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mouse size versus rat size??

maegann

maegann

I'm Me, Deal With It
i have 1.2 mice that i have for breeding, but the male mouse REEKS!! My family and i can smell him two rooms away, so i was thinking about breeding rats instead (because ive heard the males dont smell). so, i was wondering what the size comparisons are for mluse offspring and rat offspring? like, are rat pinkies the same as mouse hoppers?, and so on. thanks for all of your help
 
I don't know about everyone else on the smell issue.

I have a mouse colony of 6 breeders at the moment, and 2 rat breeders. I also work with them for my occupation where we have "roughly" 2,000 mice breeders and 200 rat breeders.

The rats smell much worse than the mice!
Not the males in general, just altogether their waste stinks. I have to spot clean my two rats every other day to keep the smell down, as apposed to every week or two for my mice.
 
Hi,

I don't know the comparison but I can tell you that rat males smell. I don't know if they smell more or the same as a mouse, but they do stink. We have pet rats, and have had both male and females. The males you can smell from a room away maybe more. It is because male rats like to roll in their pee(apparently the females find the stinker he is the better)

Carrie :)
 
While male mice do have a smell to them, any rodent in an aquarium is going to smell. Male rats have their own smell to them as well, although it is not quite as potent as a male mouse. Although, like I said, anything in an aquarium is going to have an odor considering the lack of air flow.

-Mo
 
Ok, I realize this is a little different then what you originally asked, but I thought that since you're thinking of raising rats/mice I'd give you a size comparison of a few adults.
My rodent breeding is pretty modest, and at this point I only have one male mouse and one male rat.
Here are some comparison pictures of my male mouse and Robin, my male breeder rat.

malemouse.jpg

IMG_3041.jpg


Sorry that they aren't the exact same shot, that was my original plan. It was really hard to keep Robin in his designated area!
robinontheloose.jpg


Male rats get HUGE, Robin was born in December, he's half a year old. I'll spare you a "poop comparison" picture between Robin and my male mouse.. hehe

Honestly though I have my rat and mouse colony in my room and they really don't smell too bad. I use cat litter at the bottom of my mouse's aquarium and in the pull out shelf at the bottom of the rat's cage. It's a life saver.

Here's some closeup shots of the two, but it's not as great of a comparison because one picture is vertical and the other is horizontal.

IMG_3028.jpg

robincloseup.jpg


If you're consitering getting rid of the mice all together and replacing them with rats think about how large your cage is. A spacious home for 3 mice gets pretty cramped for 3 rats. Robin grew up pretty fast, here's one of the first pictures I took of him. I can't believe he used to be that small!

IMG_1341.jpg


I hope that that wasn't too much rambling and at least a little bit of help! Good luck
 
My colony of mice and rats don't smell at all. In fact, they don't even poop! Never have to change their bedding or water. I just take them out of the freezer, thaw and feed...:grin01:
 
Ratsicles said:
Mouse fuzzie = Rat pinkie
Medium mouse = Rat fuzzie
Adult mouse = Rat pup
Medium rat = Fuzzy rabbit
Large rat = 1lb rabbit.
X-Large rat = 1.5lb rabbit.

This is from http://www.frozenfeeder.com/sizing.html
Click to expand...

First, my apologies to Maegann for the :-offtopic ...

At the bottom of that size equivalent chart, they state younger prey items are more nutritious. I thought the whole point of getting hatchlings off pinkies as soon as possible was because the older/bigger rodents were more nutritious. Which is it?

*color me confused ... again*
 
Kitty said:
First, my apologies to Maegann for the :-offtopic ...

At the bottom of that size equivalent chart, they state younger prey items are more nutritious. I thought the whole point of getting hatchlings off pinkies as soon as possible was because the older/bigger rodents were more nutritious. Which is it?

*color me confused ... again*
Click to expand...

CMatt ... Sorry I was looking for something easy ... Like A = B. Once I clicked on the pictures I figured it out.

http://www.ratsicles.com/nutrition.html Here is specific nutrition info. It is from a study the USDA did for zoos in May 2002.

In most areas you will see that younger animals usually have more gross energy, lower fat, and that the majority of vitamins and minerals are higher. Also the majority of large - XX-large animals are used up breeders. These are animals that have been depleting their resources, to give to their litters, for 6 months to 1.5 years (this is the normal breeding term to keep animals at their peak).

The chart doesnt do alot to compare and adult mouse to a rat pup or an adult rat to a 5 week old rabbit (most of the rabbits have either no weight listed or have been eviscerated). However a rat pup (21-30 grams) weighs more than a large mouse (19-25 grams), and a 5 week old rabbit (.75 to 1 lb) weighs more than than a large rat (160-265 grams). Also the bones in young animals havent hardened, this means less calories are expended in digesting them.

The main reason I have to get snakes off of pinkies and onto furred animals is the stool. With no hair to hold the stool together it can be quite messy. It is also thought that hair helps to clean the digestive tract.


Bryan
 
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