• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Mean Lady Mouse

Gabby1970

Gabby1970

New Guy
I've decided to try my hand at breeding my own feeders. I did all of my homework, and I thought I was prepared for anything that might come up. At this point I imagine you guys are all laughing, or at least smiling. The best laid plans of mice and men.....

Here's my problem. I have 1 male and 3 females. One of the females has become very possessive of the male. She follows him everywhere, and attacks the others if they approach him. Is this normal? Should I remove her, or let them work it out? I have another bin to move her to if that's the case, and I've seen her and the male "coupling" about 10 times in the last 24 hours. Can I assume that she is pregnant already? Any advice is welcome.

Thanks
 
Did you just put the group together? I set up my groups young. If I get a real aggressive female or if I get a female that eats the babies I cull her out. Is she larger or older than your others?
 
I put them together Saturday. All three females are within a few grams of each other (27-30g) The guy I got them from said they were all about 5 months old.
 
Rats are so much easier than mice. Wish they were as good for the corns. Mice tend to be more cannibalistic. They may all settle down without disaster. I set my breeding groups of mice up just after weaning. I rarely add mice within a couple of weeks but never after that. If you loose the other two, keep some of the females with their mother and use that group as your breeding group.
 
That isn't a mouse I'd want in my breeding colony. When I had mice, I culled any that were aggressive or ate their babies after their first litter.
 
Sounds like she is his breeding colney. If she is the only keep the nicest for future breeders.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk
 
She doesn't seem to be attacking the others until they approach the male. I've seen the male doing his thing with the others while the mean girl sleeps. Once I am sure that the mean girl is pregnant, can I just move her to her own bin to make sure that she can't get to the other girls and their babies? And then once her babies are weaned, just feed her to my Lizzie Mae?
 
And just so you have all of the information, I'm not looking for a constant stream of mice. I'm only feeding a few snakes right now, and adding a couple of babies this summer. I'm planning on separating all males and females once they are weaned, and then putting some together to breed once I get a feel for how often I'll need a new litter or two.

Is that even a good plan, or should I just keep them rolling?
 
Gabby1970 said:
She doesn't seem to be attacking the others until they approach the male. I've seen the male doing his thing with the others while the mean girl sleeps. Once I am sure that the mean girl is pregnant, can I just move her to her own bin to make sure that she can't get to the other girls and their babies? And then once her babies are weaned, just feed her to my Lizzie Mae?
Click to expand...

I have absolutely NO experience in this, but what seems logical to me is to pull Mean Girl out now, wait for the other two to have their babies (or are sure they are pregnant) THEN switch them out and put Mean Girl (if she isn't already pregnant) back with the male. Since time and numbers aren't dire, two mamas should provide you with enough for now.
 
smigon said:
I have absolutely NO experience in this, but what seems logical to me is to pull Mean Girl out now, wait for the other two to have their babies (or are sure they are pregnant) THEN switch them out and put Mean Girl (if she isn't already pregnant) back with the male. Since time and numbers aren't dire, two mamas should provide you with enough for now.
Click to expand...

That's the way I'm leaning right now.
 
Gabby1970 said:
That's the way I'm leaning right now.
Click to expand...

I think it's a plan! Take the Mean Girl out for an evening, sit her down and tell her that bullying CAN hurt the other girls, that they can end up emotionally scarred from it, and that she needs to be their friend. Set them up for a girls' night out (virgin grain drinks, they are trying to get pregnant, remember!) and hopefully they can all live together like good polygamists.
 
I've never had good luck setting up females unless done right when they were weaned (seems like there is always one mean girl!). What I'm doing now is keeping everybody separate, I'll just drop a female in with the male when I want, I'll leave her for 4 days or so and then put her back in her own tub. I've got one male and 3 females going right now.

I'm not trying to get to many feeders ahead as I only have the 2 snakes right now.

I believe right now in the freezer I got 12 pinks, which is good for 5-7 weeks for my youngest (depending on sheds and when she moves up to doubles). I've also got 10 or so weanlings for my oldest in there as well. I've currently got one mouse with 12 hoppers and another pregnant. I'll grow the hoppers out to weanlings. In about a week or two the third female will be bred.
 
Yeah, I HAD to get her out. The other 2 girls have visible wounds now. I feel horrible for letting it get to that point. What I plan to do is pick a couple of strong females from the first litters to be my breeders. I'll feed the mean girl to my friend's 8yr old anery, and let the 2 wounded girls live out their lives in peace. I feel like that's the least I can do after locking them in with that psycho girl.
 
And you are okay with doing the cervical dislocation? I could never bring myself to do that, I won't even watch the video in the sticky at the top of the page! Feeding them to snakes doesn't bother me at all, but watching or doing the killing is not for me.
 
The video is okay. I'm the one who stickied it. If _I_ can watch it and not be traumatized...
 
smigon said:
And you are okay with doing the cervical dislocation? I could never bring myself to do that, I won't even watch the video in the sticky at the top of the page! Feeding them to snakes doesn't bother me at all, but watching or doing the killing is not for me.
Click to expand...

I watched the video. It looks pretty simple, but I can't help but worry that I'll screw it up. I'll probably end up making a little CO2 gas chamber. They seemed to go peacefully in the videos I saw.
 
Gabby1970 said:
I watched the video. It looks pretty simple, but I can't help but worry that I'll screw it up. I'll probably end up making a little CO2 gas chamber. They seemed to go peacefully in the videos I saw.
Click to expand...

For me CO2 is the way to go. I can easily do 20 hoppers at a time with no problems, can probably do more if I needed to you're really only limited by the size of your chamber.

I used to be in management at a pork processing plant and we used CO2 chambers for the hogs and it was so much more peaceful for them than the alternatives.
 
Honestly, I would rather do cervical dislocation. They seem to suffocate on CO2. I watched the video that Nanci posted. I think the key is to be smooth and easy. Am I imaging that the mice appear to be suffocating? All I think of when I see that is the gas chambers in Nazi Germany and it bothers me a lot.
 
Myca said:
Honestly, I would rather do cervical dislocation. They seem to suffocate on CO2. I watched the video that Nanci posted. I think the key is to be smooth and easy. Am I imaging that the mice appear to be suffocating? All I think of when I see that is the gas chambers in Nazi Germany and it bothers me a lot.
Click to expand...

The brain shuts down before the suffocation takes place, the mouse feels nothing. Some information here.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top