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Do you breed mice/rats for your snakes?

Do you breed your own mice/rats?

  • Yes-mice only

    Votes: 24 36.4%

  • Yes-rats only

    Votes: 3 4.5%

  • Yes-mice and rats

    Votes: 7 10.6%

  • No-I buy all my feeders

    Votes: 32 48.5%
  • Total voters
    66
Luckily I don't have enough snakes to require breeding mice to save money. If I did have to do it, I would probably be breeding rats instead (and I find they smell a little less).

I drive about 20 minutes to get good feeder rodents. In a pinch, there is a chain pet store closer I have to use, though I'm not as satisfied with the quality.
 
Thanks "T". I might try it again this fall, right now I am too busy tending to my collection. I do find it time and cost effective to continue to buy my feeders from Big Cheese, which have done me well. But as I stated in the past, when I raise my own, to supplement. I know they are the very best. again thanks, Teri. Hope you have a great season. REG
 
To all of those interested:

After 1 week of using the liquid chlorophyll I barely smell the mousy odor at all. I really have to stick my nose in the aquarium to be able to smell it.

The makers of this particular brand (Nature's Sunshine I believe) of chlorophyll add spearmint oil to it, I guess to make it more palatable. The mice didn't seem to have any real issues drinking it..my ferret on the other hand took a couple days of real thirst to finally relent. =P

The directions say to add 1 tsp per 8oz..I've added 3-4 teaspoonfulls. I figure what I'm trying to achieve isn't the same goal in mind for the health freaks that drink this stuff. ;)

Just a random FYI. =)
 
Hi! I don't have a snake but I want to get one, and i am learning about them through this forum. I like rats and have 3 of my own, but don't worry, I'm ok with breeding rats and mice for food as long as you do it humanely. And just a reminder, take care of your rats and mice, they are smart and very affectionate. But I have a question. Why not buy from somewhere like rodentpro? Ellen :)
 
To sum it up:

For $13 for a 50lb bag of mouse food...I can breed all of the mice I could ever use for 6 months. I doubt the same $13 can get me 6 months worth of food from any frozen mouse supplier. ;)

On another note, I can control the quality of my mice and how clean they are when I feed them off or freeze them for later use. I don't want urine soaked mice or bedding with feces in there.

And I like watching what comes out every month of my 3 colonies. Different colors and patterns. :D

I still buy frozen adult mice/weanling rats from Big Cheese Rodent Factory, however. But for pinks up to hoppers, breeding my own is easier and cheaper for me.

Hope that helps a little to understand our insight. I'm only breeding mice for 24 snakes, late 2003's up to a 1999. But it's saved me a ton of money in the long run.
 
It's all about the $$$

Ellen,

If you only have a few snakes it really isn't really worth while to breed your own but when you have fifty to a hundred (currently 175 here) it's just cheaper to breed your own. I end up putting a few bucks in my pocket because I sell to some individuals, a pet shop and at a few local Reptile shows. I end up paying for the rodent food and bedding by selling to others plus I feed my animals for free.
 
My own critter raising has undergone a lot of changes in the last 2 1/2 years since I started raising the things. I've tried a zillion kinds of beddings, some quite exotic, when they used to be housed in the house... now it's simpler because they have their own building. I've also tried dwarf hamsters, and gerbils in addition to the mice and rats.

My biggest problem is that I'm awful at record keeping.... the mice procreate like mad, I'm overrun with extras, sell them to the petstore, then realize that my breeders are getting old, and suddenly instead of extras, I have a shortage! If I hadn't started breeding rats in the fall, I would be up the creek. I have been feeding all the snakes rats while the mouse colonies have been getting back up to speed.

I found that the best combination of bedding for smell reduction is pine, with a pinch (SMALL pinch) of cedar, some alfalfa hay, 1/2 teaspoon of imitation vanilla per gallon of water (not for auto waterers), and changing the cages every 3 to 4 days. The alfalfa pellets were fine, but heavy and actually more expensive in the long run.

