need advice on rasing mice

[Nagini_snow]

Hi i was thinking of starting to rase my own mice to feed my snake

she a hatchling right now so shes on pinkies

i was wondering if now would be a good time to start rasing mice if so what kind of advice would u offer and what kind of set up u might recamend

ill be moving my snake into a 20 gallion very soon so i was planing on using the on 5 gall as there holding tank

any sagestions
would love to here back :)

[Flagg]

Set up the 5 gal with a water bottle, aspen or other substrate, a hide box, and possibly a wheel and add 1.1 or 1.2 mice. Leave them alone other than feeding and watering. In a month or 2 you should have pinkies, then every 3-4 weeks after that. Just make sure you only have 1 male in the tank.

If you want veriety get colored mice and you'kk get litters like this...

[Flagg]

Sorry for the typos.

Oh yea I'd avoid buying mice from Petco. I tried several times with Petco mice, as they had some nice colored ones, but they were ALWAYS sick or sterile. Never got one litter from Petco mice.

[titus]

Mice seem to give the best production in groups of 1,3-1,5 based on how many snakes your feeding go with the rule of one female per snake. They'll have 8-20 pups every 18-28 days. Start with mice that all came out of the same group and that are the same age for the best results. It's best to go for alittle larger group because you don't want to add a female later to a established group.

[Flagg]

Well you can always raise up one of the offspring for more females later. 1.4 or 1.5 might be a bit crowded for a 5 gal tank, however.

[Baba-Lou]

in a 5 gallon there should only be at max a trio. for sure a 1.1. But when you calculate roughly how many mice you'll be getting from a trio or higher. you won't need the excess mice. Its easier to just keep a 1.1 in the 5 gal with a wheel, substrate (newspaper, aspen..never ceder or pine) and a water bottle and just leave them alone. Within 19-21 days you'll have babies.

[Bobo's Mama]

I got one of my breeders from Petco and she did just fine. The other 2 I got from another petstore, and one of them died within 2 months. It all depends on your specific petstores in your area. In your case, since you only have one corn right now, I would only do 1:2 a the most. Because before you know it, you will be over run with pinkies. Your snake just won't eat them fast enough, but one advantage is, is that you will have food ALL the time. And if something does happen to your mice, at least you have backup in the freezer.

[Nagini_snow]

thanks guys ill certainly try that

[sfaoldguy]

I fed my mice hamster food and dog food mix their first litter but they ended up eating most of the pinkies... Since then, I started chopping the dog food up in the blender and turning it into a powder and then mixing with their hamster food and they are doing great... I still add whole dog food for them to chew on...