# help reduce my feed bill!!!



## lola (Dec 11, 2007)

:crazy: look at this it frightened the life out of me - worked it all out today, it's the monthly total for all my cage/aviary birds, chickens and reptiles.... how can I knock it down without reducing the healthy stuff as they're all apparently happy fit & well.....other people must've had this problem too!!! sensible help & advice please and WITHOUT selling off half of my animals and birds................ :thumb:​ 


*FEED BILL*​ 

Birdseed:

Cockatiel mix 3 x 14.50 = 43.50
Foreign finch 3 x 14.25 = 42.75
Millet 1/3 box 16.50 = 5.50
*Total: £91.75*
Chickens

Mixed corn 1 x 8.00 = 8.00
Layer pellets 1 x 8.00 = 8.00
Porridge kg 12 x 0.65 = 7.80
*Total: £23.80*
Livefood:

Crickets 500 large 4 x 6.83 = 27.32
Locusts 100 medium 4 x 11.99 = 47.96
Mealworms regular per kg incl del 2 x11.98 = 23.97 
*Total £99.25*
Frozen mice

Honeybrook small per 50 incl del 3 x 14.66 = *£44.00*
Fruit & Veg

Lettuce any type 1 per day 30 x 0.50 = 15.00
Apples 1 per day 30 x 0.14 = 4.20
Pears ½ per day 15 x 0.17 = 2.55
Carrots per kg 2 x 0.45 = 0.90
Cress per punnet 12 x 0.23 = 2.76
Grapes per kg ½ x 3.50 = 1.75
Cabbage/greens 4 x 0.65 = 2.60
Kale 5 x 1.10 = 5.50
Spinach 4 x 1.20 = 5.00 
*Total: £40.26*
*Full Total £299.06 *


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## peaches (Apr 3, 2007)

A month!!! Bloody hell.....

No idea of price of bird seed, where do you buy it? Try somewhere that sells it loose or in bulk.

Alot of mealworms too, do you really need so many lmao (have no idea what your feeding of course)

Veg...umm what about a local veggie box scheme? Or see what you can get cheap at the end of the day at a supplier/grocers.


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## freekygeeky (May 25, 2007)

mine has reduced a hell of alot, Mealworms....
by breeeding them


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## greenlikegecko (May 18, 2007)

do you buy all your dry food in bulk from a supplier?, if not maybe buying > 15kg bags of bird seed would be bit cheaper and you norm get free delivery if you spend enough...

have you ever thought about breeding mice? (could you kill them?) also if you have space you could breed insects (there are many online guides on how too) id say if you could keep a coloney of mice they dont require much looking after tho insects are harder to breed (especially if you dont like touching them or escapees)

good luck : victory:


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## NBLADE (Apr 11, 2007)

freekygeeky said:


> mine has reduced a hell of alot, Mealworms....
> by breeeding them


 
you could try breeding the crix, mealworms and locusts, that should reduce your feed bill, i used to breed them, but stopped after a while. After i sold the chameleons my food needed cut back a lot, the chams put the beardeds to shame when it came to eating lol


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## underdog (Mar 11, 2008)

For livefood would breeding it yourself not be the ultimate answer?

Also for bird food, I am not sure where you buy it, but for my African Gray I buy a 20kg sack of the stuff that costs £14, if I bought it in smaller bags at a different pet store it would cost almost 3 times that. So could worth shopping around.


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## Issa (Oct 13, 2006)

How do you feel about breeding your own feeder rodents? As long as you have the stomach for the culling part you can produce your own a lot cheaper than even online suppliers. Less annoying when a fussy feeder refuses as well.


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## NBLADE (Apr 11, 2007)

i breed my own mice and rats and it does save some money, but i would need a lot more before i would stop needing to pay about £100 every month on mice and rats, 
but another benefit is you know exactly what it was fed on, and when it was frozen, and would likely be in really good condition, so would benefit the snakes.


