mice

My son has a corn that is about 10mo old.We wanted to try raising mice .We now have 3 females and 30 to 40 babies.
my questions are 1)is there a more humane way to "put them to sleep"?
We now are using baggies and a vacume cleaner.
And 2)We live up north (ny) and have cold winters,so is the garage going to be warm enough for the mice,i could rig up some lights and some insulation but it still may get close to zero,

thanks for the vine

zero is WAY too cold to breed (or keep)

But cold is a good way to "put them to sleep." A baggie in the freezer makes them so cold they're warm, and finally fall off into a warm deep narcotic slumber, dreaming about cheese!

For killing mice with fur, CO2 works well. I use CO2 and the mice are dead in minutes. If you don't want to bother with a setup that will cost some money up front (tank, etc.), dry ice works just as well.

A very humane way to kill mice without any fancy setups is to use a zip lock bag, and put some bedding inside it, put about 10 mice per ziplock back, and blow into the ziplock back to puff it up a bit and lock the bag (just have enough space in there so that they're not squished or struggling around and getting claustrophobic). Leave the bag in a dark quiet place for a few hours (one hour seems to be sufficient for me when dealing with fuzzies, but this may differ depending on the size of bag you use, etc, just check every hour or so, drowsy mice don't really mind you checking on them).

The mice will all huddle into a bundle to stay warm, and they'll breath rapidly because they're cold, expelling a lot of CO2 from respiration. The air in the bag slowly turns into 100% CO2, and they'll fall into a sleep and sooner or later get asphyxiated and die. The bedding also helps calm them, since it's a familiar scent to them, and they won't panic. The bedding also soaks up their urine, since mice seem to urinate when they die through asphyxiation. With very small mice (newborns), this method takes a long long time, since baby mice have a different type of hemoglobin that has a higher affinity to oxygen than slightly older mice.

Note: This does not work for any mouse that's mature enough to have open eyes and can run around, they'll chew their way out the bag and more importantly they'll probably panic.

Mice need atleast 60 deg F to not catch pneumonia or other nasty respiratory illness.

-Lemur 6

Now wait a second elrojo.......

I've had great luck keep all of my mice at, or near zero! They are right next to the Healthy Choice entrees.



(I've been on vacation and felt the need to relieve a little "forum stress". A couple of recent threads are getting rather heated!)

Cav, You have a sick sense of humor but I like it.

For such cold weather, you might just consider keeping the mice warm by filling a large rubbermaid container (with air holes for ventilation) with a 8 inch layer of nesting/insulating material like aspen shavings. You could put a small plastic bowl or pipe in the middle for a den. The mice will stay warm by burrowing in the material. During this cold time they will not reproduce, but they will stay alive. You should freeze enough mice during the fall to get you through till spring. Another alternative is to put a heat source such as a heat pad under one corner of the mice enclosure to keep them warm.
Mark

thanx oh thou wise ones

wow so many responses
thank you
we have one 32''reddish? corn
we just do the mice thing for kicks
and to feed for free.
we will have enough mice for winter
but wanna save our breeders if possible
if not, any upstate ny corn people feel free to e-mail and if ya got a big snake...then maybe ...ya [email protected]




but ya know
this is a great site

it has awnsered all of my ?s over the years

LETS SUPPORT IT!
ALLIGHT

PEACE

Over the years?!?

You just registered this month! Kidding, glad you find our sarcasm wrapped up with a tiny bit of information helpful.