Rodent Pricing

[wokka]

It's crazy why anyone would haggle over frozen rats.... My lacies smash a heap of rats and so are not cheap to feed... If I don't want to pay to feed them, I have 3 options.. Pay or breed or don't keep my babies.... I don't have the time to stuff around with cleaning the rat tubs, feeding them, watering them, inspecting them to ensure healthy standards are being met... So I sling a breeder (more than) a few bucks to deal with all that crap and hand over (more than) a few rodents instead... Easy....

Sounds like you've sorted your priorities. It might be worth looking at our cull breeder rabbits. For feeding monitors I reckon they work out as pretty cheap whole food items.

 

[Norm]

So wokka, I have a small question. As I don't have a lot of freezer space I prefer to buy my rodents in smaller quantities more often. Would I be able to purchase say a packet each of weaner through to medium rats, that's 3 packets, or would I be told you don't cater for small orders and be directed to buy my rodent farm rodents from a pet shop?

 

[wokka]

I suppose you could,since our office is just up the road from you, but you are wasting the freight/admin packing. It is the same for 1 rat or 1000 so after 3 deliveries you'd pay for a secondhand tuckerbox, and then you keep on saving. Send me an email with a telephone number and i'll sort something out!

 

[The_Geeza]

+1, I totally agree with Jamie, even though I get Rodent Farm's Rodents from a pet shop, they are always wanted by my snakes, they dont smell (unlike another supplier I have used) and they look healthy.
Personally I would rather pay the extra for quality healthy rodents, to make happy and chappy snakes then spend a few dollars less and get cheap food (Not that Rodent Farm aren't cheap, the pet shop I get them from are expensive, lol)

Just my honest opinion!

Wally lol

 

[The_Geeza]

I suppose you could,since our office is just up the road from you, but you are wasting the freight/admin packing. It is the same for 1 rat or 1000 so after 3 deliveries you'd pay for a secondhand tuckerbox, and then you keep on saving. Send me an email with a telephone number and i'll sort something out!

Roughly how much in bucks us 20kgs rather than me write a list of different items... Just a rough price thanks ??

 

[wokka]

Roughly how much in bucks us 20kgs rather than me write a list of different items... Just a rough price thanks ??

20 kilos of jumbo rats is probably about $500; 20 kilos of mixed rats -the average order is about $800; 20 kilos of pink mice would be about $10,000, but i haven't done that yet!

 

[ronhalling]

I think anyone that has smelled the Packaged Rats that come from (can't mention name but is the fish sign in the zodiak) would jus buy Rodent Farm as a matter of course, as mentioned earlier can't see why peeps can't just band together and buy bulk if they don't want to breed them themselves, as well as saving money you are also buying piece of mind in knowing that wokka is 1 of us and as has been seen in numerous threads in this forum if you make a mistake a lot of peeps here will not let you forget it ..........................................Ron

 

[Bart70]

I got some of Wokka's rats recently......Damned things looked that good and fresh I am thinking about dipping a few by the tail in batter and throwing them in the deep fryer!

.........and when my wife returns from holidays and finds her freezer full of frozen rats.....That is exactly what she might do to them :|

 

[Stevo2]

Being quite new to the requirement of frozen rodents as food I'm curious to understand why we, in Australia, are paying up to 5 x the going rate in the US? (I'm primarily looking at pinky mice, I understand rats are a bit more 'competitive'). Are feed pricing and scales of production that different between the 2 Countries?

 

[wokka]

We have 10% of the population spread over a country about the same size but with far less reptiles. i would estimate our rodent market would not be 1% of the US by volume. Without getting to political we have free medical, maternity leave, workers comp etc. Basically the best living standards in the world come at a cost.

 

[Stevo2]

We have 10% of the population spread over a country about the same size but with far less reptiles. i would estimate our rodent market would not be 1% of the US by volume. Without getting to political we have free medical, maternity leave, workers comp etc. Basically the best living standards in the world come at a cost.

Im still not quite sure what any of that has to do with the per unit cost to produce rodents but thank you for your response.

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[wokka]

Without sufficient through put the costs are amatised over less units so the cost per unit is higher. Costs in Australia are higher as we maintain certain employment, welfare and environmental standards which other countries dont. Having said that I have seen jumbo rats in the US for for a dollar each. Here that would not cover our feed costs. Here rodent feed is priced as a boutique commodity because of the small quantities used. Compared to say poultry feed it is about double the cost for an equivalent protein level.

