So I took the plunge...

Went to the pet store yesterday with my daughter and she spent 20 minutes sitting on the floor in front of the mouse cages. "Daddy, I want mouses."( I love how little kids say "mouses") "Well, honey, If we get mice, Sammi Snake is gonna eat the babies." "OK, daddy. We can keep the big ones?" "Yes, baby. We keep the big ones to play with, and we let Sammi Snake eat the baby ones. Do you want to do that?" "Yes, daddy. Just if we can keep the big ones, than we can give the babies to Sammi Snake."

So, yea...Daddy came home with 2 females and a male today. My daughter hasn't seen them yet. I bought them after I dropped her off at Mom's house. I figured I would let the poor critters get settled a bit before the large hands of a 2 1/2 year old started pawing all over them.

They are actually pretty darn cute. I've taken them each into my hands a few times individually already, just to make sure nobody is going to get bitten, and they seem pretty content to sit in the palm of my hands. One of the females is a "typical woman"(no offense). The second she was in the enclosure, she went about rearranging all of the bedding inside and around the hideaway, making it "just so", while the male(also quite typical) went directly to the food and alfalfa I laid in there and munched away.

I am, as usual, enthralled with watching their every move, trying to decipher their activities and come up with an explanation to exactly what they are doing and thinking.

I'll post up some pictures later tonight of the cute littlebuggers. In the meantime, if anyone has any tips or advice on keeping healthy, well-adjusted mice in a breeding colony, I am open to suggestions...

Good job on getting a pair. When I first started with mine, I loved it too. It gets old after a while, but its still funny. If you want them to be "pets with benefits" get them a wheel, they will use it nearly 24/7, and its really funny when they all start running at once.

Thanks for the tip. I was wondering if they would use a wheel or not, but figured I'd ask around before buying one. Yes...they are definately "pets with benefits". I wouldn't have gotten them just yet if my daughter hadn't asked for some...

Congrats on giving in again. :cheers: lol

Im sure she will be soo happy when she comes home.

If the cage is anywhere near a bedroom, be sure to get one of the "silent spinner" type wheels, or a "wodent wheel". Avoid wire mesh wheels. solid plastic is best, and those 2 mentioned are the quietest. With a wire wheel you'll end up with a lot of dead mice. mice are stupid

Thanks for the info. Yea...I'm keeping the mice in a 10gallon aquarium in my bedroom...same as the snake, and future snake purchases. I alread planned on getting one of the "silent" wheels, as a whole bunch of "squeak, squeak, squeak" all night long from a spinning wheel would drive me batty. I can handle the mouse squeaks, but those wheels can get annoying...

If they're in your bedroom, you might also want to use a good pelleted bedding to keep down the awful urine smell.

I use "Woody Pet" which is a pelleted wood bedding, but sort of hard to find. Yesterdays News unscented cat litter (newspaper pellets) work well on smell, or alfalfa pellets are nice and cheap and fight odor well but have their own hay smell. There's also Aspen Supreme aspen pellets but they're pretty expensive.

Any one of the pelleted beddings work significantly better than aspen shavings or carefresh on that hideous male mouse urine smell.

tyflier said:

Thanks for the info. Yea...I'm keeping the mice in a 10gallon aquarium in my bedroom...same as the snake, and future snake purchases.

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awesome............post pics when they arrive. i really thought that is what the thread title and first sentence of your post was leading to.

galen

Flagg said:

If they're in your bedroom, you might also want to use a good pelleted bedding to keep down the awful urine smell.

I use "Woody Pet" which is a pelleted wood bedding, but sort of hard to find. Yesterdays News unscented cat litter (newspaper pellets) work well on smell, or alfalfa pellets are nice and cheap and fight odor well but have their own hay smell. There's also Aspen Supreme aspen pellets but they're pretty expensive.

Any one of the pelleted beddings work significantly better than aspen shavings or carefresh on that hideous male mouse urine smell.

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I have this ComfortCare Litter bedding for small animals. It's supposed to reduce odor and such. We'll see. I also have alfalfa strewn about to help with odor as well as to provide some roughage for their dietary needs. I actually like the smell of alfalfa. I worked for a few years on a game farm in upsate NY.

I'll look into the pellets if this stuff I got doesn't work well enough. Worst case scenario, I change the bedding every day until I find the pellets that you recommend.

What are you feeding them? More than alfalfa I hope. I'm not positive but I think I've read that mice can't digest alfalfa. I know rats can't, not positive about mice.

Anyway, Mazuri or Harlan lab blocks are best. Avoid Kaytee brand.

I got a bag of the stuff they feed them at the pet store. It has a bunch of different seeds and corn and dried peas and stuff in it. It's what the lady at the pet shop uses for her breeder colonies of mice.

The alfalfa that I got is supposed to be a supplement for their diet to provide roughage or something. I don't really know. The shop recommended it as a supplement, so I bought it. I also got a pumpkin seed chew brick and some cholla rounds for them to chew on. Everything I got was at the recommendation of the pet store...

when I used the seed mix, they little buggers piked out what they wanted and throw the rest to the side. I switched to the lab block, they still end up throwing it around, but eventually they eat it now.
I also reccomend the pellets. I put a thin layer of Aspen Supreme on the bottom and top with a couple inches of aspen bedding(same stuff the snakes use). I don't clean them out but once a week. There is no odor at all, it's really good stuff. I keep mine in a 58 Qt rubbermaid container. We have had 2 litters this month, 10 the first time and 7 the next. They are alot of fun to watch, your little one will get a big kick out of them. Have fun.

do you shop online?

Flagg said:

I use "Woody Pet" which is a pelleted wood bedding, but sort of hard to find. Yesterdays News unscented cat litter (newspaper pellets) work well on smell, or alfalfa pellets are nice and cheap and fight odor well but have their own hay smell. There's also Aspen Supreme aspen pellets but they're pretty expensive.

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You can get Woody Pet from Horse Haven in Cali.
Aspen Supreme & Yesterday's News are sold at PetCo and PetSmart.

Thanks, all, for the info. I used the "litter bedding" that I had by itself for the first couple days, and it stank something fierce after 2 days. Right now I have a "special concoction" of beddings. I used the super-absorbent ltter stuff, mixed it with a sprinkling of alfalfa and a smattering of aspen substrate. So far, it is controling the odor much better than the litter alone.

I will look into getting the lab blocks, and the pellet bedding. Unfortunately, at the time I was limited to what was offered at the pet shop. I will make do, until it is gone, and then check out some of the online suppliers for future purchases. Thanks again!

Well you won't find a very good deal on lab blocks online. The best source would be a local feed store or feeder breeder at a reptile show.
I just picked up 33 lbs of Harlan Teklad lab blocks for $13 at the local reptile show. Most decent feed stores should carry Mazuri lab blocks which are made by Purina.