D 1.0
What it costs, and what the number contains
Unit prices by grade, size and pack, on one page. Read the boundary printed around them as well as the figures — an unbounded number is the thing that actually misleads a requisition.
Most suppliers in this trade put prices behind a login, a quote request or a printed catalogue you have to ask for. There is one defensible reason for that and two that are not.
The indefensible ones first. A published price invites comparison, and comparison is uncomfortable when you cannot control what the other catalogue contains. A published price also removes the chance to find out a department's budget before naming a figure. Neither is a good reason to make a teacher spend a telephone call establishing whether they can afford to ask.
The real reason is that a unit price without a grade attached is meaningless. “Frog, $5.20” is not a price; it is a price for one particular preparation, at one size, in one pack, in one holding fluid. Quote it bare and somebody budgets $5.20 for a specimen they needed at $8.95, and the shortfall turns up in March.
So the answer is not to withhold the figure. It is to publish the figure attached to the four fields that qualify it, which is what every table on this page does.
D 2.0 The three bands
What was done to the material sets the band
Not the animal. A plain rat and an injected rat are the same rat and are not the same price, and the gap between them is labour rather than livestock.
Plain
P$1.10–$46.00 each
Fixed and held, nothing injected. Owl pellets, cow eyes, sheep organs, plain frogs, rats and fetal pigs, and most invertebrates.
Gross organ anatomy, external anatomy, organ-system identification, bone sorting.
Injected
S / D / T$8.40–$95.00 each
Vessels filled with coloured latex: arteries at single, arteries and veins at double, and the hepatic portal system as well at triple.
Circulation, heart and vessel work, comparative anatomy, any lab whose point is a system rather than an organ.
Living
L$9.60–$60.00 per culture or pack
Cultures and live animals, priced by culture or pack. The figure carries a delivery date as well as a quantity.
Microscopy, growth and population studies, behaviour work, ecology, multi-week sequences.
D 3.0 Preserved vertebrates
Preserved vertebrates
Priced by species, size band and injection grade. Where a species appears more than once it is because the grades are genuinely different products, not because one is a discount.
| Specimen | Size | Grade | Each | Pack of 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frog Rana pipiens | 3–4″ | Plain | $5.20 | $47.50 |
| Frog Rana pipiens | 3–4″ | Double-injected | $8.95 | $82.00 |
| Frog Rana pipiens | 4–5″ | Triple-injected | $12.40 | $115.00 |
| Fetal pig Sus scrofa | 8–10″ | Plain | $12.60 | $116.00 |
| Fetal pig Sus scrofa | 10–12″ | Double-injected | $19.80 | $184.00 |
| Rat Rattus norvegicus | 8–9″ | Plain | $13.68 | $127.00 |
| Rat Rattus norvegicus | 8–9″ | Double-injected | $18.90 | $176.00 |
| Perch Perca flavescens | 6–8″ | Plain | $7.40 | $68.00 |
| Dogfish shark Squalus acanthias | 10–14″ | Plain | $22.50 | $210.00 |
| Mink Neogale vison | Standard | Double-injected | $38.00 | $356.00 |
| Cat Felis catus | 14–17″ | Plain | $46.00 | — |
| Cat Felis catus | 14–17″ | Triple-injected | $95.00 | — |
| Cow eye Dissection-grade, per eye | — | Plain | $3.20 | $29.50 |
| Sheep brain Whole, with dura | — | Plain | $14.80 | $138.00 |
| Sheep heart Whole | — | Plain | $11.90 | $110.00 |
The rat, plain, at $13.68 each and the cow eye at $3.20 each are current published unit prices. Cats are supplied in cases rather than packs of ten; telephone for the case figure.
D 4.0 Preserved invertebrates
Preserved invertebrates
Mostly plain, because there is usually nothing to inject. The survey sets carry one specimen from each of several phyla and are priced as a set rather than as the sum of their parts.
| Specimen | Size | Each | Pack of 10 | Pack of 25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Earthworm Lumbricus terrestris | 6–8″ | $2.15 | $19.40 | $44.00 |
| Crayfish Procambarus clarkii | 3–5″ | $4.80 | $44.00 | $102.00 |
| Grasshopper Romalea microptera | 2–3″ | $3.10 | $28.50 | $66.00 |
| Squid Loligo sp. | 5–8″ | $5.60 | $52.00 | $120.00 |
| Starfish Asterias sp. | 4–6″ | $4.25 | $39.00 | $90.00 |
| Clam Freshwater, whole | 2–3″ | $3.90 | $35.50 | $82.00 |
| Sea star, large Display grade | 7–9″ | $18.40 | — | — |
| Phylum survey set Eight phyla, one specimen each, labelled | Set | $62.00 | — | — |
D 5.0 Owl pellets
Owl pellets
Two quality grades, and they are different products rather than the same product at two prices. First quality is intact, well formed and looks like a pellet; second quality is broken or irregular and is perfectly good for bone sorting.
| Grade | Each | Pack of 30 | Class pack of 100 |
|---|---|---|---|
| First quality Intact, well formed, wrapped individually | $3.75 | $108.00 | $345.00 |
| Second quality Broken or irregular, bone content unaffected | $1.10–$1.40 | $36.00 | $112.00 |
| Bone sorting chart Laminated, one per pair of students | $2.40 | $64.00 | $198.00 |
Both pellet figures — $3.75 each first quality and $1.10–$1.40 each second quality — are current published unit prices. All pellets are heat-sterilised before packing.
