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New to breeding mice

Buzzard

Buzzard

two corny
I just got some breeder mice 2 days ago. My friend breeds mice to feed his herd of reptiles. I made some nice containers(18 inch x 10 long clear plastic tubs). I melted some small holes and one larger one for the water bottle it fits nice and snug. I have some good looking breeders from my friends and they seem happy. I placed a couple of wood blocks in the enclosures for them to chew on. I have 3 set ups and a ratio of 3 females and 1 male in each container. Does all of this sound about right. And once they start reproducing is there a ratio difference I should be concerned about. Any help or pointers about any of this would be awesome. Or any other subject with this little critters.
 
I'd highly recommend a larger container. My group of five (1 male, 4 females) is in a container 4' x 2'.

Through extensive research and experimentation, it's been recently discovered that mice (when faced with overpopulation) will reduce the size of their litters (often through cannibalism) or stop breeding all together. My mice will in fact do this when their cages are too cramped, but if you have younger mice, they will mate regardless of almost anything.

Don't feed them dogfood. The artificial ingredients are horrid to your snake. Feed them some sort of rodent chow with high-quality cat/kitten food as a protien supplement. You can also give them a section of boiled egg with the shell. It's excellent calcium. My mice eat alot of tablescraps as well.

Mice do tend to pool their litters. Maisy mouse has a litter on Tuesday and Molly mouse has a litter on Saturday, and Maisy mouse says "Hey. Why are there babies way over here?" and she brings them to where her babies are, and everyone lives and sleeps together. Molly mouse will still be allowed to feed her babies, but there's nothing stopping Maisy's babies from grabbing some chow too! Moral: Make sure you're taking a mousling of the right size every time.

It takes mice a very long time to suffer from inbreeding. All 50 of my mice came from two half-sibling parents, and they're still having seemingly normal babies. Since they're gunna be snake chow, it doesn't concern me a whole lot.
 
i have only recently got into breeding mice again, but when i used to do it i started with one pair and ended up producing 8/9000 from that pair, never had a single issue with inbreeding in all that time.
 
I highly recommend you be careful whom you take advice from.

hiddenhollowherp said:
I'd highly recommend a larger container. My group of five (1 male, 4 females) is in a container 4' x 2'.

I have been breeding mice for 20 years. I keep rations of 1.5 in rubbermaid containers that are 11 x 16.

Through extensive research and experimentation, it's been recently discovered that mice (when faced with overpopulation) will reduce the size of their litters (often through cannibalism) or stop breeding all together. My mice will in fact do this when their cages are too cramped, but if you have younger mice, they will mate regardless of almost anything.

Mice cannibalize their young for a variety of reasons. Stress is the primary factor. If you remove the young at 3 weeks of age, you should not have any crowding problems with the cages you described.

Don't feed them dogfood. The artificial ingredients are horrid to your snake. Feed them some sort of rodent chow with high-quality cat/kitten food as a protien supplement. You can also give them a section of boiled egg with the shell. It's excellent calcium. My mice eat alot of tablescraps as well.

There are a lot of pros and cons about dog food. You will find it has the same ingredients as cat food. Both can be used to supplement their diet but should not be the staple diet. Lab Blocks or Rodent Blocks that are made for mice and rats are the best food. Most feed stores have them or can get them. Supplement with grains, and black oil sunflower seed. NEVER FEED TABLE SCRAPS!!!

Mice do tend to pool their litters. Maisy mouse has a litter on Tuesday and Molly mouse has a litter on Saturday, and Maisy mouse says "Hey. Why are there babies way over here?" and she brings them to where her babies are, and everyone lives and sleeps together. Molly mouse will still be allowed to feed her babies, but there's nothing stopping Maisy's babies from grabbing some chow too! Moral: Make sure you're taking a mousling of the right size every time.

Your mice will not talk to each other and if they will eventually become snake poop, it is best to not name them.

Your mice will nurse each other’s babies and help care for the entire group. You will see them moving the babies from pile to pile and this is fine. Harvest the sizes you need as they grow or allow them all to become weanling size and then raise them to adulthood in a separate container from the parent colony.

It takes mice a very long time to suffer from inbreeding. All 50 of my mice came from two half-sibling parents, and they're still having seemingly normal babies. Since they're gunna be snake chow, it doesn't concern me a whole lot.

The strain of mice I raise are called Swiss Websters. They are the result of group of mice that were bred in Europe approximately 100 years ago. They are one of the most common mice used in laboratories all over the world today. All of the Swiss Webster mice in existence today are the descendents of that original group in Europe.

There is nothing wrong with inbreeding. It can emphasize the good qualities as well as the bad.
Click to expand...
 
...Hot holy huckleberrymuffins.
What was that (hullaballoo) about?

I must say, that was extremely uncalled for, even if I am a Humbug.

Big cages are good for mice, as well as other animals. My breeding mice don't end up as snake poop, so they all have names. I was merely illustrating a scenario which I find to be interesting. I don't think I said anything waranting rudeness there. I will admit, that there have been (many) times when I've said some pretty nasty/ridiculous things, but really.. This was one of the (few) posts I've ever made which I was very proud and sure of. That just.. Didn't make me feel very good about myself at all.

...I used to like the name Wade. :( Sad, sad day. :little violin icon guy thing:
 
Btw, mice can eat just about anything. Tablescraps are much more nutricious than lab blocks (which are merely pressed alfalfa and chaff) or dog chow (which is basicly Seabiscuit). I make it a point to eat very healthy, and it's not like my tablescraps are the brunt of their diet. Just a treat. They don't even get them every day (or sometimes every week).

