# Pricing & promoting?



## Daphne (Jul 8, 2012)

Got a few questions for pet mouse breeders and show mouse breeders who sell to the public on the side 

*1. Pricing:*
Does anyone have tips on pricing mice that are to be sold as pets? Obviously factors to be considered include demand for pet mice in the area and putting reptile owners off (no offence to people with reps, of course!), so how do you strike a balance between that? Also, would you suggest charging more for more interesting colours, charging less for bucks, offering deals on multiples, etc? I'd appreciate the opinions of those who have experience selling to the general public, as well as those who don't.

*2. Promotion:*
This one probably is aimed only at those who do sell to pet owners. How do you personally spread the word about your mice, especially to the kind of people who have never considered mice as a pet before? Word of mouth, adverts in shop windows/newspapers, social networks online, negotiating with pet shops, ads on classfieds sites, forums etc? I'm thinking more on the small scale, rather than those who breed dozens at a time and need a bigger influx of customers.

Thanks
- Daphne


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## Seafolly (Mar 13, 2012)

I hope I don't offend anyone but it drives me a little batty when people charge more for a certain coat colour. I haven't seen people do this with mice but I see it all the time in rats. The owner will decide what's "rare" and charge more. Most of the time they're idiots. : P If they spent a few minutes looking through the local shelters they'd know what they bred wasn't rare at all. For me what matters most is the quality of the owner. There are no breeders in the area - if there were I doubt I'd charge (if they're experienced...I don't wish for the offspring to end up in a pet store). So for regular pet owners I often quote a price (say, $8/mouse) and at the last minute will reduce it, especially if they're buying a trio. I'd rather they save that little bit of money for food or a toy. Or the vet bills they will likely face. The price is used to dissuade reptile owners, so it's more than the feeders, but a dollar less than the pet store mice (that we see once or twice a year) because they were born and raised in far better conditions with a better diet and not in impossibly sized litters. I know there's no money to be made in breeding done properly so I don't try to get the best price.

Facebook would be perfect. But I'm not at all ready to "come out" as a mouse breeder.  So I just place Kijiji ads and use my best judgement. So far, I've had two wonderful women pick out mice and I don't have to wonder what happened to the mice I brought into the world. A forum would be best, but that's not terribly practical for me.


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## genevie (Mar 11, 2012)

PRICING:

This will be my first intentional litter and the first where I will not be keeping all the offspring, so I haven't decided on pricing myself yet. But I'll give my ideas anyway.

I see feeders go for anything from 50p to £2.50 here, and I see pet shop mice go for £6.50 (across all three pet shops I've ever been to that sold mice, it's always the same price). So I will probably go for anything from £3-5 each.

In terms of charging more or less for certain types, I've always thought that in the pet trade this is just silly and it encourages a certain type of attitude which perpetuates this thought that cuter is better. Personally, although like everyone I do have colour preferences, when buying pets I always go for personality over colour and I think that's the way it should be. So no, I wouldn't say you should charge more for the more interesting varieties.

With charging less for bucks, that is something I can understand, as from what I've seen bucks generally are less popular. I think if you struggle to sell bucks, then you should consider lowering the price. But I think starting outright with a lower price might be offputting to anyone who knows little about the difference between bucks and does, because it gives the impression they are in some way inferior and are worth less.

Deals on multiple females is a good idea in my opinion. I would never sell a single female mouse to anyone unless they had very good reason so I won't be listing any prices for '1 female' on my website. And I think trios and (space permitting) small groups are definitely much better than pairs, simply because with pairs, if one dies then you are left with a lone mouse.

Overall, what I'm tossing around at the moment as a potential price scheme is:

1 male - £4
2 females - £7
3 females - £10
4 females - £13

Just looked at Seafolly's answer above, I think reducing a price at the last minute is a nice idea. When I see people giving away kittens and puppies for free, I understand that they want a good home rather than the money, but I always think they should advertise a price to put off people looking to resell or those who aren't that passionate, and then at the last minute tell the new owner they don't need to pay. If someone isn't willing to pay a bit above the usual asking price, I think it's a cause for concern in terms of them possibly not understanding the long term costs of a pet.

PROMOTION:

I'm personally going for social media as a form of promotion. I have a website, and accounts with Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Tumblr and Google+, as well as accounts on Preloved and Gumtree. Considering how big social networking is nowadays, you can never be short on accounts in my opinion! I will probably also advertise my litters on several forums. The plus side to forums is that they mainly attract people who are passionate about animals, but the downside is that you aren't really broadcasting to newbies.

I expect to be moving back to London soon, so I don't expect newspapers and shop window adverts will be much use to me given how busy the city is. However, I do think for small towns this form of advertising could be pretty effective.

Word of mouth is effective wherever you are, in my opinion. Doesn't hurt to casually drop into a conversation that you are a pet breeder, and a cheerful "tell your friends!" to customers after their purchase wouldn't go amiss either.

And as for pet shops, while I don't agree with providing them with stock, I think if you have a local pet shop that doesn't stock mice and you are friendly enough with the owner, it would be a good idea to ask them to recommend you if anyone comes in looking for them, or perhaps put a little poster for you in their shop window.

On the subject of posters, I often see posters around advertising kittens and puppies. I'm not sure how I feel about this, just because I think it could attract a lot of weirdos.

