That’s odd. I’ve never seen anything like that before.
Nor have I. Curiouser and curiouser.
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Geez, that’s awful! I’m sorry to hear that for the sake of all the animals and both humans. 
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That is very odd. I’ve been ordering from Big Cheese for a few years now. It’s always shown from Texas but that’s on FedEx’s site. I’m concerned now that I should change vendor but they all seem to source from the same place….
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I live close to ARS so I can just go there in person and stock up plus my little blind dog Rudy loves the love he gets there……
I have never had a problem with the rodents btw…….
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sorry i meant american rodent supply but i guess some wires got crossed between my brain and fingers and YES i have ordered many racks from ARS in the past…i usually order from big cheese and it usually arrives no problem by fed ex…i made my usual order and it usually shipped via fed ex from fort worth texas…this time i made a little larger order than usual (about a $700 order) and i received that email stating the shipment is coming from another source …i buy ARS racks pretty regularly but have never tried their feeders ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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i asked AI and it says its common for other suppliers to fill orders …so maybe since it was a larger order they outsourced ???..
" This is common in the frozen feeder industry because many major suppliers, including Big Cheese and RodentPro, often source their products from the same producers. It is likely they operate through a shared distribution network, ensuring you receive the same quality frozen feeders even if the shipping label says RodentPro.
Key Takeaways:
- Shared Supply Chain: Companies like Big Cheese, RodentPro, and others often use the same base suppliers.
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After speaking with a colleague, it’s quite likely that ARS is doing fulfillment for Big Cheese based on the order size and availability. They also have at least one supplier in common, so they would indeed have the same product.
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The next time I go to ARS for feeders I will ask Jason if they do indeed help out other businesses with large rodent orders. I’m pretty sure this is a common practice…….
It probably works both ways.
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My last order from RP was my best ever, in terms of quality, apparent freshness, and expected size. Usually my large adult mice and jumbos come in flat slabs of smooshed mice, but in my last order the mice were loose and mouse-shaped. And the bags took up much more space in the freezer.
You could call this a positive for RP, but it’ll be very disappointing when my next order is the same old meh. In fact, my friend received her order around the same time I did, and hers was the same old meh.
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It’s frustrating trying find consistency. I’ve also gotten some not-meh orders from Rodent Pro in the past but mostly things were meh until a few orders which were less than meh. I just don’t use them any more.
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It seems on the face of it that they’re as inexpensive as a big vendor gets. But when 3/4 of my large adult mice are under 18g, with quite a few 15-17g too, I don’t know if I’m saving money.
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This is a question from someone who has NEVER ordered feeder rodents before, so excuse the ignorance.
Are their large mice advertised as being a certain weight or higher? And if so, if you get a large % of mice under that, could you make a complaint and get a refund or order credits or something?
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Yeah, a less lazy person might. But generally I’m ok with my orders EXCEPT for the large mice. They are often disappointing and my most used size.
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I’ve always ordered from ARS, in which on the website they’re listed by approximate length and weight. I’ve personally never had much of an issue with them, though in my most recent order I will also say the large mice were the most disappointing in overall size/weight. They’ll work, but I definitely think I’ll grab jumbos instead next time.
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Yes. I’ve done it. It was a lot of work, @deanaii isn’t wrong. I weighed them all and took pics, contacted Rodent Pro. They gave me a credit on my account. It happened often, on multiple sizes. They were pretty consistently sending bags with a large percentage underweight. I think the worst was when I got a batch of supposed fuzzies. They were tiny. They were 2-3 g pinky weight, but they had peach fuzz or fur and they were just literally skinny, tiny ribs all showing, clearly not fed correctly. It made me so sad.
In fairness, that’s been a couple of years ago and that extremity only happened once. I quit getting feeders from Rodentpro about then.
Agreed. The malnourished ones were just too much. Again, that’s been a couple of years and hopefully that doesn’t happen any more.
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Ah, the old “does it bother me enough to want to deal with customer service” ordeal, I know it well 
Good to know it is at least an option if you get feeders that are far below what you were advertised
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I am fortunate that I can see what I am buying before I pay for my purchase……
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I’ve been buying exclusively from rodentpro for 7 years justabouts. They are fine, but overall pretty size inconsistent. I haven’t been weighing my rats, though I do notice them bring smaller in recent years than they were since C19. Things have definitely gotten sloppy. I haven’t had any sick animals from feeding yet. But i have had issues with hair sloughing off and tummies bursting on some rats and that’s pretty not awesome imho. I don’t like wasting money, so i keep shopping there. Outside of the per count price, which is very competitive, the free shipping gets me every time. It has been a good long time since looking into other suppliers like coldblooded cafe, but last I did, you have to pay shipping on all of them. I just can’t justify doubling the cost of my bulk purchase of feeders to pay for overnight shipping. I haven’t paid squat to have any feeder shipped to me and I want to keep it that way. But I do still want quality feeders, and it sucks to hear that many ‘other’ companies are essentially amazon slap-a-label(ing) these feeders. So, the companies that do actually provide a different product then are CC and Layne Labs? If so, does Layne offer free shipping over a certain $?
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The only ones that seem to not get mice from China are cold blooded cafe and perfect prey. Layne gets China imports too, though I will say they were my go-to supplier for about 6 years. The quality is always on point, as well as the sizes being as advertised. No weird smells, underweight mice or ones that look like they were sick. After learning they source from China, I will likely be looking elsewhere. CBC offers flat rate $30 shipping. Layne only does free shipping on order over $150.
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