pinkies for $5.00, which I think is outrageous. It still sounds better than what you are paying. The Petland I have here is the best at 6 for $5.00. It is on the otherside of town for me but worth the ride (in most cases).

[ConcinusMan]

If I recall correctly, she's in the boonies and has to travel quite a distance to go to an independent privately owned pet store. Being the only pet store around for many miles, they really stick it to you on the prices.

[Mommy2many]

Might be worth the investment then to order online and pay the shipping. Even if they have to sit in the freezer. Sounds like she has a pretty sizable group to warrant 100 pinkies. I went thru 100 pinkies in less than 2 months last year. My crew went nuts for them. So, if they sit in the freezer for 4-6 months, should be ok. Just be careful to repackage correctly.

[kibakiba]

Yeah, I live really far away from any pet stores and it costs a lot more to drive out that far since we take a bus. All of my snakes seem to prefer pinkies more than worms or fish. Snakey even goes as far as rejecting everything else but pinkies. He usually eats some worm or fish about once or twice a month with a pinky. Ember will also reject anything but pinkies unless I don't feed him for a week and a half. This month I wont have any money because I'm putting out a large order of lotion base and scents for that and some lotion bottles.

I have 7 snakes, and Mama will down 4 pinkies a week or more if I let her, so yeah, she eats the majority of the pinkies. All of them can eat them, except for Squirt and Thumbelina. That's about 10 pinkies a week, if I gave them nothing but pinkies.

[Mommy2many]

May be cost efficient to order then, online. At that rate, you would go thru 100 in about 2 1/2 months. No need to worry about freezer burn, if repackaged properly. Even if you go up to about 200, you would still see a savings.