Raising feed for zoo animals/pet stores
 

Does anybody know anything about this? Where do zoos/pet stores get their meat, veggies, rodents and insects as feed for animals? Do they ever just buy from people? Maybe this is a crazy idea, but I'd be willing to raise whatever a they might need.

There is a company not too distant from Fulton MO that supplies the pet store there with pet and feeder rats and mice. I was in the pet store one day and heard all this squeaking. When I commented on it, the clerk opened a little box full of "pinkies," baby mice that are still pink. Most disgusting thing I have ever seen but then I was taught as a child to avoid rodents.

I have a friend in Columbia MO who runs a private rescue and rehab sanctuary. They have recently made an arrangement with a large chain store to purchase their past selling date meats to feed their assortment of big cats and it's literally pennies on the dollar. The meat isn't tainted and is held refrigerated until my friends pick it up and take it home to their walk in cooler/freezer. Another store gives them past prime produce and bread for their birds.

If you have a local zoo why don't you call and ask?

As far as Zoo, the big cats are fed horse meat. Yes that is correct, slaughtering horses for pet food has not stopped. Only for Human Consumption stopped.

Not to high jack my own thread but.....First of all I'd like to say that I've had horses all of my life and love them. With that said, here's what I think about horse slaughter.

Horses are livestock. There are a lot of horses out there that have health problems that aren't financially practical or possible to treat. There are a lot of old horses that people can't afford to keep around once they're no longer useful. There are a lot of horses with mental issues that make them dangerous. You'll probably argue that they can be rehabilitated, and that's true in many cases. However, that takes people's time and money. Maybe the people who are anti-slaughter ought to volunteer their time rehabilitating instead of complaining that these horses CAN be rehabilitated.

When they shut down the slaughter houses, the horse world was FLOODED with unwanted horses. This made made the horse market crash. They aren't worth anything where I live. It's hard to give them away. A man near here brought a large trailer load to an auction and couldn't sell them, so on his way home he opened the trailer door and let them all go. When horses are free or cheap this encourages people that wouldn't normally want to, or couldn't afford to own a horse own one. How do you think horses that go to those homes are taken care of? In many cases not in a proper and humane way. When people can't get rid of unwanted horses, many of them just end up suffering MORE because they aren't receiving proper care.

It's illegal in many places to bury livestock on your own property. That means that you must have a specialty company come pick up your dead animal for a fee. It makes more sense from a financial standpoint to sell the animal to a slaughter house BEFORE it dies and make some money rather than paying money for the carcass to be picked up and hauled off, left to rot somewhere. It makes sense to me to turn that protein into food for animals or people rather than to let it rot and go to waste (well, besides enriching the soil). I don't understand why some people have a problem with other people eating horse meat. It's none of your business what other people eat. They are in charge of their bodies and beliefs, not you. I believe in eating healthy, sustainably raised food, but I don't go around telling everybody that doesn't eat the same as I do that they are wrong, because it's none of my dang business!

Very well said, and I agree with everything you said 100%, and having horses for most of my life also, and still do, well a mini, but I sure understand why and what happened and how the extreme animal rights folks have effected the horse prices, and horse market in general.
Many of us warned those that were for the ban, now it is too late, as horses are suffering even more now, then being sent to a processing plant.

Well being you hijacked your own thread, I couldn`t agree with you more. Nobodies business what you put in your body. Ahmen sister, and Arabian Knight has agreed with you also, so I`m hijacking it again and saying to some on here this is the same argument we have been having with the raw milk thread, some of you guys that don`t like us selling raw milk, none of your business what other people put in their bodies. Sorry Apryl, I had no better time than now to state this, once again sorry. >Thanks Marc

Raw MIlk is NOT pasteurized Apples and Oranges trying to compare that to a USDA Inspected Processing horses for human consumption not even in the same class much less the same thing.
Horse meat USDA inspected for human use vs a NON inspected milk product. Not even close. geeesh..
And it is has Nothing what so ever to do with what americans put in the mouths concerning Horse meat. Those USDA Inspected plants were shut down by Animal Rights groups.
Now if your Raw Milk was USDA Inspected, like they are trying to passed here in WI. no big deal. But to have it just go out to the public raw without some kind of rules and regulations, no way.

It is so nice Arabian knight that you can say that we have no say about you eating horse meat, but somebody can`t drink a liquid that has been consumed since before Christ walked this Earth. You have got to be kidding. A bit two faced I would say, but then again, thats apples and oranges. Oh by the way I don`t use pasturized honey either. >Thanks Marc

I completely agree with you Marc. I am completely pro raw milk (should be called untreated) and in fact am in the process of buying a dairy heifer so I can enjoy it myself! Raw milk dairies obviously take every precaution to ensure a safe product because they don't want to make people sick and lose customers! That alone should be enough assurance of a safe product. It's a personal choice and not one that should be made for us by our government.

Apryl, about the zoo thing, I knew a guy that sold hay to a zoo, but it is hard to get into that market as they are very fussy about their stuff they buy. Best bet would be talk to the head honcho at the zoo, and find out where they buy their stuff. And go from there, won`t hurt to ask. >Thanks Marc

I suppose a simple disclaimer like

"100% raw non-inspected milk"

would not work to warn the public what was in the bottle?

maybe even a warning like that on cigarettes as well as a label of the producing farms name and a expiration date.

that would satisfy me.

the whole USDA and FDA thing is not to protect us but to lock the food producers down and hold or raise prices as the government sees fit.

