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long post mice please grow faster

D

dakota11

New member
I know I have had many questions on this board and appreciate all the advice and info that you all have given me. Now Im having somewhat of a problem with the stores wanting larger mice. I send them at 5-6wks old and they consider them hoppers basically they want bigger. Likely it has to do with the large numbers of young but with that Ive had to cull which my snakes are appreciative of. Anyways what I have at the moment are and the second numbers I counted tonight.
3 does with(after culling roughly 15 or more) 25 1-2 and a half weeks old
off a grey and a brown buck
4 Does (after culling 6 or more) with 17pups 2 and a half weeks
off the black and white buck
2 rew due anytime now off the black and white buck.
2 does that there was an issue with the buck therefore ?pregnant or not.
I recently had an issue with buck odor and am down to one buck that did kill a doe I thought it was a female battle till I witnessed him attack another doe he is currently in with just one doe and they are doing fine.
I guess I have to go into the herum colony type breeding.
All have been in aquariums hinz the cleaning every other day and well awkward bulky tanks and am in the process of building a rack with ten bins.
My questions after this long post.
Now I have all these does and no buck to breed with
my hoppers are too small Is there a food to get the growth quicker?
Is it even possible to reastablish colonies? I feel that Im going to be stuck when these last groups are weaned. I have had no problem rotating bucks in the past couple months I really dont know what happened I can say he is black and white and I have red some bad gene are in that line.
The only thing I can think of is to hold back bucks from the grey and brown line?
There are limited resources here therefore my mice are in demand but need to grow quicker Im really thinking that there are even after culling way to many pups and not enough milk but IDK.
Have I just ended my production?
oh my feed rodent blocks, pig pellets, rat and mouse diet mazuri
the feed store has 25kg rat grower 22%protein same brand you all talk about with the number but cant get the mouse.
On a plus note my asf had babies and I didnt even expect them to yet.
Its late Im frustrated and mostlikely making no sense so bear with me. I owe for the snake supplies and yes part of the breeding is to get out of the hole of rescuing snakes no Im not looking to get rich I just want to be economical about this situation and would prefer not to throw out all the work Ive began with breeding the mice. Some of the nice ones have been sold as pets which makes me happy and makes it easier than just breeding for food.
 
How big exactly are the parents if they are not very big fully grown then the babies are not going to be very big They are not fully grown until they are 10-12 weeks. I have 2 different types off mice and one of mine her babies are always bigger then the other mums and when she has her babies I take at least half of the pinkies away from her as I have hatchlings to feed and the remaining ones grow really nice and fat.
 
I think your feed sounds fine. I don’t think that is the problem. You need to understand that at 5 to 6 weeks old, the are hoppers. Maybe big hoppers. When I was selling to pet stores I would wean the babies at about six weeks but then I would feed them another two weeks before I took them to the shop. If they want bigger than that, they can feed them.

Your production would improve greatly if you would go to the harem system. Every time you reintroduce the male to a female they are going to fight. It might take a week of battle before she decides to breed with the guy. She may decide not to. She may bite off his Who-Who and then no decisions are necessary. Once they become adults, it becomes difficult to impossible to rearrange them.

You would be best off to start with weanlings from your current litters. Put 4 or 5 females and one male in a tub. NEVER more than one male in an enclosure. But start out before they are sexually mature. It will take a month or more but once they start to produce you will have babies pretty much all the time. Then leave them alone. Don’t take the male out every. Don’t add new girls. If changes need to be made, start a whole new colony with new mice.
 
Since you have so many does and no bucks, now is a good time to buy some new males. Try to get unrelated stock it adds fresh blood. I was talking to my mouse guy, who owns a petstore and traded me most of the mice I have for snakes, and he told me what he does is raise females from his colonies but he said he likes to buy the males from somebody else. I took his advice and went and got another 1.3 mice from somewhere else so I could have some other bloodlines to mix up with what I already have from him.
You have already been given this advice in another thread before, but the best way to keep them producing is don't rotate them. Let the males stay in there with the females all the time. Yes they may fight at first, yes there may be some babies eaten but that will stop if you are just patient with them, leave them together and let them become a colony that works together. The males usually become great dads, stay in the nest with the babies while the females eat, and the females that get to know each other will nurse each others babies.
I have all my mice in 10 gallons but I don't have to clean every other day, I have been putting a little pile of clumping kitty litter in one corner and it really seems to help keep the smell down.
 
I've noticed also, that the mice I have breed again right after each litter is born. So if you have been removing the bucks when the does get pregnant you might be missing that window of opportunity when the female is in season right after the litter is born. Leaving the male in there you will get more babies.
 
Are you removing the pups as soon as they are weaned (2.5 wks or so) to a separate grow out tank? If they are left to grow within the colony they will continue to nurse and steal resources from the females, leaving less for the newborns.
 
Thanks you all I am starting a herum colony with a new group hopefully things will go better. Yes Im pulling the male and missing the window of opportunity but with the new colonies I have a few males. Im also changing over from the tanks to the bins. The breeder has really nice looking mice she feeds organic grain and a dog food called field trail which I havent found around here. When looking at her hoppers at the same age as mine well mine sure do look smaller but I also have groups of 3 and 4 females raising the huge litters.
 
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