How many mice would be needed...

I did not want to get into breeding my own feeders, but as cost increases I may need to do so.
I bred rats for my larger snakes before, but never mice.
So, here's my question.

Assuming everyone actually bred as they were supposed to approximately how many females would I need to get 170+ pinks a month?
:eek1: Dang that sounds like a lot when I add it all up :eek1:

Well in my calculations. If you had just a single female and male pairing of mice, and she breed back to back (which I advise don't do. This can cause complications for the female in later life with birthing) she should produce (assuming her litter sizes are 7 each litter) roughly 150. But then again I'm starting my breeding colony Before I get my snake so I should have more then enough that in the future I could sell and ship out my mice. Oh what a thought.

That would be 150 in a year, your calculation, correct.
So that would mean I would need at least 40 females to produce 150 a month?
That would take up as much room as the snakes! I'll have to think more about this one.

Baba-Lou said:

If you had just a single female and male pairing of mice, and she breed back to back (which I advise don't do. This can cause complications for the female in later life with birthing) she should produce (assuming her litter sizes are 7 each litter) roughly 150.

Click to expand...

Huh? In what time frame are you talking about?

Sorry Quigs. I was calculating over a span of a year.

:-offtopic

I think you would be hard pressed to find a single feeder rodent breeder (that produces large numbers) that doesn't breed back to back. That's just the way it goes.

Q

with that type of quantity, you're really best to switch to F/T go with rodent-pro...

I am using f/t for most, working on switching the rest over. I was just wondering if it would be more cost effective to raise my own. I actually started calculating after I started writing the post-I didn't realize just how many it was adding up to a month-WOW. Looks like it may be bulk for me-that is way too many mice in the house .
Any mice breeders in AZ?

5 colonies of 1.4 or 4 colonies of 1.5 would give you 20 females. 20 females producing roughly 10 babies a month would mean you would have 200 pinkies a month. you would be producing enough then to keep 30 to raise up to hoppers or adults or what ever you want.

Thanks, Mike-
That might actually be workable. I'll have to figure out space. It would have to be cheaper than $1 a mouse.

it would definately be cheaper than $1 a mouse. i have 7 colonies and run 1.5-1.7 per colony. i replace old mice with young ones from the same colony, or just throw some together (make sure you only have one male, check my previous post about castration). i do not know how many mice i produce a month but it is enough to keep about 30 neonates and 20 sub adults and adults happy. i feed mazuri mouse breeder 9f at $20 a bag. i feel i is much easier to feed this than a homemade mixture that takes time to compile and ends up costing the same. i also buy a huge bag of softwood shavings from my local feed store (its used for horse or show animal bedding) for about $8 a bag. its also much more enjoyable breeding your own mice, especially when you have something new pop up in your gene pool.

What about smell Mike? I read that you have to change their cages on a daily basis because mice's urine has extremely strong odor.

I breed my female mice back to back and they enjoy a nice long life. I've had some females almost 2 years old still producing 10+ every month, and are great moms. Splitting them up and re-introducing them is just way too much hassle to fool with.

If you're breeding pet mice, sure. But these are for snake food, different requirements, imho.

Up until this fall I was running 5:25 and feeding everyone quite well, hatchlings and adults. The rats were really taking a load off of having to raise up mice for adult food when I could have really used the mice pinks.

I don't count how many I get per month, to me that's just anal. But everyone one of my snakes was fed every week, give or take. So I don't think that's too bad.

You might talk to Sasheena about her issues with raising mice in Arizona. She had quite a lot of trials and tribulations over failed AC's and quite a few mice deaths. Or at least search up her old threads on the subjects, quite an interesting read.

As far as changing every day? Only if you have the money to waste with buying aspen litter. Changing every day could get very expensive. I change mine every week in the summer and every 2 weeks in the winter here in Indiana. The oppressive humidity makes them stink more, the dryer the air the longer you can go between cage cleanings.

Mice smell, period. There's no getting around the aroma really. You can only lessen it. The best formula I've found is aspen litter with a good healthy handful of timothy hay. They have nesting material and nibble on the hay and the chlorophyll in it keeps their odor down. Marshall Ferret Co produces 'Bi-Odor' which works great, you add it to their water. But it is cost prohibitive.

i put a cup or so of aspen pellets (rabbit feed) on the bottom then put the shavings in, and usually add a small handful of timothy hay. (i havnt been adding the hay for smell control, i had never thought it was helpful for that. i just put it in to give them nesting material.) i dont have to change out bedding more than once a week, and it takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.

I bred my own mice a while back and found that minimizing the number of males really helps to keep the smell down! Males were always the first to go.

Mike, you mean alfalfa pellets don't ya'?

Well, I decided to order frozen from Big Cheese Rodents-good decision. With already 40 animals in our apartment, I figured it would just be too much having that many breeders.
However-due to petstore error and being suckered by my children, I now have Ying and Yang. We'll see how it goes with them, maybe at least I can have some pinks on hand for the couple who refuse f/t.
Thanks for all the replies and great advice.

alfalfa pellets, not aspen. whoops

If you are going to breed mice yourself , you may not be happy with some youngs in a litter . You have to follow up which cages are doing well and which won't . Don't keep them who don't produce well and regular . It is a wast of time and money for food and bedding . Use good pellets >> better results. You have to get 10+ in a nest , if less , change to better ones . Look for good genetic mice . I've been looking and trying for several years and have now females producing 15 babies or more . I was told litters to 20 and 25 but my max is now 16 .
About the odor . I changed from wood shavings to straw from rape-seed . This is used in chicken - and pigfarms and it reduces the ammonia smell from the urine . Years ago I had to open my gardenhouse some hours before to get rid of the ammonia before I could start cleaning every week . In summer I had water in my eyes from that smell , but this is passed since I use rape-seedstraw . :wavey: