# How much does it cost to feed your snake every week?



## spilota_variegata (Mar 8, 2008)

I was feeding my snakes today and wondered what sort of money does it cost to feed them every week. I don't have a really large collection but today I fed my snakes:

1 x 1.5kg rabbit
7 x large rats
4 x fuzzy rats
8 x adult mice
8 x sub adult rats

Not sure about the cost but I would guestimate around 50 dollars or so. Does this seem an excessive amount to spend on reptiles a week? BTW, my other animals; dogs, cats, chickens, fish, birds, etc. cost a lot more than that


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## MatE (Mar 8, 2008)

I go through a bag of rat cubes every 2-3 weeks and feed 14 pythons.The snakes get fed every 2 or so weeks.


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## itbites (Mar 8, 2008)

*No sounds about right  and some people who go to expensive petshops would pay even more than that LOL MatE i'm curious what are rat cubes exactly? something for their evening cocktails perhaps LOL*


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## Chris89 (Mar 8, 2008)

At the moment I'm getting mice/rats through the pet shop.

The prices that I can think of:

Weaner Rats x 3 = $15.00
Weaner Mice x 10 = $20.00
Fuzzie Mice x 10 = $17.00
Pinkie Mice x 10 = $15.00 

I'll roughly guess how long that'd last

Adult Stimson Pythons - 1 Weaner Rat every 2 weeks, so I always have one left over. 

Murray Darling Carpet Python and 2 Bredli - 1 - 2 Weaner Mice per week.

Small Bredli - 1 sometimes 2 Fuzzie Mice per week. 

Womas - 1 - 2 Fuzzie Mice (each) per week.

Prices:

Stimson Pythons = $10.00 per 2 weeks. 
Murray Darling Carpet Python = $4.00 per week
2 x Bredli = $8.00 per week
1 x Bredli = $3.00 per week
2 x Woma = $6.80 per week

So all up that = $31.80 per week at a rough guess. 

We're going to start breeding our own mice/rats so we can manage the sizes of the mice/rats for certain snakes.


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## W.T.BUY (Mar 8, 2008)

if u breed ur own food u will save ALOT


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## Chris89 (Mar 8, 2008)

Money isn't the issue, it's just that you can't see the size of the rodents when you buy them. For an example, they title will say "fuzzie mice" however they look more like they're "pinkie mice" so that's one advantage of breeding your own rodents, you can kill them off at certain sizes for your snakes, as mine are all range from hatchlings, to yearlings and adults.


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## LJ77 (Mar 8, 2008)

I pay for $ 1.50 an adult mouse and $2 for a small rat for my spotted and he gets 3 every 2 weeks , I use pay up to $5 per adult mouse untill I foud out that all the pet shop in the east of Melb are complte scum bags and rip you off now I go to hoppers crossing or altona medows , where good price and people who know what there talking about. My baby coastal is on pinkie mice which is only a doller each .


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## bubbaloush (Mar 9, 2008)

Chris89 we always see the size of the mouse/rat/rabbit/g pig before buying

Atm we have some mice outside breeding in a tank but thats more so for our smaller pythons and wont be saving any money until they actually have the babies

But it costs around $30 a week to feed our pythons, we buy ours from reptile city and i think their prices are good compared to where i used to buy them 

Atm we buy:
one large rat or rabbit
two to three medium to large guinea pigs or rats depending what is instock
around ten adult mice
two weaner mice
and two to three pinkie mice
And normally some extras 

But this is just an estimate as normally damien or our friend gets them and i'm too busy checking out their pythons or talkin lol


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## MoreliaMatt (Mar 9, 2008)

my rat bill usually comes in around $60 and lasts a month - 6 weeks.... thats feeding 6 snakes..... so approx $10 - $15 a week.


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## eladidare (Mar 9, 2008)

140 bucks every 10-14 days.


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## andyscott (Mar 9, 2008)

Yeah Eladidare, but you have to feed your pythons whole sheep lol.
I pay about $40 a week for my BHPs and I get rabbits for free off my neighbor.