And on that topic, if you are advertising in newspapers, shops, classifieds etc, a think a link to your website which contains your contact info is better than a phone number. Maybe this is just a personal thing because I have fairly bad social anxiety and a severe phobia of phone conversations, but I would prefer to not call someone if possible. By giving them a website link, they can have a look at you and what you're about before they start contacting you, and if you provide a phone number and email then you give them the choice. I have been put off buying pets before because I didn't want to have to talk on a phone! I do think email is a much better form of communication just because you can keep it informal and low pressure, and you don't have the risk of crazies getting hold of your phone number. I have an adoption form on my website, which I think is useful because it avoids having to go back and forth with someone asking a bunch of questions - it just gets them all out of the way from the start.

I went on a bit there, but I hope I covered everything and helped somewhat


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## DaisyTailsMousery (Nov 8, 2012)

I generally charge $5 a mouse (Pet shop sells them for $8 and the feeder bin sells them for $2 so I figure $5 is cheap enough that people would buy from me, but expensive enough that they won't be bought as feeders) I post ads on craigslist and hoobly and all the other "buy and sell" websites I can find. I also put cute pictures up on facebook, and when people see how cute they are, they usually end up wanting a few. I also join facebook groups focused on small animals. Right now I am a group of KMs mouse and rat breeding on facebook (WI specific for people who love pet rodents to find good breeders), and people in that group are really quick to want your animals there. I have babies reserved for people that haven't even been born yet. Usually if someone is buying 3 mice I only make them pay for 2 and get the 3rd one free. I don't sell bucks as pets and instead I advertise them as a pre-killed feeder. Usually for free, but sometimes I charge some.


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## PPVallhunds (Jul 26, 2010)

I put my prices to what other breeders charge with the same type mice, e.g. tiny pet, feeder mice can sell at £1 -£2 where as the show breeders I've seen charging seem to sell more at £5 each. If your against them going as food then see what feeder mice are selling at and ask for a higher price. When I started with my pet type mice I couldn't sell any, now I have my show mice and my typer mice (don't show one line but there not tiny mice) I've sold some myself at £5 each with a discount if 3 or more. 
With the pet mice I tryed adverts in shops, with the current mice I've found homes online, either by putting ads on forums like hear or from people seeing pics of my mice on forums can then contacting me asking if I have anything.

I don't charge less for bucks as I mostly keep back does so don't often have bucks for sale. I also give mice for food to a friend (culled first) so that means I don't need to rehome. So if I have extra mice I don't need to reduce the price and risk someone buying them for food. I don't mid them going for food but want them to have a quick end first.

But to be honist I don't really advertise any more, was too much hassle with time wasters, all the sales I've had reasontly has been form people seeing my mice online, or wanted adds for people wanting my varietys


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## love2read (Aug 30, 2011)

I sell all my mice for $5/ea, no matter the sex, type, or variation.

Personally, I consider males to be MORE valuable. A male can be bred to multiple does 24/7 from the time he's 4 weeks old til the day he kicks the bucket. Does, on the other hand can't be bred til they're 2-3 months old and after that they can only be bred a couple/few times before they have to be retired(or self-retire).

Plus, I just like bucks better. They're so sweet and squishy, lol.

As for promoting, I bomb my FB page every now and then with super-cute mousey pics. ;D I've gotten multiple other people to fall for their cuteness that way, lol.

I also happen to work at a pet store and my coworkers know about my mice and send customers my way sometimes. The assistant manager sent a woman my way a couple weeks ago because the mouse she bought for her daughter died. She ended up getting a couple retired does from me and they're now being spoiled rotten and loved on by a sweet little girl.


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## TwitchingWhiskers (Feb 2, 2013)

I am currently only breeding pet type mice, but hope to start with exhibition mice soon. I will try my best to find loving homes for excess stock, but all unreserved excess mice are culled around weaning age. Non of my mice go as feeders, dead or alive; non go to pet stores either.

*Pricing:*

(copy pasted from my website)
Included with the sale of each mouse is a care package. Care packages include: food sample, bedding sample, printed care sheet, laminated pedigree for each mouse, apple wood chew sticks and my contact information.

Mouse pricing:

$10 for one mouse with one care package.

$15 for two mice with one care package.

$20 for three mice with one care package.

And so on.

With these prices, I doubt anyone would attempt to purchase them as feeders, when there is a local pet shop charging $2 each for feeder (and sickly) mice. If an adopter has problems with these prices, I probably won't adopt to them, because the pet itself should ALWAYS be the cheapest end of the deal. I also use an adoption forum, with questions based on how the animals will be cared for, and their housing. In the instance that the answers look something like this: *What type of bedding will you be using?* cedar, or, *If you plan to use a wheel, what kind?* 4 inch bar wheel. Then, I would let them now that these items are dangerous to the animals, and recommend a different product; and if they where willing to change, I would adopt to them. My policy for sexes, is something like: I will not adopt out lone does, I will not adopt out pairs of bucks to live together, and most importantly, I will not adopt bucks and does together unless the person is an ethical breeder. Color/markings/coats are not relevant when pricing mice; if a mouse is more valuable to me, I will keep it, and breed more of these valuable mice. Pet owners who seem to have colors in mind, actually please me in some way. I think it has to do with their level of knowledge; a person who has been researching mice will be able to tell me that they are interested in "blue variegated astrex" where someone who doesn't have a clue might say, "speckled grey crazy furred".

*Promotion:*

Craigslist, and my website mostly. I may start using this forum to advertise certain mice as breeders or pets.


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