# feeder bins at petco?



## Andyurgay (Jun 10, 2013)

So I went into the local petco today. I really was only looking to see if they had a reptile waterfall that petsmart sells, but cheaper for a present. Did not find it so of course I wandered over to the rats. I have not stepped foot inside a petco since I was about 5 years old. But I've heard stories of feeder bins, both sexes being kept in the same tanks, over crowding ect.
I found some real young albino females, marked as small rats. Then some albino and black hooked girls in the tank above, marked as large. No males. No over crowding. But it is around the holidays, who knows how many they had before? 

Since I was just off work and still in my Petsmart uniform and was the only customer the whole time I was there, the Petco employees were following me around like sharks (both stores employees are told to not go into detail about store practice with employees of the competing store and to watch out for other stores workers, not give much info and keep care practices a secret from the other store). But since I was the only person in the store and apparently of great suspect, I asked one of the 8 employees around me if they had feeder rats. He pointed to the albino and hooded girls. He said people buy them or the frozen. They all seemed healthy except a real tiny little albino girl grooming herself in the corner.

When I hear the term feeder bin I imagine a pull out bin like at a local store, over run with little ratties. Not a habitat of future pets. That irked me. Who pays 7.99 for a small feeder or for 10.99 for a large feeder? No snake owner I know. So I have to wonder if I was not shown the actual feeders because I work at Petsmart or if it is only certain petcos that house both genders and over crowd? 

I'm not digging for dirt on petco because of where I work, I was just curious and had heard from another petsmart I covered a shift for that this petco had feeder bins.

So what exactly is considered a feeder bin? Is it rats only considered good enough for food or is it the adoptable "pet" rats that are still sold as feeders?


----------



## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

For the most part feeder bins contain commercial feeder rats, mismarked rats, lab supply surplus rats, breeder surplus rats and accidental litters from customers.

Commercial feeder rats a chunky and have wide shoulders and slightly blunt noses, but this varies, they grow fast and get fat. They are actually more docile than many breeder rats as they have been bred to survive bad handling and not cause OSHA complaints and workforce injuries. They are bred for good health and rarely get sick.... but they are not bred for longevity, although some get very old, over 3 years... its a crap shoot, tumors among females over 2 years old is common.

Customer accidental litters are opportunistically purchased and dumped in the feeder bin as are problem rat returns. I bought one of these, she was show quality, perfectly marked, and looked out of place in the feeder bin. The sales girl told us she was a hand raised rat from an accidental litter... all of which was likely true, but she was also part wild, stayed about 25-30% smaller and lighter than our domestic girls and tore up my neighbor's hand and arm after living outdoors for a whole summer. She was a very unusual rat and didn't come with a warning label. 

Mismarked rats from pet shop type rats also wind up in the feeder bin. As pups or shortly thereafter rats earmarked for pet shop sales are culled. The ones with the best markings go to places like PetSmart, the odd ones go to feeder supply wholesale. Max and Fuzzy Rat are/were both mismarked. Max is a hoodie but the stripe is broken and forms an upside down number 1 while Fuzzy Rat had a black spot that looked like a stain on her back although both rats have the tell tale wide shoulders of feeder rats, if they were really nicely marked they "might" have gone to a pet shop.

Lab supply surplus... Lab supply companies need to keep their colonies fresh and productive and stocked to fill large orders from pharma companies, colleges etc. They often dump their surplus rats into the feeder wholesale market. Most of these rats are very unsocialized and some might come with genes knocked out etc... Unlike most feeder bin rats, you should be extra careful, especially with the jumbo ones. Most psychology departments insist that their subject rats receive no handling or socialization before they use them for experiments and you can bet that's what you get... Some of these are actually nice and become fine pets, but some lab rats are the stuff of nightmares.

Breeder surplus rats usually stick out like a sore thumb in feeder bins... They are the high whites, rexes, dumbos and high color rats. They usually have narrower shoulders and an attractive form, they are often larger and they just look sharper than the square feeder rats. Some have minor imperfections, but overall compared to the rats around them they will wow you. I can't put it otherwise... Amelia was a high white that was dumped as part of a two rat litter, I suspect the other rats in the litter died of megacolon...









