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breeding mice

I got my co2 canister and remote line with quick release off ebay for pretty cheap. I attached the quick release fitting to a rubbermaid bin, and the hose attaches to that. I fill up the CO2 at a sporting goods store, 20oz. for less than $3. Lasts a decent amount of time.

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ZoologyGirl said:
I got my co2 canister and remote line with quick release off ebay for pretty cheap. I attached the quick release fitting to a rubbermaid bin, and the hose attaches to that. I fill up the CO2 at a sporting goods store, 20oz. for less than $3. Lasts a decent amount of time.

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How many rodents do you euthanize at a time, & how often?
Nice setup, btw :)
 
As said above, the pinks go straight in the freezer, they are dead in seconds, the larger prey i just throw onto a paving slab that i have just for this purpose, they are killed instantly then placed in the freezer unles i need to feed fresh killed( which i do about every 5th or 6th feed)
 
Only if its processed or kilned pine. Aspen is better for health but if you get some kilned pine you can mix the 2 for odor control. Tractor supply sells aspen and kiln pine. Pretty cheap 10 for a bail of aspen. It can be dusty so a spritz of water will help keep the dust down.
 
my local petstore sold only female mice, however they had a good supply of adult feeder mice for sale, so I just grabbed M/F feeders, and they've worked out fine.
 
nwheather said:
IMO, that adds more stress to them, moving them back & forth.
I've had no problems keeping my colonies together all the time. Like mentioned earlier, they work together with caring for the babies.
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This makes sense to me too, females seem to need some time to adjust to the male.

My biggest concern, when I bred my own mice though, was females dying after only a few litters due to being "worn out" from constant breeding/nursing/caring for young. Has anyone else experienced this problem?

Perhaps my problem was buying my breeder mice from the pet store..

Oh, also, to the OP, I'm sure that you've already read this, but I can't stress enough, Only one male per colony!!
 
Poor diet will result in females dying after only 2-4 litters. They need more than just lab blocks. I have yet to find one that supplies enough of the correct nutrients for female mice. They can be a great staple as the mainstay of the diet but they need more than that. They need lots of protien but be careful to not go too high. I think 24% is good. Try for fat to be lower though 10% or less if possible. Also having things to do stimulates their minds and keeps them fit. Never had a female die on me from being bred too much. Lost them to age (14 to 18 months) if I did not cull them at one year to make room for held back females. Males I let breed until their condition begins to go downhill then replace.
 
I've been breeding mice for a few years. The lab mice such as swiss webster are known for their big litters, but to me it is more fun to have a lot of different colors. Mice come in all kinds of morph just like corns do. I have satins, brindles, tans, himalayan, and spotted ones right now.
I usually euth and feed off the females after they have a few litters- the pinky counts start getting smaller after that- and raise a few female babies from those litters. When I want to start a new colony I usually go get an unrelated male. Petsmart is a store that only sells males (at least here) and they usually have a nice selection of "Fancy mice". I have also picked up some good breeders at local shows. I think for starting a colony it's worth spending a bit more to get a "pet quality" mouse rather than get one that was intended as a feeder. In my experience the feeders are less healthy because they have been raised for food in bins with a whole bunch of other mice.
I feed mazuri or harlan lab blocks with occasional treat like raw peanuts or some chicken scratch grains. I haven't had problems with feeding lab blocks, but try to use a quality brand and not some of the cheaper lab blocks out there. I keep them in a 1.3 ratio for a 10 gal or 1.5 in a 20 long. I keep them all together and don't move males or females in and out, they work together as a colony to take care of the babies.
 
raising mice

I use one male for 8-10 females, using 20L aquariums with deep shavings, a number of ceramic next sites for the females, I have kept stacks of 3 of these and had mice extra to sell to a local pet shop, feeding two Black Rat Snakes. Most rearing tanks were 6, two stacks of 3 on aquarium stands. But cut back to 3 tanks, and had mice to spare even when the Blacks got big.
 
The best place to find mice is from a reptile oriented pet store! They usually buy their mice from a local breeder and have good healthy stock. You can also check Craigslist. I've seen mice and rats offered there. I had some problems when I first started and I asked around and learned from my mistakes and got some expert advice. I keep my tubs with 1 male and 6 females these days, but 3 or 4 females is good. I use Walmart pine shavings which is about 8 or 9 bucks a bale. One trick is to not keep the colonies more than 6 months! Replace them with hold backs from previous litters. Now with only one colony you will soon get inbreeding problems. I have 20 tubs so I make sure to get males from one and females from another and always keep them fresh. It's been a couple years since I got new outside blood so I may do that this season. All I need is to get a dozen or so males and mix them in. If you keep the colonies more than 6 months you are declining your output. I rotate them at four months from the first litter. If you get any cannibalism after the second litter, I would scrap that group and find another. Another good tip which I got from a professional rodent breeder is that for a high output you need high fat food. He had his blocks specially made for him in huge batches, and would buy it by the truckload. This may sound weird but I found the black and white mice to be the most productive, and silky or satin mice to be the very least productive.

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Wow, personally I feel that is way too many mice for such a tiny tub but that is just me. I like to pamper my mice a bit since I do not raise them just for my snakes, in fact my snakes are more like population and quality control lol. You have some nice colors though!
 
carnivorouszoo said:
Wow, personally I feel that is way too many mice for such a tiny tub but that is just me. I like to pamper my mice a bit since I do not raise them just for my snakes, in fact my snakes are more like population and quality control lol. You have some nice colors though!
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That's cool, I like to play around with the colors and the varieties, but bottom line for me is out put. It's not easy caring for twenty mouse colonies and five rat colonies. It's also not cheap to feed them, so I must have high out put for it to be worth my time and efforts. If not I would invest in a small freezer and buy them frozen. However I like the freedom to choose different sizes for optimum efficiency feeding my snakes also. It's really abot the snakes for me, but I have fun with the mice on the side. Those bins looked crowded by the way because they were filled with hoppers which were removed shortly after the pics were taken. Here are some of my Fancy mice, but like I said they don't make good breeders in general. I never pair up a Satin female with a satin male. By now i think all of my mice have satin genes floating around in their blood though. I have some that are all silver and all Gold but I haven't got any pics of them.

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Great color and nice size, well done, arre you feeding ALL of your production? Or freezing some? If feeding all you must have quite a few snakes.
 
Jake Levi said:
Great color and nice size, well done, arre you feeding ALL of your production? Or freezing some? If feeding all you must have quite a few snakes.
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Thanks, I do have quite a few snakes. Last time I counted it was around 200, including hatchlings. I have a lot of Kingsnakes and Corn snakes. This next season will be my biggest production since many of my snakes are just reaching breeding size. If you click on my photobucket account by my signature you can see pics of most of them. I don't freeze any yet, but I am going to get a small freezer cause many times I have to give away rats when they get too big. So if I freeze them before they get too big I will increase my efficiency quite a bit. Problem is not all my snakes will take rats, but I'm working to switch them over. I believe the rats are better for several reasons. Mainly just because they grow faster and so are more cost efficient.
 
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