New Fancy mouse colony, Pic heavy

[Arpolis]

Hello everyone

This year I decided to start a mouse colony for my hatchlings rather than getting from Rodent pro. I basically copied the style cage I use on my Rats. Took about 20 - 30 min to put together. I will keep the male separate from females that are about to pop and hope to not have the male present with babies if I time things right. Currently I only have the male, I will get females tomorrow. I will let the pics speak for themselves so let me know what you think.

 

[Arpolis]

Here are more pics.

 

[Wyldrose]

Looks good, I honestly would seal off the wood divider, they enjoy climbing and peeing lol!! Mouse urine soaked in wood smells like you wouldnt believe and it'll grow all types of bacteria. Is the divider in there for 2 colonys or just to seperate the male?
Males make great Dad's to the babies, the only down side of having him in with his litters is females can get pregnate within 24 hours of giving birth, so that puts a bit of a strain on her. I leave my males with the females, they seem to take better care of the babies then the Mom lol!

 

[Arpolis]

Sealing the wood sounds good. I'll do that tomorrow no problem. the divider is for separate females. This way I can give moms a break without stopping the flow of babies. I was thinking starting with 2 females and holding back a couple more if I need to. My rat dads are great with the kids but I hear there is a greater risk of mouse dads not doing well with the kids. I am just playing it safe for now and will see how my new buddies act and react before making changes.

 

[cornsnakegirl]

Even if you are just using them for breeding, isnt that small for them? :/ They need wheels, don't they?

 

[Arpolis]

My rats are in a 75 gal tank with similar setup. I have yet to have any rats that look obese or have had any bad problems due to lack of exorcize. They seem to climb on the food container a lot and must get some decent exorcize there. If anyone else wants to chime in and talk on that subject please do. If the consensus is that I am wrong then I am happy to change for the betterment of the mice.

 

[Sita]

If you're only going to have one mouse at a time, and don't plan on raising the babies past the fuzzy stage, then it might work. Otherwise, that's way too small of an area for more than one mouse, especially 2 females with litters. You're risking litters getting eaten because they would be stressed from so little space.

In general, you're going to see better results (attitude-wise, number of babies, etc.) the more space you give them.

 

[Sita]

If you're only going to have one mouse at a time, and don't plan on raising the babies past the fuzzy stage, then it might work.

Clarification: only have one mouse at a time in each section.

 

[Wyldrose]

I have raised entire litters from birth to weaning in shoe box sized rubbermaid bins and they did good. I decided to go with a big colony in my 30gal tank, I have 1 10 gal for weaned mice and 1 10 gal with a second colony.
Wheels are not nessecary, In my 30 gal I have one flying saucer wheel, they usually bury it eventually lol
This is my 30 gal:

 

[spindelberrygirl]

If you're only going to have one mouse in each section at a time, then it will probably work, but any more then that and I'd say go with a larger tank for sure. Other whise it may very possibly lead to not only cannibalising the babies, but the adult mice as well. Also, as far as leaving the males in with the females, it very much depends on the mice, and the breeders preferences. In the wild, for example, the male will stay with the female and help out with finding food, and moving the babies if they must change nests. Also, by leaving the male in, it will result in a much larger colony and provide relief to the female as far as caring for the litter. However, if you're just looking to give the female relief as far as not being inpregnated right away, then it may be well worth your wile to invest in either another tank all together, or a larger tank. Smaller ones, like I said above, will most likely result in canabalism, and a ton of stress.

 

[Wyldrose]

I switched from the small bins to the bigger tank because it's easier to clean one big tank then several small bins, plus I was having issues with the water bottles, just the slightest angle off and no water would come.
If you have brindle mice like 50% of my colony(all the yellows are brindles too) then you would expect obesity because they are linked to it. It has nothing to do with diet/exercize. I feed a mix of hoggrower, wild bird seeds, rabbit pellets and small amounts of dog/cat food. They also get a lot of scraps, I have 4 kids so the mice eat well lol!

 

[AliCat37]

I'm going to go and disagree with the general consenus here.. I think those are just fine for your mice. You can house up to three females in that. I don't personally house mine in something that small, and I don't separate my males and females, but most big breeders of mice and rats keep them in little plastic racks where each tub measures about 8 inches wide and 12 long. Each of these tubs house 1.2 mice. You won't be able to grow out the mice past crawlers, but since you're only needing pinks it's fine. Mice don't need wheels. I've never seen someone who is breeding thousands of rodents a month provide them with wheels. Again, this is not how I have my mice set up, mine are a 1.4 group in a 30 gallon tank. They had a wheel until they broke it, but there's been no change in them.

 

[AliCat37]

I switched from the small bins to the bigger tank because it's easier to clean one big tank then several small bins, plus I was having issues with the water bottles, just the slightest angle off and no water would come.
If you have brindle mice like 50% of my colony(all the yellows are brindles too) then you would expect obesity because they are linked to it. It has nothing to do with diet/exercize. I feed a mix of hoggrower, wild bird seeds, rabbit pellets and small amounts of dog/cat food. They also get a lot of scraps, I have 4 kids so the mice eat well lol!

How many mice and what ratio do you have in your 30 gallon? How often are you getting babies? I've only got one mouse that is consistently having babies. One is a pet for sure, the others I'm seriously about to feed off.

 

[Wyldrose]

The most I have had at one time from that colony was 100 pinkys, I had around 80 mature(I cull the runts and any that dont look good). I was over run, so I sold some off to other breeders and the petshop. But at any time I have 20-30 babies of various ages. I have 1.12 at the moment in there. I use to keep 2 males, but they smell so bad lol.

 

[AliCat37]

The most I have had at one time from that colony was 100 pinkys, I had around 80 mature(I cull the runts and any that dont look good). I was over run, so I sold some off to other breeders and the petshop. But at any time I have 20-30 babies of various ages. I have 1.12 at the moment in there. I use to keep 2 males, but they smell so bad lol.

Awesome! I might just have to hold back some more babies from my good breeding female.

 

[Arpolis]

I am planning on only having one male and female in one side at any point of time. Also I only need pinks that range from 0 - 7 days of age I think. Sounds like this will work for what I need and if I need more I will upgrade to a 20gal to be safe. I will watch closely then and adjust my methods from there.

Thank you all for the comments and if anyone else still wants to chime in, please do. I am happy for any criticism.

 

[Bartholomew]

What's that small metal fence for? The one covering the drinking bottle?

 

[Wyldrose]

To me it looks like a water bottle stand and lab block/food holder. Those water bottles are glass and imo the best water bottles to have for any kind of rodents I bred ASF's before and they enjoy devouring their water bottles lol! I think i'll get 1.2 soon and breed again, I plan on picking up a ball python at the Edmotnon show

 

[Arpolis]

To me it looks like a water bottle stand and lab block/food holder. Those water bottles are glass and imo the best water bottles to have for any kind of rodents I bred ASF's before and they enjoy devouring their water bottles lol! I think i'll get 1.2 soon and breed again, I plan on picking up a ball python at the Edmotnon show

Yup lab block holder for sure. Also great for the water bottle. Also all rodents should always have glass bottles IMO. I have spent more money on cheap plastic ones being chewed through rather than one, more expensive glass one.

 

[Arpolis]

Just wanted to update that Mom 1 gave a healthy litter of 7. I let them be for a day and a half and all went well. I then culled the babies cause I am primarily going to cull within the first 3 days.