I don't know about you but when I hear "I'm from the Government and I'm here to help you" just makes me quake in my boots.

I figured out a long time ago that the government is not there for my benefit or even yours they are there for their benefit.

I use to love to drink fresh milk even before the cream separated, nothing better. though I'm now lactose intolerant so its a mute point for me but if someone wants to sell it that way and someones willing to buy it. I would say it fall between those two parties. now though if there is issue one party or the other still has all legal recourse, so I being my paranoid self would be a bit scared to open myself up in this suit crazy society.

I sold live meat rabbits to a zoo in Oregon. I just contacted them asking if they buy meat rabbits, and went along the process. The required the rabbits to be inspected by their vet, and had certain rules I had to follow. Nothing major, as I was already selling to Nicky USA (exotic meat buyer) and had very healthy rabbits.
I did contact them at the exact right time, evidently the person supplying rabbits to them had too many rabbits showing up sick so they canceled the contract with them.
I'd suggest contacting them... they can only say no!

When I worked at a pet store we bought feeder rats/mice/pinkies live and frozen but it was from a local legit business supplier and not the general public. We also bought crickets, meal worms, grubs, feeder guppies and goldfish, crawfish...and maybe a couple other things. We fed the animals in the store but also sold feeders to people with pets at home...we made far more money selling feeder animals than we did selling pets.

I was in charge of all the ordering and still remember what we paid the supplier for some of the stuff:

Pinkie mice-$0.45 each--sold for $0.80
Adult mice-$0.90 each--sold for $1.25
Small rats-$1.35 each--sold for $2.99
Med. rats-$2.50 each--sold for $4.99
Large rats-$3.50 each--sold for $7.99
Jumbo rats-$5.00 each--sold for $9.99

I can't remember what we paid for the other stuff...I think it was like $20 for a box of 1,000 crickets and we sold those for $1.50 a dozen.

I used to work as a volunteer at a bird of prey rehabilitation center. There I helped them raise their own 'food' in the form of rabbits, rats and mice. The birds were fed these mostly deceased as they were injured birds but those that were about to be released had to be able to do their own 'kill' and were started on live mice and then to small rabbits. NO rats were ever fed live as an adult rat could kill the burrowing owls and smaller raptors. We did accept road kill as well. Even meat starting to spoil got fed to the buzzards. Very interesting working there!!
Catherine
p.s. I also know of someone who's tempted to sell their kittens to snake owners as their farm is getting overrun with ferrel cats! Can't catch the mommas to fix them but you can find the kittens...

The Detroit Zoo stopped feeding the big cats horse meat decades ago. You need to contact potential customers and ask what they are looking for. A well run zoo will have any data you might need.

I got the idea after talking to the local zoo. The guy in charge of buying the food for the zoo told me they gave up after attempting to raise their own (said mice/rats couldn't breed fast enough to keep up with the demand) and are buying them through dealers but the main problem is that the central plains where I live now does not have adequate suppliers and they keep running out of mice/rats for the zoos so they have to shop around a lot. The guy even had a running tally of how many mice/rats/pinkies they fed their critters so that way you could estimate how many it took to feed their critters. I was surprised to find out that they feed approximately 1000 mice/rats a week! 30 thousand crickets a week! No wonder the suppliers couldn't keep up with the demand! We also have a raptor rehabilitation center here and they frequently run out of mice. The problem with raising animals/bugs for the zoos/raptor centers is that you need tons of space AND also heat/cooling for them. Where Apryl lives is cheap cost of living so it's possible for her to get into it. Would have to have a truck that has a freezer built into it though. Don't know how much that would cost. With that being said, bugs are very easy to breed and easy to contain (within reason), you can get 30 thousand crickets from 1000 crickets in less than a month. Waxworms are more work (requires specialized cages for the parents who are flying moths) therefore costs more. Google bug farms and mice/rat farms online and you'll see what I mean. The zoo specialist recommended that I decide what to specialize in then after getting the feel of it, I could expand elsewhere. That made sense.

there was a guy over in europe who makes millions supplying feeder insects to zoos there ,amongst other people.

there is money in it and not just zoos.

As I recall the tiger which escaped at a CA zoo was being fed horse meat and rabbits. Both are lean meat. I suspect part of the tiger's problem was he wasn't getting enough fat in his diet.

We run a family resarauant here in Utah. We had the local zoo come around asking for fruits and veggie scraps. They would come twice a week, they never asked for meat.

The zoo here feeds the cats horsemeat.

There was a large cat sanctuary in Sharon WI that would take cull horses to feed to the cats,but they were donated, not purchased. They would also take a freshly dead carcass too.

I think I may have lost the email somewhere else but apparently there is a lab bred mice (there are various types bred for various needs such as a cancer prone mouse, mouse that has a shorter life than most mice, etc) that is famous for having numerous babies at once. Like 28 babies in one litter! Would anyone know what I'm talking about?

As to the horse meat. Detroit zoo said (and this is years ago) that the quality of horse meat was not as good as other meat. I'm sure occasionally eating horse meat won't be harmful, but they used to feed exclusively horse meat which was cheaper than other meats.

As for a litter of 28, never heard of it. I could get into breeding mice or crickets but I don't think my husband could go for it.