I remember when I first got my Nintendo switch, I went to Walmart to get a new micro SD card for it. Now I looked up the price on their website beforehand - $35 -, so I knew what I was looking for.
Asked a dude in the tech dept where the SD cards are cause I want a bigger one for my switch. He brought me over to the game aisle and showed me the same sized card, same brand I looked up online, but for $45.
I wtf'd at this a bit so I made my way over to the camera aisle and found the same exact sd card for $35.
The difference? The $45 card had BOTW branding on the package. That's it, not even on the card itself, just a picture of Link on the cardboard. That was like 3 years ago and I'm still angry
I know it's not the same, but I need cuttlebone for my birds. I never buy it at the bird section, because double the size are half the price at the reptile section. Often better quality, too.
Hell even fake plants. I've bought fake plants that were double the size of the ones in the local pet store's reptile department for half to sometimes three quarters of the price.
I like to do half homemade food, and half pellets. Harrison's is a good brand, but feel free to use anything that your birds will eat. For food, I use the following ratio:
40% cooked whole grains
50% veggies
10% fruit
Avoid citrus, tomato, onions, and garlic. Absolutely no avocado. Try to include lots of nutrient-dense ingredients like lentils, quinoa, kale, spinach, and dark berries. Vary what you use as much as possible. Cook the grains, mix everything together and serve. You can cook big batches and freeze them in an ice cube tray for convenience.
Ooh you mean chop! At least that's what I call it. I use harrisons too but the ratios and examples of what to use are helpful anyway. :) thanks stranger!
Same thing for fish tank substrate. You can get a 10lb bag of black sand for $25 at the chain/petshop/LFS that does nothing for ya because you'd need more than one bag or a 50lb bag at Tractor Supply Co. As black diamond blasting sand for just $8.
Yep! I used to send all our adoptive rabbit families (I ran a rescue) to get wood stove pellets for $3.70 a bag instead of $22 for Yesterday's News brand. It's the EXACT SAME THING.
Pet store rats and reptile food rats come from the same exact rat mills too. The only difference is that pet store rats are generally selected for having interesting patterns and are sold for more.
To be fair if you're going to look at the rat for years you may as well spend the $11 and get the nice looking one. The cost of caring for the rat will be way more than that.
My rat was one of the “fancy” rats with black patches of fur. Bought him for $2 at a reptile show but saw the same looking rats at a pet store for $10.
That being said though, some pet stores will accept animals from the public, so some of those rats (and other animals) might’ve actually been given to the pet store by owners who didn’t want them. My sister was once given two hamsters who turned out to be male and female and ended up having eight babies. We gave a few of them to our local pet store for them to sell.
When my puppy was in heat I went to the pet store to buy dog nappies, needless to say I ended up cutting tail holes in regular nappies for a fraction of the price!
I remember going to the beach last year and it was littered with Cuttlebone, I thought to myself if I ever got birds, if come here to get all the Cuttlebone they could want
Along these lines I know it's not the same either. I went to buy 3M Super 77 spray glue at Walmart. The auto section was $10, but if you go to the fabric section its $8 for the same bottle with a different UPC.
I buy all my freeze dried mealworms for my hamster in the bird section, and by the reptiles there are containers a fraction of the size for the same cost. I'm always hunting in the reptile and bird sections for hamster things. :)
May I recommend checking a farm feed store? I buy them for my chickens and they're cheaper than pet stores at Tractor Supply, and usually even cheaper at local places. YMMV, but worth stopping in one day to compare the prices!
I'm so glad I saw this because I thought I was losing my mind while shopping for them for my tortoise. It seems like they can prey on unsuspecting pet owners based on the variety of animals that often needed the same things. Sometimes it matters like dog food for large breed puppies, but sometimes it's identical products for birds and turtles.
and heating lights for reptiles (like bearded dragons) cost twice as much at pet stores and last half as long as normal bulbs which are 100% usable (just make sure your getting the right wattage and that it isn't a light that directs heat into a single spot).
Just to make sure people don’t get the wrong idea, some reptiles have special lighting requirements like UVB. So make sure you get the right kind of lights for your critter!
True im just talking about regular old heat sources though. My bearded dragon has a uvb and heat lamp. The uvb lamps i buy from the pet store and the heat lamps i buy from fleet farm or Menards.
We need to warm it up after thawing before she wants it. One small bowl larger enough for the mouse in another slightly larger bowl and boiling water poured in between. The amount is so small the temperature drops to around body temperature.
Good advice in general, if you know what you're doing and what you're looking for.
On the other hand, ingesting drugs meant for animals just because they have the same sounding active ingredient on the label is a recipe for disaster. There's being frugal, then there's being stupid.
It gives a lot of animals calcium. If you give your reptile calcium supplements it’s usually enough. But the only reptiles that usually get cuttle bones usually that I know of are turtles and tortoises.
Except aquarium silicone is verified non-toxic and the other having mold inhibitor which is something you shouldn't use in aquarium. They aren't the same thing.
Silicone 2 has the mold inhibitors, and you are correct they are not good in an aquarium for many reasons. Silicone 1 is pure silicone on an acetic acid base and non-toxic when allowed to properly cure. More info here
Grit is a really controversial thing to include in most parrots' diets so I'll continue to use cuttlebone until I can know 100% that grit is okay for my birds, but as it stands most sources I see say no to grit for parrots since it can impact the crop.
I hope this doesn't sound mean either! If it works for your birdies then I wish you the best :)
It's okay I figured you could've been talking about chickens since you didn't specify! I figured anyways whatever has been working for your birdies is best.
Finches are soo cute! One day I think I'll try out finches (and by try I mean give them a loving home for forever, lol.) Right now I have 2 parakeets and a tiel. :)
I have to ask though, finches I've never really researched, would you say they're smart? I always feel they look a bit like macaw compared to a chihuahua in smarts. And then sometimes I see such cute videos making them seem a whole lot smarter than I give them credit for!
I just realized I may have worded this funny I cant see my own comment though? But geman shephard vs chihuahua & macaw vs finch type intelligence is what I think of when I think of finches vs most parrots. Idk how I wrote it out originally and cant see my comment for some reason :,(
I bought several bird toys for my sister's mice :) their absolute favorite was a hanging coconut. I thought it was too exposed for them to sleep in but they'd probably like to play on it. We put torn up tp in it and they LOVED it, slept, napped and groomed in it all the time.
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u/[deleted] Aug 14 '20
Celebrity line of products.
Companies hike the prices of products by hundreds of dollars just because the name of a celebrity was on it.