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## lola (Dec 11, 2007)

The cockatiel seed and foreign finch too IS in 20kg or 25kg sacks - I use THREE of each each month and they're what - £14.50 ish each!!!! I've shopped around but can't seem to get this size much cheaper plus I'd have to collect it which means time & fuel, this place delivers for free.

I couldn't kill the meeces 0 horrors!!!! this seems to be the cheapest place for the small mice, 50 for a tenner plus delivery isn't bad - they're for the owls and the snakes - I'm selling the snakes  so that'll reduce that a little but not a lot - the 2 owls have 2 each a day  I've tried them on chicks coz they're like pennies each but they won't touch em, funny old things 

Mealworms - the owls too - and for the chickens coz they're not free-range, they live in the large aviaries, they have a small handful a day. The lizards don't like them much. Think I'll have to be hard and cut them right down so no more for the chooks.

I've also now ordered and am setting up a breeding roach colony so hopefully will be self sufficient in insects but not for a while...

Locusts - hmmmmm - do they NEED them.... they so flippin expensive for what they are....



thanks for all the replies - all is appreciated and any advice is welcome


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## brittone05 (Sep 29, 2006)

Roaches are nutritionally better than locusts anyway so you can't go far wrong changing them over 

That is a whopper of a food bill - though I used to be bad with £50 a week on reptile food alone lmao


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## Meko (Apr 29, 2007)

lola said:


> ​
> Livefood:
> 
> Crickets 500 large 4 x 6.83 = 27.32
> ...


 
hell of a lot of livefood for 5 lizards


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## Molly75 (Jul 10, 2006)

Try to find someone with a trade account for the reps  
MY lot cost £242 plus every 2 weeks and thats at trade but feeds around 300 reps 

p x


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## Nerys (Apr 18, 2005)

our bills on animal feed are shocking.. and far out weigh what i spend on us the humans.. in fact the animals all have much better diets than we do!

i use, for starters, about 12 kilos of chopped fresh veggie and fruit a week.. on top of that, 4 large tubs of cottage cheese, 4 large pots of natural yogurt, several whole chickens, around 60-70 chicks a week, about 7 cans of tuna, around 20 eggs, 12 large cans of dog food, 10 cans of cat food, a box of cat biscuit, about 10 kilo of dog biscuit.. about 50 kilo of rodent feed.. a couple of pots of baby food, 200 or so crickets, 200g or so mealworms, 50 or so large locusts.. a few scoops of rabbit food.. and enough chicken feed for 3 layers, 1 cock and 22 meat birds.

i don't feed most of the snakes weekly, but per full feed i get through around 80 prey items.. ranging from about 10 pinks.. up to 7 or so ex large rats..

the rodents and carnivores (skunks, meerkats, ferrets, dogs & cats) also get a fair amount of extras.. my favourite haunt of a saturday night is Asda reduced isles.. picked up 13 spit roast chickens for £1.20 each last weekend.. ok so it took me a few hours to strip them fully down, but that gave me enough meat for two weeks , most of which is frozen and thawed as needed. the chicken carcass's then all go into the rats, multi's and mice.

sainsburys on a wednesday night, around 7pm for a store that shuts at 9pm is also bargain bonanza time.. i paid £3.85 for an entire small trolleys worth of bakery products.. from doughnuts to loaves.. bagels to danish pastries.. all of which (bar some of the sweet things) will get distributed through the rodents and chooks.

i also picked up things like packs of reduced meat and fish, all adds to a varied diet for the creatures..

this was the bakery raid weds... sad mare i am, taking pics, lol










N


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## brittone05 (Sep 29, 2006)

I got a tonne of veg for Ichi from Tesco's the other week reduced to 10p per pack 

Thank heaven's my food bill is now drastically smaller as Ichi lives more or less on the same diet as me - veg, chicken, tuna and dairy