D 6.0 Living cultures
Living cultures
Priced per culture or per pack, never per organism. Every figure on this table carries a delivery date as well as a quantity, because a culture that arrives on the wrong day is not a cheaper culture.
Everything on this table leaves on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday so that no living order sits in a depot over a weekend. Work backwards from your lab week — the table on the shipping page does the arithmetic.
| Culture | Supplied as | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Paramecium caudatum | Tube, class size | $11.40 |
| Amoeba proteus | Tube, class size | $16.80 |
| Euglena gracilis | Tube, class size | $12.60 |
| Spirogyra sp. | Tube, class size | $13.20 |
| Mixed protozoa survey | Four tubes, labelled | $26.00 |
| Escherichia coli, K-12 Non-pathogenic teaching strain | Slant | $14.50 |
| Bacillus subtilis | Slant | $14.50 |
| Pillbugs Armadillidium vulgare, behaviour work | Pack of 12 to pack of 100 | $9.60–$60.00 |
| Daphnia Live, for heart-rate work | Culture, class size | $15.40 |
| Elodea Live, for photosynthesis work | Bunch of 12 stems | $14.80 |
| Wisconsin Fast Plants Seed, for growth studies | Packet, 200 seed | $22.00 |
The pillbug range $9.60–$60.00 across pack sizes is a current published figure. Bacterial cultures are supplied as non-pathogenic teaching strains only; see holding fluid & safety for handling and disposal.
D 7.0 Instruments and supplies
Dissection instruments and laboratory supplies
Instruments are supplied individually and as assembled sets. A set is cheaper than the sum of its instruments because it is packed once, and the student set differs from the instructor set in the quality of the scissors and the scalpel handle rather than in the count of pieces.
| Item | Supplied as | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Student dissecting set Scalpel, scissors, forceps, two probes, needle, in a vinyl case | Set of 7 | $14.90 |
| Instructor dissecting set Stainless, heavier scissors, knurled handles, hinged case | Set of 11 | $42.00 |
| Scalpel handle, no. 4 Stainless, reusable | Each | $4.60 |
| Scalpel blades, no. 22 Carbon steel, sterile | Pack of 100 | $18.50 |
| Dissecting scissors 4½″, sharp/blunt | Each | $6.20 |
| Forceps, fine point 4½″, stainless | Each | $3.80 |
| Dissecting tray, wax-filled 8″ × 12″, black wax | Each | $16.40 |
| T-pins 1½″, stainless | Pack of 100 | $7.90 |
| Nitrile gloves Powder-free, sizes S–XL | Box of 100 | $13.60 |
| Prepared slide set, animal tissue 25 slides, labelled, in a wooden box | Set | $68.00 |
| Specimen storage bags Zip, holding-fluid safe | Pack of 50 | $11.20 |
D 8.0 Quantity
The break that suits a budget is not always the break that suits a lab week
A case is cheaper per specimen than a pack of ten, and a pack of ten is cheaper than singles. That is the whole of the quantity story, and it is worth two sentences of thought rather than a reflex.
Preserved material keeps, so buying the larger break is usually right: a case bought in August is still a case in February, and the per-unit saving is real. Living material does not keep. A larger culture is not a saving if half of it is dead by week three, so for anything under couplet 7 the right quantity is the one the lesson consumes.
Where a class is working in pairs, the count you want is students divided by two plus two or three spares — a specimen gets dropped, mis-cut or claimed by an absent student's partner in almost every session.
Typical break
| Break | Against each |
|---|---|
| Pack of 10 | about 8% |
| Pack of 25 | about 12% |
| Class pack | about 18% |
| Case | about 22% |
Indicative across the catalogue rather than a rule. The actual break on a given item is on its own line in the tables above, and on your quotation.
D 9.0 Outside the figure
What the unit price does not contain
These are quoted separately rather than folded into the per-unit figure, because folding them in is exactly how two catalogues stop being comparable.
| Item | Typical |
|---|---|
| Shipping, preserved material Weight and destination; preserved specimens are heavy for their size. | $18.00–$145.00 |
| Shipping, living material Expedited service and insulated packing, which are not optional on a live order. | $42.00–$190.00 |
| Hazardous-materials surcharge Applies to formalin-fixed material only. Formalin-free material does not carry it. | $32.00 per consignment |
| Cold pack or heat pack Added by us when the forecast at either end requires it, and itemised. | $6.50–$14.00 |
| Sales tax Per destination. Tax-exempt institutions send a certificate once and it is held on file. | per destination |
Catalogue prices are USD per unit at the pack size stated, exclude shipping, handling, hazardous-materials surcharges and any applicable tax, and are catalogue ranges for planning a requisition rather than an offer or a quotation. Reviewed September 2026. Shipping and any hazardous-materials surcharge are itemised separately on the quotation rather than built into the unit price. A figure for your order is confirmed on a written quotation. See the disclaimer.
A quotation names all five fields
Telephone with the lesson, the class size and the week. We will turn it into species, grade, size, holding fluid and pack, put it on a written quotation with shipping itemised, and hold it against your delivery week so a purchasing office is approving a specification rather than a species name.
Niles Biological, Inc. · 9298 Elder Creek Rd, Sacramento, CA 95829