The mice I have in 1.4 groupings and I would STRONGLY recommend keeping close enough records so that you replace them every six months. I'm getting ready to start new colonies once the babies currently growing up are old enough, I'll mark the date of the establishment of the colonies, and 4 months later I'll nuke that colony. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have almost 50 eggs incubating that need sustenance in about 60 days or so... luckily I should be able to do that, if I keep the rest of my snakes on a rat-only diet!

I do have a mouse website that goes into detail on a lot of the aspects of mice... which are really cool!

http://www.geocities.com/mousedomousery/
 

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6 months and you retire your breeders?

I'm sure it's probably best. But I still have 2 of my original females that still breed, and they're nearly a year old. Granted they're a little slower at it than the younger females, but none of my younger females manage to drop 20 pinks per litter quite yet.

I do know what you mean about record keeping. I keep pretty good records of my snakes and seem to forget about my mice. Between trying to feed my snakes, establishing new colonies, and giving starter colonies away to friends, I just had my first litter in 2 months. Talk about a welcome relief from a dry spell. =P

This may be a dumb question, but I'll ask it anyway...have you ever raised up female breeders who never get pregnant? I've got 2 right now that should be nearly full-term like their sisters..and nothing. They're skinny as can be. Should I wait a month longer, or go ahead and feed them off? I didn't know mice could be infertile. It's almost like an oxymoron. I keep telling them, I don't raise mice to watch them run in that wheel (like both of them do). ;)
 
:eek: Sorry Misty...my mice have been popping babies out left and right! I even kept a few "crawlers" that you gave me. They are pregnant and will be having their babies soon, too. I have probably gotten close to 200 babies from all of the mice you gave me!

I am sorry you had a dry spell, though!
 
Liquid Chlorophyll Question

I had seen a post in this thread in regards to liquid chlorophyll in the drinking water. I was just wondering if anyone knows if there is any long term side affects to using this? Also are there any known side affects to the snakes that might eat the mice that have been given the liquid chlorophyll?

I use to breed mice. In fact I bred them for over 15 years. In that time I experimented with almost every kind of bedding available. I defiantly do NOT recommend cider or pine. Both of these are soft woods and contain oils that are toxic to the mice. Alfalfa Pellets are great for controlling odor. However, they have to be cleaned every 4 or 5 days or you chance growing mold. Aspen shaving is what I had always used and found to work well.

I just started breeding mice again about 2 months ago. At that time I looked for any new beddings on the market that might work better then the Aspen shavings. To my surprise I actually found something. This was recommended to me by Bob Applegate, though I am not using the brand he does. This is Aspen Pellets. I have been using them and am very happy with the result. I have gone for almost 2 weeks without any mouse smell. The brand I am using (Green Pet Aspen Supreme Pellets) is virtually dust free. And with them being 100% Aspen I don't have to worry about mold either as Aspen is mold resistant.

Just my $0.03
Jeff C.
 
Alright, I have been lurking in this thread trying to wait and see what the overall outcome would be. I have some questions now.

First off...alfalfa pellets? Is this what is more widely known as rabbit pellets? Or does that contain something other than alfalfa?

Secondly, I have not found it quite as cheap as Terri did but still find it relatively inexpensive for a 50# bag. My question is this though...how much of the substrate did you put in the bottom?

I've just gotten into breeding mice myself. And thus far I haven't had too much of an odor problem. I am using pine bedding (well it says aspen on the bag, but I highly doubt that it actually is) and change the cages very frequently, ie. every few days.

I did however add a 1.5 colony yesterday. Picked them up at a show really cheap. The gentleman that sold them to us claims that they are swiss websters but somehow I have my doubts on that too. Only because he is a broker I believe and he'll tell you anything to make a sale! But they are healthy looking young white mice none the less! I do have them quarintined in the garage to see if everything goes alright with them before I introduce them into the room with my other colonies though.

Lastly, I may be out on a limb with this one. I have talked to a few people about this and generally get different answers. I have also noticed that different breeders including the larger rodent breeder lay claim to different sized as labels.

