Companies ripping people off?

[cornsnakekid92]

I have started to breed my own mice, and well on all the websites i see the they call large adult mice 19-25 or 30g. I personally think that that is too small.They might have reached they sexual maturity, but scents when did we start calling 15 year old humans adults? All of my mice are 35-45g before i get a litter, and my retiered breeders are not 40-50g the are 50-65. SO do i just have abnormally large mice? or are the names that big companies use deceptive? What are your opinions?

 

[Tula_Montage]

My mice are HUGE. Small rat sized mice and the babies are just as big. I wait until they are at least 2 months old and well established mice before breeding

 

[princess]

I think a lot of those feeder breeder companies use swiss webster mice for their large litter sizes and I'm not sure but I think they're a smaller type of mouse. That can be the case. So long as they say a retired breeder will weigh a certain amount...then that's OK, if yours are supersized portion mice then that's great for you!

 

[VinnyJ]

I agree with Adele. As long as the feeder breeder company is telling you what the weight is for what they call an adult that's fine. They could call them "Freds" instead of "adults" and as long as they're in the same weight category it would be fine. I personally don't call mice adults until they're almost their full potential size... not when they're sexually mature.

 

[princess]

I used to have a really good mouse supplier in Copenhagen who I'd go to visit once every couple of months and I'd call up a few days earlier to order. Sometimes when I'd order a '200 count of adults' I'd get a bag with everything from mice that looked like they were 5 weeks old (sleek and slim but adult by deffinition) all the way to retired breeders that were easily double the size of the slim ones and showed all the signs of a loooong breeding production life (long nipples, the occasional mamary tumour, large belly).

I was very happy with this system as it gave me a good variety of 'adults' to choose from. It's a shame the guy moved cos I really liked his stock. I have a good supplier now again but it takes a while to find someone you can trust.

 

[princess]

Oh, I should ad, whenever I ordered 100, I could be sure to find 110 in the bag! Once I bought a garbage bag of what was meant to be 500 adults and I had 620 or so...not bad!

 

[Baba-Lou]

30 grmas sounds about right for an adult mouse.

 

[Jessicat]

Something that should be taken into account as well when thinking about the size Company's mice get vs yours is their diet. A Company probably feeds lab blocks, just basic food to keep their rodents alive and well. A personal breeder is probably more inclined to feed their rodents litte treats and human food.

 

[cornsnakekid92]

I guess you are right, i can not stand to not give mine some carrots and penuts!

 

[diamondlil]

Same as princess, my usual supplier has different sizes of pinks, peaches, fuzzies and adults bagged together, so in one bag I can get tiny 1 day pinks and hefty great almost-peach mice, I don't think they weigh or grade, they must just go by the amount of fur or leg length or something. For me it means more choice, if the peaches are too small I just give 2

 

[Ratsicles]

Something that should be taken into account as well when thinking about the size Company's mice get vs yours is their diet. A Company probably feeds lab blocks, just basic food to keep their rodents alive and well. A personal breeder is probably more inclined to feed their rodents litte treats and human food.

Some companies feed only lab block, some companies mix in fresh fruit and vegetables. Treats and human food arent necessarily good for rodents. Where as most of the lab blocks have been designed, with a nutritionist, to provide all vitamins, minerals, low fat, and protein.

Nuts, one of the most common "treats" given to rodents, are really high in fat. Most cereals contain high sugar. Pasta and breads are high in carbs. While all of the above are good fed occasionally, "pets" usually receive one of these items daily.

There are many different strains of mice. One of my strains has an average litter of 12. Another one is about 60g at 4 months. My last one has babies that grow extremely fast up until hopper size. To set up my sizing chart I looked up about 15 of my competitors and wrote down all the sizes ... I then averaged them out. It would be alot simpler if we all went off just one sizing chart.

When I buy stock "adults" means everything from a hopper to a retired breeder. So some I have to put down and others i have to grow out.

Bryan

 

[dionythicus]

I love my mouse pusher. I can go out on Sunday afternoon and pick out exactly what I need. He makes "growing packs" of 50 mice, from day old pinks up to fuzzies, for hatchlings as they increase in size over the first few months. He also makes one size packs (50 or 100) where all the mice (pinks, fuzzies, hoppers or adults) are all the same size. He makes variety packs, as well, with a little of everything that falls into one size category (example...peach fuzzies up to nearly hoppers in one bag). He will put together exactly what I need. And he usually throws in some freebies or cheap extras. I picked up a pack of 50 adults that were "war" torn from fights in the tubs and didn't look all too pretty, but were still good snake food, for maybe half the normal cost of adults. He always lets me see the ugly stuff and makes me a good deal. Snakes don't care if a mouse is missing an ear and neither do I. LOL

He's local to western WA and parts of northern OR. Billy Graham at Slippery Creek Ranch...

http://www.slipperycreekranch.com/

Please tell him Kathy Nicks sent you!