Best kind of mice?

Hello,

I am thinking about starting to breed mice and I have 2-3 questions. What are the kind of mice I should buy? What kind give more babies? Where did you bought yours? At a pet shop or somewhere else? Since I know that pet shops doesn't always take good care of the animals they have, how do I know the mice are in good shape and how old are they? And, at last, at what temperature I should keep them?

Thanks.

Nobody?

I'm not cool like most of the people here with colorful patterned mice...lol

I have regular ol white lab mice. Swiss Webster to be precise. I got my initial small group from another breeder and have now grown out my own adults.

I don't supply any additional heat to my mouse room. Although, I may change that next year, we'll see. I did have a slight drop in production over the past few months. But I was still getting quite a lot of babies.

I heard that they was the one who produce more babies than the other kind. How many babies do your mice have each time (approx)?

12 - 15 on average. Like I said I had a slight drop in production this winter though.

There's several good lab strains available. Swiss Websters are probably the most popular. I have heard people say SW's are supposed to produce upwards in the 20's per litter. I have never had that happen, but I'm happy with what I yield on these girls.

OK thanks Quigs. One last question. At what age they can start to breed?

I got my founding stock from several sources...two came form a pet store-a clean pet store with healthy mice and they bred their own. The rest of my founding mice came from private breeders, some of the mice were Swiss Websters and some were just well bred "Fancy" mice. I have all the fancy colors but mine produce VERY well...I thanks the SW genes for that mine usually pop out 10-28 pinkies, the lower(10-16) end comes from my fancy mouse concentration and the higher numbers(17-28) come from the groups that have the highest SW concentrations in their genes...not sure if that made sense...but in other words the direct descendants of my SW breeders produce larger litters than my others that have say only 1 SW breeder in their lineage.

If you can't find and Swiss Websters from breeders or otherwise then try and find a local private breeder that has large healthy mice and ask questions on how their mice produce, shouldn't be too hard to find someone with the mice you are looking for. Also a private breeder will better be able to tell you the info you need, such as age, and properly sex them for you.

I keep my mice in my garage, it's heated and ranges from 65-75F, as long as the mice are kept in your house they should do perfectly fine, as what is comfortable for most people is comfortable for them...just make sure the temps don;t get too hot or too cool or else the productivty will slack off as Quigs said.

Mice can breed by 5 weeks of age but it isn;t recommended that young...can lead to complications and death or future infertility in females...4-6 months is generally when most people say it will be ok, depends mostly on size though, if the female is really small for her age you may not want to breed her

Quigs...

..where did you get your Swiss Webster mice from? The only ones I've seen are the laboratory kinds with strange mutant genes. I wouldn't want mice with symptoms of Hodgkin's disease!

I have regular "fancy" mice. They have litters that average from 10-13 babies. If you get young females and an older male they get along quicker and produce sooner. I haven't noticed any ill effects from breeding young females, they can get pregnant at five weeks old.

Silvia

My original stock came from a local breeder here in St. Louis.

My starter colony was Swiss Websters from a local feeder breeder. After a year or so, the albino thing got old. Thought why should I raise ugly mice. Maybe its a girly thing. =P

But I bought extra 20 longs, and separated some young females out and bought fancy mice males. All of my stock is descended from 6 SW mice, and 4 fancy males. And I'm going on my 3rd year with no problems to speak of.

I've not had much of a production drop since adding in the fancy mice. Most of my litters are 10-20. Which is just fine for me. Anything more than that, and the mice would be going to waste. Although I did have a first time mom pop out 22 babies after 5+ hrs of labor. Phew.

4-6 months to start breeding? Geeze, by that time they're over the hill. Most people cull their breeder females at the 6 month mark because the production drops so rapidly. I don't, but several people I've talked to have.

I usually leave the desired young female to be nursed and grow up in her intended colony, saves the fur from flying later on. They usually breed 6-8 weeks of age, which to me is just fine and they seem able to handle it. I've never had a problem doing such, and the females are still producing quite well after their 1st birthday.

I think it all has to do with the quality of feed that you're giving them as well. So I'd think dog food would give you pretty crappy results with calcium levels and such causing problems. I feed lab blocks formulated for rodents. Quigs had a good quote on the "Ol Roy thread". "Dogs eat dog food, and rodents eat rodent food" and I couldn't agree more. I spend a bundle on my dog's food, but she's healthy and feels great for being 5.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. =)

lol yeah 4-6 months is what alot of people I have talked with believe, wasn;t sure how people here "practice" so I gave a conservative age I personally start mine at 2.5-3 months and maybe 4 if they are smaller, males start at 5 weeks of course lol...part of why I wait a bit is because I don't just breed for feeders, I show my mice too...I know mouse shows...wacky...but oh well I love them like I love my snakies lol also I breed consecutive litters and waiting till the mice are fully grown helps them be good breeders for longer amounts of time. I have several female breeders that are still breeding after 2 years lol, one is pregnant right now and is approaching her 3rd birthday, this is her last litter but she was a great producer for me

as for the food, for fear of sounding cliche, "You are What You Eat", this is very true with mice, you give them cheap food they give you cheap babies lol

Oh, girlsnake! You wait a mere 24 hours and think nobody will opine! Now look at the posts! I got a strain through Carolina Biological Supply that was supposed to produce the largest litters and shortest times to maturity. Basic lab mice. All have been white, until I got a brown male from Clay Davenport (if you don't know the name, you should do a web search), that was a lab super producer strain. I found cannibilism went up after that point, but it was fun getting colors and patterns for a change.