At what age (in days) do you all consider pinks, large pinks, fuzzies, crawlers, hoppers/jumpers, etc, etc. I did order from BCRF a couple weeks ago and was surprised to find out that large pinks and fuzzies according to what I got were relatively the same size! But large pinks are .19 as opposed to .23 for fuzzies. I also ordered adults and was somewhat disappointed that their idea of adult is different than some that I had been getting locally. I ended up having to feed 2 adults from BCRF rather than their normal 1 to a few of my adult snakes.

Or do most people that raise their own feed stock just keep and eye on them and remove when they look right for their snake stock.

Lastly, how do most people euthanize? I know it's recommended that you use C02 but is that really the general practice when you aren't producing ware houses full of feeder rodents? Only way I see this fit is via dry ice. Although not hard to obtain, there is an ice house not that far from here. But it seems like a pain. Also isn't it a tad bit on the pricey side, expecially if you are only to put a few mice down at a time?

Sorry for the long post. I'm getting tired and my mind is going to mush at this point.

Thanks for any ideas, advice or words of wisdom.

Quigs
 
For some reason, I still don't know what, my mice have not been breeding at the rate I thought they were capable of. I mean, I have only been getting about 20-30 pinkies per container (4-5 females in each) per month. These mice are over two months old now. I got these mice from a lab, and they are Swiss Webster, which I'm told are suppose to be good breeders. So my quesion... Is this normal for mice to start off with such small litters? Some of them have started having their second litters, but still I am getting a disappointing 5-8 pinkies per litter. Are there better types of mice for breeding, or are mine just having a slow start? I was hoping for a number closer to 12 or so each time. If anyone can help that would be great!

Thanks
 
Hello Tim, does any one sleep anymore..... Anyway, it is possible the breeder got rid of tose mice... because their parents were not good breeders. When I did breed mice, mine were Harlequins. The mother, use to put out 17-25 babies. Try a different supplier. REG
 
Yeah, my mom might be mad if she found out I was up on the computer - I have to go to school tomorrow! Anyway, the mice I got were from a lab in Indianapolis. They told me the mice were about 4 weeks old when I got them. They must have had parents that weren't good breeders then? Where did you get your Harlequins at? Something that could give me that many babies would be great!

Thanks
 
I think it has to do with alot of things. REG's opinion is certainly possible!

However, I would tend to say that real young mice (ie. first litter or two) would be smaller.

I think it can also depend on what you feed them! I feed mine the Muzuri rodent lab blocks. I have only a couple colonies and have recently begun myself. However, I had a first mother (regular pet shop mouse) throw 13 babies last monday. I got another one ready to pop. Looks like a walking tennis ball and this will be her first time having a litter as well!

I recently picked up 1.5 swiss websters too. We'll see what they do in a couple weeks!

I did read awhile back somewhere, that people have found that Muzuri rodent blocks to have excellent effects on breeders. That's why I tried it. It's not too terribly expensive either, in my opinion. $25 for a 50# bag. You might be able to find it cheaper around too since it's a purina product and they are here in town!

Just my $0.02,

Quigs
 
I think it has to do mostly with genetics. A good diet doesn't hurt, though. All of my colonies are young. Most of the females have only had two litters so far. I have been getting an average of 14-18 babies from each female. I got most of my mice from Taceas (a member here). She told me that the parents were good producers...and the babies definitely followed that and haven't disappointed me!

I agree that you need to find a supplier with a line of good producers!
 
I feed my mice Lab Diet pellets that come in a 50 lb. bag. I've heard this type of pellets works very well for them. The containers I have them in now are also much more ventilated than my old ones, so that's not really an issue for them either. I guess they must just have bad genetics in them. Does anyone know where I could buy some "good" breeders from? I'm really hoping to start up a good colony this time...

Thanks
 
Question

For mice that breed and the female that has the babies does the male have to be taken out of the same viv? Or will he eat them?

Suggestions on what other folks do that breed mice would be apprecaited. :)
 
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