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## Nerys (Apr 18, 2005)

last spring was a mare, snuff refused to eat anything bar flipping mealies for a few months.. and yes i know its not ideal, trust me, i was not happy about it either.. and nor was my credit card..lol..

thank god this spring she has stayed eating more varied proteins.. chicken is on, some veggies, yogurt and cottage cheese too (and despite what some say, cottage cheese is part of diet plans recommended by skunk keepers worldwide... 2-3 spoons of it a week is not going to kill a healthy 3 kilo animal)

asda do two pots for £1.50 at the moment, which is not too bad.. me i cannot stand the stuff..

breeding feeder rodents can be an answer to feed bills yes, but you have to take into account how many snakes you have, and how many rodents a week you will need. from what i have seen over the last few years, unless you have enough rodents to warrant buying bulk food and bedding, or enough storage space to buy wholesale, the costs for the small producer are a lot higher then you realise.

my last feed bill was £67. that was 3 bales of straw, 2 bales of shavings, one sack dog biscuit, one sack rabbit food, one sack mixed grain, one sack sow and weaner pellet, one sack rolled oats and one sack flaked maize

bedding that will last me a month, maybe more on the straw.. feed that will last me about 2-3 weeks, depending on what else i add

things like 
cooked grains - lentils, split peas, pearl barley etc
cornflake (29p a box at sainsbury's)
bakery items
chicken carcass'
meats/fish/kitchen scraps/eggs
noodles 8p a pack - sainsbury again lol
pasta 19p for 500g, cooks up to a kilo, bargain

different species get different bits, the gerbils get more grains, the rats more protein etc etc.


the space and time the feeder rodents take up needs to be taken into account also. you can't just have one tank of mice.. i would say you need at least 1 main, and 2 or more rearing tanks. to feed an adult corn you need a 6 month+ mouse.. in the time it takes the first litter to get that size, you will have had another 3-4 to deal with too.. you ideally need to split litters sex wise to grow on, other wise the growers will get pregnant themselves.. the older the mice get, the less welcome newcomers to the tank are - generally, not all are like this, but its best to have spare tanks just in case.. for one corn you need to produce - on most peoples schedules - 52 adult mice a year.. thats actually harder to do with a small set up than many might think. if you have a shed, or garage, you will need to heat in winter or they will stop breeding, and feeding and cleaning non breeding rodents is a total waste of time if they are there to make babies for dinners. so take into account where they will live, how it will be heated and lit, and the amount of time it will take to care for them.

and then of course, there is the kill. not for everyone, there is no doubt you do have blood on your hands by the end of it.. literally or metaphorically..or both ! & some souls are too gentle to wish this upon themselves..

personally i prefer it to buying in. especially when i know most of the frozen comes from out of the UK, where i have no idea how its kept, fed, maintained, killed, transported in terms of time and number of times its refrozen.. etc etc etc..


N


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## brittone05 (Sep 29, 2006)

Yeah I know all about food in Spring and season lmao

Ichi has been a right pain (as you know) what I have not had to buy in veggies (other than brocolli) I have shelled out on tuna fish as that has been pretty much all she would eat.

I managed to get some blended veggies in with her tuna though and she is kicking back into full swing now and eating anything and everything


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## Nerys (Apr 18, 2005)

yeah i had to do that with snuff last year.. blended veggies with a mealworm topping... bloody fussy cow of a skunk that she was *grins*

N


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## TSKA Rory Matier (May 27, 2007)

lola said:


> :crazy: look at this it frightened the life out of me - worked it all out today, it's the monthly total for all my cage/aviary birds, chickens and reptiles.... how can I knock it down without reducing the healthy stuff as they're all apparently happy fit & well.....other people must've had this problem too!!! sensible help & advice please and WITHOUT selling off half of my animals and birds................ :thumb:​
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That is a lot of food admittedly, but then in reality, roughly £75 per week. I don't know how many animals total you are feeding, but have you got a local grocers in a market nearby on a weekday or perhaps a Sunday. You might find that this will reduce down the fruit/veg or perhaps check out local farmers - especially for the likes of Kale - l am not sure what your local produce is in Suffolk, but in Lincolnshire we do have a lot of brassica farmers, perhaps you should find out what your local community is growing?

