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British Mice :(

i have only recently started.
i started with 3.3 mice in november, these were about 5/6 weeks old.
i have taken about 100 mice so far (food wise), i guess i now have about 10.30/35, plus 2 growing on boxes with one load of males and one load of females.
then one lot of rats, pair, they produced 2 which died, 5 of which i have kept 1.1, culled 1.0 and sold 1.1, of the next litter of 13 , 11 lived. i have culled 3 males at about 6 weeks, the recent litter she had about 10 but there are only 3 alive as i think the female may have been tired from not having a break..
so, my long term plan is to not buy in rats for the royals... see where we get with that lol.
 
My mouse farm is really small-scale. I'm actually down to 1 breeder pair! I culled too many for last year's hatchlings and haven't been able to get any new breeders except for this new pair.
I found the satins and colourful mice, while fun, just didn't produce big enough litters, so I'm back to PEWs and having to build up again from scratch. I'm aiming to build up to 4 sets of trios or 1 male to 4 females, which is really as many as I could realistically deal with.
(I'm wildly jealous of T's set-up but I know I haven't the space or time to do justice to that sort of mouse-farm!)
 
I may get in a little bit of new blood, dont want them to get all inbred and that eh.
might end up culling all the males and getting in say 10-12 fresh blood.,
 
I'd love to just buy new breeders Nige, but I've had an order in for 2 months at my local shop with no luck!
 
whats that for hun?, live or frozen?
i have needed mice for a week,but i cant get to where i need to go, its 280 mile round trip.. the roads have been too dangerous.
 
New breeding stock! The satins just aged and stopped breeding too fast, so I managed to get 1 pair of PEWs to start again. They're raising their 3rd litter now so I should (hopefully) get in production for keepers and stocking up on pinkies for this year's corn hatchlings.
Can't get live mice for love nor money this winter!
 
i have some amazing coloured mice.. some really unusual ones, i feel quite bad giving them to snakes lol..
i bet some of them are half special rare ones aswell.i went out and bought a few thousand large and small mice (frozen), so for now i will concentrate on producing fluffs and pinks for the coming seasons babies.
i didnt realise, i only have about enough fluffs for one feed, so i will en up buying some at some point. i have a lot of 08 corns on 2 fluffs, they are not ready to go onto a small mouse just yet.
ironically, i have a large number of pinks, but only use a few each week now, maybe 20 odd.
 
Ah, the joys of trying to keep an appropriate number of each size rodent in your freezer!!!

I completely ran out of adult mice yesterday so i will have to go through and cull some of my spare ex-breeder boxes before next weekend.
 
I've got 4 weaned and 5 about to be weaned that I didn't get the chance to sex at the easy stage! Because I didn't check out the nipple situation when they were peach fluffs, I've now got the delightful task of trying to see who's what on the mad things while they do their best to levitate out of my hands.
I read a tip on putting them in a cricket box to wait 'til the boys relax their family jewels. I can now say with confidence that I have 9 unsexed mice.
 
torsten said:
Ah, the joys of trying to keep an appropriate number of each size rodent in your freezer!!!

I completely ran out of adult mice yesterday so i will have to go through and cull some of my spare ex-breeder boxes before next weekend.
Click to expand...

i dont think i could ever produce enough mice to provide for all the snakes i have, but i do try to get the right sizes..
i know i have about enough sub adult males to cull for one full meal.. so thats better than nothing at the moment for me.
 
Just my 2pence worth here, but in Shropshire we much be lucky. We only have the one snake (at present) so I don't have to bulk buy, but my local reptile shop seems to have plenty of mice in, in various sizes.

Also whilst in the shop we buy our cat and dog food from, I just happened to look in the freezer and they had 'blocks' of adults, and fuzzies and pinkies in there as well. It was quite a shock as there is no mention of reptiles in the shop anywhere else.

Could this be a geographical phenomenon?

Cheers

Ian.
 
well, after now breeding my own rats and mice for a while again (8/9 months mice and 6 months rats), I have a few conclusions:-
My own rodents are better than anything I have ever bought.
They are obviously fresher.
The royals I have been giving fresh killed, that way they get all the goodness, and if they dont eat I can use the rat again, so double bonus.
I am managing to provide my own royals quite easily now on the rats.
mice wise, not a chance I will be self sufficient, but i'm trying, i've certainly eased the flow of buying mice. The quality is of course miles better, although i dont feed fresh killed as corns are easier to sell on defrost.
I'll deffo be carrying on with it, while I can manage it.. not sure how long that will be, 10 weeks to go and i'll be a dad for the 4th time lol
 
I should be self-sufficient in pinkies for this year's corn hatchlings, but no chance in breeding and growing on enough adult mice Nige, I just haven't enough room and time to grow them on in large enough quantities. The price of frozen adults is holding steady at £45 per 100 from my current supplier so far, but if it goes up much more I'll have to think again about expanding the mouse farm.
 
when needed, i use A and N.. but its a long way to go, lmost 300 mile round trip for mice.
pinkie wise, i am producing a stupid amount, but i am using them pretty fast too.. over 100 every 5 days at the mo with more yet to hatch or shed and start feeding
 
Talk about coincidence, as I'm reading your post I can hear a new batch of pinks squeaking! I could do with better producing lines like lab mice, my PEWS are averaging 10 a litter which isn't as good as the ones I had before I experimented with coloured and satins. Should have stuck with the original lines at 15-20 a litter, but you live and learn.
 
diamondlil said:
Talk about coincidence, as I'm reading your post I can hear a new batch of pinks squeaking! I could do with better producing lines like lab mice, my PEWS are averaging 10 a litter which isn't as good as the ones I had before I experimented with coloured and satins. Should have stuck with the original lines at 15-20 a litter, but you live and learn.
Click to expand...

i rememeber by lab mice back in the day, i had a lot of massive litters, often over 20.
i dont know what i average now, at the moment i have 1.10 and take out pinks daily, although i have left some recently in most boxes as i am doing a mass overhaul fresh start. i have a lot over 5 months or so, maybe 6 and i dont want an old breeding colony. i probably have enough to do about half my lot now.
 
I've got 3 lots of 1.3, and thinking about another 1.3 or perhaps to go to 1.4 for new breeders. of course having the mouse farm in my bedroom because of the cats isn't brilliant, but at least I'm forced to keep 'em cleaned out!
 
luckily i have a garage, i couldnt keep them in my house.
i only have those ones as 1.10 purely to produce high numbers of pinkies, most are going to be 1.3 or 4 after, although i cant see a point where i will never need pinkies
 
diamondlil said:
I should be self-sufficient in pinkies for this year's corn hatchlings, but no chance in breeding and growing on enough adult mice Nige, I just haven't enough room and time to grow them on in large enough quantities. The price of frozen adults is holding steady at £45 per 100 from my current supplier so far, but if it goes up much more I'll have to think again about expanding the mouse farm.
Click to expand...

I was just wondering who your current supplier is and do they deliver? That's pretty good pricing compared to the prices I'm paying at the moment, for large adult mice :)
 
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