Earn Extra Cash: Supply Finches, Mealworms, Crickets and Mice to Your Local Pet Shop

Several years ago, I ran into a young lady I hadn't seen since she was one of my eighth grade students. Now, a married woman with several children, she invited me to visit in her home so we could catch up on what had happened since during the intervening years.

When I stopped by a few days later, I was captivated by a huge bird cage near the entrance to her living room. There must have been 35-45 tiny finches warbling a noisy but not unpleasant greeting, competing playfully with each other for one of many perches inside the cage, and just flitting from one end of the cage to the other.

"Oh, my" I said. "How come you have so many?"

My former student replied that she raised finches for the local pet shop. I had never heard of such an occupation, and she explained that she started with just a couple pair of finches, and only made a few dollars a month selling the baby finches. Now, she not only supplied our local pet shop, but several others in adjoining towns. It didn't make her a living wage, but it did give her a nice chunk of extra cash each month.

Being the curious type, I looked into the matter and found out that not only do pet shops buy finches. They are also in the market for food to fill the hungry gullets of a number of their other animals, fish, birds, and reptiles.

If you have a little extra room in your home (or yard), this might be a perfect niche for you. (See link 1 for more information on raising finches.)

Other things pet shops need are large supplies of crickets, mealworms, mice, etc. If you are interested in making a deal with your local pet shop, but would prefer to sell them something a little less demanding than finches, try raising food for finches rather than the finches-and not only food for finches, but also for the various reptiles you will find in most pet shops. Crickets are interesting and fun to watch, although a bit chirpier than some people like to listen to. If they sound like fun to you, check out link 2 below for complete instructions on what kind of crickets are the easiest to raise, what kind of containers you will need to raise them in, what to feed them, etc.

For those of you who aren't too squeamish about how the food chain works, raising furry little creatures like mice is fascinating. They are pretty cute, though, so I'm warning you that it will be easy to get too attached to the little creatures, and you may back out when it actually comes time to deliver a batch of them to the pet store.

Years ago, I had a friend who raised mice to feel to his boa constrictor, but when the mice multiplied faster than the boa could use them, my friend made a deal with the pet shop to supply live mice for the store's snakes, carnivorous lizards, and other reptiles. He did this for several years.

I'm one of those squeamish people I mentioned earlier, so the idea of feeding live mice to any kind of reptile repulses me. I understand that most pet stores now use frozen mice so it is easier to make sure of having plenty on hand at any given time. Check out link 3 below to learn about raising mice for this purpose.

If any of these niches appeal to you, don't just build a cage and figure on selling all the finches, crickets, mealworms, and mice you can raise to your local pet shop. Instead, do a little homework. Ask yourself:

1. What product am I really interested in providing?

2. What would it take to set myself up in breeding or raising the particular animal or insect I have chosen?

3. How long would it be until I could actually provide the pet shop with the product?

4. What quantity of the product could I provide and how often?

Once you have the answers to these questions, make a personal visit to your local pet shop, and have a talk with the owner or the manager to see if you can work out a deal.

Point out that dealing locally would save them shipping costs, and that you will be handy should they run out of one of your products. They may be cautious about taking you on at first, so offer to start with a small order to see how it works out. If you do well, they are likely to give you larger and larger orders.

As time goes by, you may want to add more items to your list, but don't over-extend yourself or you may find yourself spending all your time taking care of mice, finches, etc. and not having a market for them.

I would recommend this business as one that could become a great educational project for the whole family, as well as one that can provide some welcome financial benefits.