Farmers who have bird covers on their lands tend to grow kale, but it does not tend to freeze that well, where as the others can. But if you find a market you might be able to reduce that down.

Your culture bill does seem excessively high at £99 which is a third of your overall monthly bill.

You could save your millet bill slightly, by buying a box at £16.50 but it will last for six months. One box will last you four months, and there is a reduction already.

Can you not ask your local merchants if they can pallet drop you a 14 load or a 26 load? They will award you discount on that, but l think you can afford to shop around. Most merchants willd rop price if your total exceeds £100 - £150, so yes, a bit more outlay to begin with, but with the longetivity on dry foods, a saving in the end. [Plus you can order split pallets]

And are Honeybrook the cheapest?

Is KKK still not operational in Suffolk, or would the likes of Camzoo be nearer, do they do deliveries to that neck of the woods? I take it you buy your frozen in 3 month loads?

Best of luck with your shopping around.

I used to spend almost £800 pcm on the commercial operation, £400 of that monthly was fruit and veg, but l cut a great deal with my local market grocers.

The other £400 was dry food.

So l do understand your terrors, especially when you add it all up, lol.

R


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## lola (Dec 11, 2007)

Meko said:


> hell of a lot of livefood for 5 lizards


 
Got me worried - but worked it out on average daily consumption, which may go up as well as down 

so - Per Day:

beardie: 24-30 crickets + 6-8 locusts
agamas: 15 crickets + 6-8 locusts
fat tail gecko: 12-15 crickets a day depending on size
picta gecko: 10-12 crickets again depending on size
these add up to 61-72 crickets Per Day x 30 = 1830-2160 Per Month = around 4 bags of 500 crickets

and 12-16 locusts Per Day x 30 = 360-480 Per Month = around 4 bags of 100 locusts

Amazing but true!!! Anyway I'm going to stop the locusts now, and when my roach colony gets going in a couple of months then hopefully I can reduce the crickets bought in too 

Also the mealworms are not for the reptiles but the owls and chickens - but not absolutely necessary so I'm going to harden myself to their little squawks and cut them out too....

The frozen mice - well the owls eat 2 each a day that's 60 a month EACH, and I haven't found these mice better priced than at Honeybrook, 20p each - £14 delivery for the lot so I get perhaps 3 bags of 50 at a time. Money availability is a problem, don't have much available in one go 

The fruit & veg is currently offered (and eaten) to everyone daily but again I'm going to toughen up and they'll only have it Mondays, Weds and Fridays. Don't think they're exactly going to suffer through that. 

I only buy fruit & veg on a weekly basis, and the rest throughout the month as it goes... I'm going to see if my local animal feed place will do me a discount if I buy a months worth at a time (can't afford more than that in one go), that's for the birdseed and chicken feed. The price of millet on my list is based on using 1/3 of a box costing £16.50, which works out at only £5.50 a month so can't get that down any more.

So hopefully I'll cut the livefoods down to maybe 1 bag of crickets in time. And perhaps half the amount of fruit & veg... 

Thanks for bearing with me through this thinking out loud - been a very useful exercise for me, putting this all down in black & white and getting your feedback on it too 

thanks everyone


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## Nerys (Apr 18, 2005)

can you not feed the owls chicks as well as mice??

i pay £2.50 for 50 chicks at the moment, so normally £10 worth will last me not far off a month if kara gets mice/rat/gerbil a couple of times a week and chicks the rest (kara being the kestrel)

N


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## lola (Dec 11, 2007)

Yeah like I said in an earlier reply I've tried them with chicks, several times too, but no go - they do not like them I don't know why.... they're so c-h-e-a-p but no good if they're wasted!


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