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## mysnakesau (Mar 9, 2008)

I feed my girls weekly & boys fortnightly.
I usually need 1 500g rat or guinea pig - fortnightly
4 medium/large rats - weekly
450g guinea pig - weekly
2 small to medium rats - fortnightly
Small and medium crix

So my bill is probably $30-$40 a fortnight. But I will have 13 hatchy port macs to start feeding soon, too


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## Tatelina (Mar 9, 2008)

Does this include the cost of an additional freezer to store everything? 

I'd say about $45 a feed atm. But that's only the snakes.


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## jessb (Mar 9, 2008)

Chris89 said:


> At the moment I'm getting mice/rats through the pet shop.
> 
> The prices that I can think of:
> 
> ...


 
Seems VERY expensive! :shock: We get a bag of 10 pinky mice for $5 and bag of fuzzies for $6 from Pat on APS. He is kindly very happy to accept my tiny orders of one bag at a time!!!! :? Fingers crossed our collection will be increasing soon so I can start ordering bigger quantities from him!


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## denno (Mar 9, 2008)

W.T.BUY said:


> if u breed ur own food u will save ALOT


yes breed ya own ya will save heaps and ya get the size ya need not like frozen from pet shop my bill is a bag of mice/rat food and thats it plus i breed me own woodies for me dragons so works out very cost effective


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## MatE (Mar 9, 2008)

itbites said:


> *No sounds about right  and some people who go to expensive petshops would pay even more than that LOL MatE i'm curious what are rat cubes exactly? something for their evening cocktails perhaps LOL*


This is the stuff i use for my rats.
http://www.agriproducts.com.au/agri/lifestyle_rat_and_mouse.html
And by the look of it it cost far less to breed your own but saying that you do need the room to do it.


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## Renagade (Mar 9, 2008)

how much are you all paying for rabbits?


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## Magpie (Mar 9, 2008)

I reckon I spend about $300 a year on snake food.
Probably around $1200 on lizard food.
You can't work it out by weeks IMO as they don't eat for 3-4 months a year, some weeks everything gets fed, some weeks only the babies, some weeks only the girls.


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## spilota_variegata (Mar 9, 2008)

Renagade said:


> how much are you all paying for rabbits?



I only get them occassionally - for free. I usually feed my big carpet rats but if I can get something larger, I'll feed him that.


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## eladidare (Mar 9, 2008)

i wouldnt mind some bandicoots...


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## Chris89 (Mar 9, 2008)

I get the "Pisces" rodents from the pet shop, as I don't have anywhere else to get them from at the moment, and yes they're over priced - but a snake has got to eat.

I've tryed finidng someone around the Brisbane/Area who sells bulk rodents etc, but haven't had much luck.


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## kakariki (Mar 9, 2008)

I tried ours with day old chicks last week. They seemed to take longer to digest and the snakes didn't want their mid week snack as usual. We now have a broody chook sitting on 11 eggs. Our Bredlis didn't hesitate to take the chicks but Calliope took a while finding which end to start on!!


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## meshe1969 (Mar 9, 2008)

Chris89 said:


> I get the "Pisces" rodents from the pet shop, as I don't have anywhere else to get them from at the moment, and yes they're over priced - but a snake has got to eat.
> 
> I've tryed finidng someone around the Brisbane/Area who sells bulk rodents etc, but haven't had much luck.




I was talking to the guys from Animal Attraction this morning about how they ship frozen mice/rats Australia wide, may be worth you contacting them:

http://www.animalattraction.com.au/Intro3.html

Oh and they breed a lot of there own mice/rats.


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## stencorp69 (Mar 9, 2008)

1500 day old chicks cost about $40 to buy and then about that again to run the freezer a year - do so about $80 inc for 15 pythons a year


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## froglet (Mar 9, 2008)

i'm buying roughly 7 weaner rats a week 
so all up im spending just over $18
plus the gecko food which is about $6 per week


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