 

[Stevo2]

Without sufficient through put the costs are amatised over less units so the cost per unit is higher. Costs in Australia are higher as we maintain certain employment, welfare and environmental standards which other countries dont. Having said that I have seen jumbo rats in the US for for a dollar each. Here that would not cover our feed costs. Here rodent feed is priced as a boutique commodity because of the small quantities used. Compared to say poultry feed it is about double the cost for an equivalent protein level.

Cheers. That answered the next question I was pondering - which element of the production process costs the most as a percentage of output. Thanks again


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[champagne]

The cost of quality rodent food is the problem, even if you don't put a cost on your time if you actually work out the numbers it isn't much cheaper breeding your own rodents.

 

[andynic07]

Without sufficient through put the costs are amatised over less units so the cost per unit is higher. Costs in Australia are higher as we maintain certain employment, welfare and environmental standards which other countries dont. Having said that I have seen jumbo rats in the US for for a dollar each. Here that would not cover our feed costs. Here rodent feed is priced as a boutique commodity because of the small quantities used. Compared to say poultry feed it is about double the cost for an equivalent protein level.

A lot of people use horse feed and that is not much cheaper and certainly wouldn't be considered a boutique commodity.

 

[deebo]

Horse food and rodent cube are not much different in price. Roughly $1 per kg (give or take a bit).

 

[wokka]

Horse food and rodent cube are not much different in price. Roughly $1 per kg (give or take a bit).

Maybe thats why they get such rediculous prices for horses also.lol Seriously, hay in Austarlia is about $200 a tonne whereas rodent pellets are about 4 times that

Cheers. That answered the next question I was pondering - which element of the production process costs the most as a percentage of output. Thanks again


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I think employment costs are by far the biggest costs of rodent production in Australia!

A lot of people use horse feed and that is not much cheaper and certainly wouldn't be considered a boutique commodity.

Biomare horse pellets, which some people use for rodents, is boutique horse feed and far dearer than hay which is a staple food for horses.

 

[mungus]

The cost of quality rodent food is the problem, even if you don't put a cost on your time if you actually work out the numbers it isn't much cheaper breeding your own rodents.

You Kidding me.........:lol::lol:
At the moment im breeding my super mice for fuzzies and weaners etc for this seasons hatchies.
I put 3-4 females to 1 male per tub ( 12 tub's ) + 2 very large grow out tubs for weaners etc.
Cost per month for this set up is 1 bag of food and 1 bag of beding - $45 approx.......say $50 to be safe !
Im averaging 200+ fuzzies / weaners a month approx.
Takes me approx 1 hr on a friday night to clean etc ( while listening to footy on the radio )
Now you work it out if its worth breeding your own...........especially when u could be feeding 80-100 fuzzies / weaners a week..............
Its just weather or not your prepared to do it !
If not.........than you buy and buy at the prices the seller is advertising them for - simple.

 

[champagne]

You Kidding me.........:lol::lol:
At the moment im breeding my super mice for fuzzies and weaners etc for this seasons hatchies.
I put 3-4 females to 1 male per tub ( 12 tub's ) + 2 very large grow out tubs for weaners etc.
Cost per month for this set up is 1 bag of food and 1 bag of beding - $45 approx.......say $50 to be safe !
Im averaging 200+ fuzzies / weaners a month approx.
Takes me approx 1 hr on a friday night to clean etc ( while listening to footy on the radio )
Now you work it out if its worth breeding your own...........especially when u could be feeding 80-100 fuzzies / weaners a week..............
Its just weather or not your prepared to do it !
If not.........than you buy and buy at the prices the seller is advertising them for - simple.

Yeah I'm talking about rats and the take up more room then mice also even more room to grow out to a xl size so if you are feeding 100 adult rats a week you would be look at housing around 1000+ grow out rats plus breeders and babies.... Rodent business owners aren't rolling in profits I assure you.

 

[mungus]

Ok.......I'll leave it at that :lol:
But you will find that no breeder grows out rats to XL mate.
There ex. breeders that are no longer required.
Shouldnt feed them to your snakes anyway.............to much fat content.
Rabbits and quail are better.............150g rats are peffect imo.