Mice Not Breeding Question

I need some opinions on what to do.
We are trying to breed mice to supply ourselves with feeders. We bought a male and 3 females back in August and as of yet no babies.
Should we get rid of the male and get a new one or what? We are about to give up on them and use them all for feeders. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

The male could be a dud. I'd start over with a new harem. Get them young and introduce them together before they are actually mature enough to breed. Then let nature take it course.

That has happened to me a few times. To counteract that sort of thing, i always put two males in each cage. It is best to do this with siblings, but it can be done with non related mice. The siblings will not usually fight, but the non related mice will. The simple solution is to take out the one who gets beat up the worst and use him as a feeder. Usually the dominant is the most fertile. This has really worked for me. The odds of two male mice in the same cage being infertile are very slim.

When I get dud colonies, I feed all of them off. My reasoning is that it may not just be the male. Sometimes females are sterile too. I just start over with young mice. It "usually" takes about 8-12 weeks for mice to start having litters. Oviously some have them earlier than other.

Buzzard said:

When I get dud colonies, I feed all of them off. My reasoning is that it may not just be the male. Sometimes females are sterile too. I just start over with young mice. It "usually" takes about 8-12 weeks for mice to start having litters. Oviously some have them earlier than other.

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Completely Agree!! Not to mention, if it is the male, then replacing him could be hard. Established colonies will sometimes, cannibalize new members. It's just easier to start over.

Good Luck

Wayne

Thanks all for the input.

I also always start with 2 males, and then remove the more beat up one after the first litter arrives.

If the male dies in an established colony, I will try to replace him if the colony is less than abut 8 months old or so, since I "retire" (feed them off) at about 1 year of age. If there are babies, I will let a couple of male babies stay to replace dad. I will remove one of them after the first litter.

If the colony is more than about 8 months old, I just replace them all, although I may hold back pregnant females until I get the pinks. For future info, you should be aware that a pregnant female may abort if a new male is introduced, although that is not a problem for you at this time.