When is it worth the effort?

[MerlinsPop]

Would be interested to hear comments on where folks believe the point is where it's worth raising your own feeder mice. Right now, I have 5 pinky-eating mouths, so I could sort of see raising feeders for them, but eventually the 1-2 pinkies every 4-5 days will evolve into 1 adult every 10 - 14 days and at that point I wouldn't think keeping my own breeders makes sense.

On a side note, it's too bad it's too risky to feed wild mice to our snakes. Just this weekend, I've caught 5 in my basement (I can't figure out where the little buggers are getting in, but I know it's nearly hopeless to try to find it.). 2 adults, 2 sub adults and one wee little one. All were too big for my snakes now, but by next year, I would think some of the 5 could eat these tiny things. Won't do it, just opining that it's too bad there's too much risk. Catching a pair to start breeding feeders with???

[Nanci]

Sometimes wild mouse scent will get non-feeders going...

Nanci

[MerlinsPop]

Hey!!! Thanks for the tip! I could freeze my next "customer" to kill any parasites that might be on it, and do a little pinky rubbing.

THANKS!

[Flagg]

With 5 snakes, in my opinion it would be worth a small colony, perhaps 1.2 or so in a small lab type breeder cage. Easy to care for and clean, doesn't take up much space, and you should get about 2 litters a month.

As for the wild mice, don't bother. It's not just parasites but toxins as well. And breeding them would be a mistake. Buy some lab mice and take advantage of hundreds of years of selective breeding and domestication.

[Ohana]

I have thought about this as well, but only having two snakes I never thought it was worth it.

I wish you luck and if you can keep that mice colony clean then go for it. I always have a problem with cleaning up after mice. They just smell so bad and urinate EVERYWHERE! So a cleaning means a lot of work. Just not worth it for me.

But hey, if you can do it, Rock on!

[MerlinsPop]

I've got several month's worth of f/t to keep me going, so the decision is waaay off in the future. I just got to thinking about it while collecting all the unwanted house guests this weekend.

Last year I lost count at 25 (inside the house and the garage combined). So far, it's garage 1, basement 5, and it's only just now starting to get chilly out.

[wade]

If you decide to breed your own, don't wait till your out of pinkies to get started. It always takes longer than I expect to get a new colony started. A month from now you have five snakes each eating 2 pinkies a week that is 10 per week or 40 per month. You female mouse is only going to produce 15-20 every three weeks. Two females will barly keep up. It wouldn't hurt to have a sack full in the freezer.

On the wild mouse question. I have maybe a thousand mice in my garage. Most of them are in cages and are white. Because I raise mice, my garage is also full of mouse food. My garage is a haven for wild mice. Wild mice won't come to a baited trap because they are stuffed from eating my mouse food. To deal with this I went to the feed store and bought a liquid concentrate mouse poison. You mix it with a quart of water and put it in one of those chick water dispencers. I keep a couple of them in the garage all the time and rarely see wild mice. This is the only water available to animals that are not inside the cages.

[Double het]

I would not feed wild-caught mice. They might have eaten poison, plastic or other nastly stuff.

Raising mice is worth is if you can stand the stench and the work in involves. Even if you have only 1 snake you can freeze the mice for later.

[wax32]

I would not feed wild-caught mice. They might have eaten poison, plastic or other nastly stuff.

Raising mice is worth is if you can stand the stench and the work in involves. Even if you have only 1 snake you can freeze the mice for later.

I started a 1.3 colony a while back to feed my 5 hatchlings. So far no pinkies, but lots of stink. Right now I am leaning towards letting them drop a litter each and then getting rid of them. My room stinks! Snake stink I can stand. Mouse stink, not so much!

[Sanebedlam]

Smell is the only reason I won't breed them. I have heard to many people complain about the smell. As for your question about what to do when they slow down there feeding and you are producing more mice then you have mouths that just means its time to buy more snakes!

[darkmorning1]

yeah they really smell. got to clean them like every 2 to 3 days atlest...

[hartsock]

I've had a colony for about a month and a half now, possibly 2 months. I change the bedding once a week and use the absorbant little ball stuff (not sure of the name). At one week it is starting to smell. And that was with a 1.1 (started 1.3 but alpha female didn't like the ladies after she got pregnant and killed them). 7 weened and 12 fuzzies. I seperated them last night from the weened ones. As far as when to start breeding, factor in the cost of bedding (gotta change it often for smell) and food. I feed mine a hamster mix, with added cheerios, and day old bread and fruit that our church gets from a food bank ministry (I get the hard stale bread and the fruit that is on it's last legs). So far with the free supplemental fruit and the grain breads, I have kept my costs down, but then I have 26 snakes. If I were you I would maybe get a 1.1 pair or a 1.2 pair as pets and start to freeze once they get going.

[divapixie]

Honestly, I have two large colonies right now. I had them seperated down into 4 colonies before but my males started dying off so I condensed it into two large colonies of 1.4 and 1.5. I have a few females that are BIG producers... 15-20 a litter. Some of my others I'm lucky to get 5 out of. I either don't notice the smell as much or the places where the tanks are located are well ventilated. I'm not for sure. Once in a while I walk by and catch a really good whiff but its been pretty rare. I've been using a substrate made from recycled paper products and it seems to obsorb urine and ordor pretty well. About due for a change though. I have 19 snakes in total... 7 adult corns 2 ball pythons, 1 yearling corn and 9 hatchlings. Its worth while to me since its easier for me to stock pile pinkies this way and I also raise some of the mice up to hopper and small adult size for the others. I do on occassion need to make a trip to the pet store but breeding mice has signifcantly dropped my costs. I'm hoping to start another small colony soon.