When you find something that looks like this, it's a breeder dump. Her brother was a striking lightning bolt blaze dalmatian. In Amelia's case, I'm guessing the breeder dumped her at three weeks old when the litter went south, other breeders have breeding programs that produce rats that don't fit the guidelines and cull them in order to open space and some breeders dump rats they are ashamed of and can't sell because they don't meet their standards. Pet shops and wholesalers take these rats anonymously and the breeder gets something for his seconds. 

I recently saw a tiny pup in a feeder bin, I'm 99% convinced was a wild rat someone caught and brought into the store. We actually came very close to taking it home... but a 100% wild rat roaming the same house with a rat phobic wife and an 8 year old girl was too much of a chance to take.

In short, you will find anything in feeder bins, even stuff some stores breed on their own. For the most part, don't expect perfect markings, for the commercial feeder rats you can expect a calm temperament an very good health when they are young. 

Basically approach a feeder bin like you would approach a used car lot. Know what you want and what you are looking for and pass by the wrong rats. Many feeder bins revolve over 100 rats of all sizes per week so if you don't like what you see, wait for another week or two and it will be there. If you see breeder seconds, don't just be wowed.. they may have been culled for a reason, which can make them worse rats than the common commercial rats in the same bin. And if you see something that looks like a wild rat it might have been dropped off my someone that found it in their garage... Also, feeder rats aren't sexed, so you only buy females under 4 weeks old to be safe. A jumbo female rat is almost always pregnant. Never rush! Take your time in the store, examine your selection closely for health and temperament. Even pups will show some personality traits... they can be calm or jumpy at three weeks old. Also don't get too hung up over mismarkings... some can be attractive other's don't matter to the rat's health or personality. I put Fuzzy Rat back in the snake food bin three times because I didn't like the black stain on her back, Fuzzy Rat kept crawling back to my daughter and she saw something very special about her and insisted until I gave in... My daughter was right and I eventually got used to the stupid stain.

And lastly never pity purchase... if you can't resist the underdog stay away from feeder bins. For sure you will find at least one really beat up, mangy undersize and underweight scrawny rodent that barely qualifies to be a rat... and half the time it's snapping at anything that moves... give in to your heart and your vet bills and doctor bills are going to eventually teach you the meaning of "No good deed goes unpunished". You cherry pick feeder bins for the best rats that perhaps don't belong there, you never rescue the worst of the worst. Keep in mind by saving the biggest loser, you are sentencing a healthy, normal and friendly rat to be eaten by a snake.

I once asked a used car dealer what the best used car was.. I expected to get a model or a vintage, but he responded...."It's the car that runs the best and needs the least repairs." You pick a used car because of what that particular car is not because of a brand label. Same goes for rats... breeder rat, store rat, feeder rat rescue rat, all the same in that the only rat you are concerned with is the one you are taking home. An unusual calm and friendly lab rat is better than a sickly breeder rat or a hostile rescue rat. Don't get hung up on generalities... focus on the rat in your hand. Don't overlook the friendly mismarked rat in favor of the nasty blue one.

Happy Holidays


----------



## artgecko (Nov 26, 2013)

They were showing you the real bin... It's that way at mine, although cheaper... I think$4.99 for small, $5.49 for med, etc. They will sell as pets or feeders. My store only has males. I think they've gone to an all - one- sex policy (at least for rats) like petsmart to cut back on their accidental litters.

At my store all the rats were marked, not albinos, and they even had a blue dumbo rex in the feeder bin... I hope he went to a good home. My store cares well for them, but that's because the lady in charge of animal care likes rats. I'm adopting some from them that were a dumped off accidental litter next saturday as a matter of fact. 

I think care in the chain stores varies by employees / managers, not chain. My petsmart has their rats in ok conditions but in tiny tanks. IMO petco's rats actually look better.


----------



## Phantom (Apr 4, 2012)

My boyfriend has a pet cornsnake who refuses to eat frozen or previously killed mice. (We've tried and our friends and their friends have tried.) There was also the horror story of one of our frozen mice haveing a chewed on head when we opened up the bag. She eats live mice, and we've gone to petco before to buy her emergency food. Whether it's the albinos or the colored mice they all go for the same price and can all be bought as feeders or pets.


----------



## zombiesrkewl (Nov 28, 2013)

You really shouldn't be feeding live mice to your corn snake unless you're feeding pinkies. A full grown live mouse could seriously injure or even kill your snake. I've owned numerous corn snakes and a few of them didn't like eating thawed mice but it's pretty easy to train that out of them.


----------