90% of literate, coherant individuals would notice that my section about inbreeding was talking about how it's nothing to worry about with mice.

LOL omg. Wayne, you made my night! Do you realize how rare it is for me to actually find someone who was rude to me without reason? I am seriously considering marking this on my calendar!

Thx bby. <3
 
I did not think you said anything rude. I just felt that everything you said was inaccurate, misleading, in error, unproductive, without merit, and just plain wrong. I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression.
 
Well, I'm sorry, but either you read my post incorrectly, or you were looking to be the big bad wolf. I've been breeding mice since I was three years old (no, really, Jack and Joe went gay!) and the methods I use today are the best methods I've used in the past, all combined. As a matter of fact..

Okay the article is deleted, BUT..
I was actually arrested in Cali for assault on a guy (he was a whimp) who claimed to have the world's oldest mouse at 6 years old. My oldest mouse ever, Betty, was nearly 11 years old, yo. AND SHE FREAKIN' LOVED TABLESCRAPS~

(I was stupid and fed her to Norma, 'cause she was old and wouldn't reproduce.)

Lol dude, I don't give a crap about your mice! They're only going to end up as SNAKE POO, so feed them as much Red Lake 40 as you want! I'm sure your snake won't mind.

Roflrofl.
 
I am sure mice like table scraps just like dogs do, but it doesn't mean it's healthy for the mice or the snake eating it. Table scraps are loaded with empty calories, sodium, nitrates, saturated fats, food dyes, and chemicals to make the product last longer. Years of a diet like that fed to a snake could lead to a lot of problems- I think that was the point trying to be made and not whether a not a mouse will eat table scrap.
 
Holy leaping lizards, you’re an arrogant little excretion.

hiddenhollowherp said:
Btw, mice can eat just about anything. Tablescraps are much more nutricious than lab blocks (which are merely pressed alfalfa and chaff) or dog chow (which is basicly Seabiscuit). I make it a point to eat very healthy, and it's not like my tablescraps are the brunt of their diet. Just a treat. They don't even get them every day (or sometimes every week).

Yes mice can and will eat just about anything. Should they? Absolutely not! Table scraps from human tables are way too high in fat. Mice should never be given meat. Most of the salad greens we eat will give mice terminal diarrhea.

As for Lab Blocks being “merely pressed alfalfa and chaff” you may want to find out what Lab Blocks are before you start making any statement of that nature. There is no alfalfa or chaff in lab blocks. Harlan Laboratories is one of the leading animal model laboratories in the world. . http://www.harlan.com/ Guess what they recommend to feed to mice? Here is a link to a crude analysis of what is in Harlan Teklad lab blocks. http://www.teklad.com/globaldiet/gro2018.asp

90% of literate, coherant individuals would notice that my section about inbreeding was talking about how it's nothing to worry about with mice.

"It takes mice a very long time to suffer from inbreeding." I read the word suffer to mean some kind of a problem. How do you read it.

LOL omg. Wayne, you made my night! Do you realize how rare it is for me to actually find someone who was rude to me without reason? I am seriously considering marking this on my calendar!

You spelled Wade incorrectly! Not a biggy. Just my Name.
I felt like there was ample reason to be rude. I would think that for someone who spouts from the fountain of ignorance as freely as you that rude replies would be common place in your day. I am rarely rude to anyone. I am pretty good at giving advise or correcting people kindly when they make a mistake. I try to limit my comments to the realm of reality however. Reality is for those who can’t tolerate drugs.

Thx bby. <3
Click to expand...
 
..Hmm.. I'm reading the ingredients on this bag of Adam Chow (the stuff I ate for dinner), and I don't see anything even remotely similar to sodium, nitrates, saturated fats, dyes, gremlins, etc. Just... Frozen carrots.. Frozen corn.. Frozen beans.. Frozen peas..

I dunno. My mice have been eating it their whole lives, and they've still managed to boggle my vet's mind every six months. Every time she tells me they are exceptionally healthy mice, although to be fair, Jasper was "quite energetic" this September.

..What did this thread start as again?

Ah, who cares! LET'S MOSH!
 
Did you read anything I wrote. Do you know how to work the links I gave you. Have you read what the world leading experts have to say?
 
You don't get it, Wayne!

Thus far, in my life, for the past bazillion years, I've done things (with my pets) my own way.. And I've never been wrong!

You had to wonder at some point where I got this ego, I mean, honestly!
 
hiddenhollowherp said:
You don't get it, Wayne!

Thus far, in my life, for the past bazillion years, I've done things (with my pets) my own way.. And I've never been wrong!

You had to wonder at some point where I got this ego, I mean, honestly!
Click to expand...

As mentioned before, Wade is spelled Wade. W A D E

As mentioned before, I try to restrict my comments to the realm of reality. That is a restriction that you are obviously not limited by.


Facts, they hide them in books.
 
hiddenhollowherp said:
You don't get it, Wayne!

Thus far, in my life, for the past bazillion years, I've done things (with my pets) my own way.. And I've never been wrong!

You had to wonder at some point where I got this ego, I mean, honestly!
Click to expand...
never say never, I'm surprised this day didn't come sooner for you HHH. Like Robbie pointed out earlier (and you confirmed) there is a certain Jekyll and Hyde to your postings. But I guess because your claim to have unbidden knowledge and now ego (and then frequently resort to "my condition" it's all OK.
Don't worry I don't expect you to really take anything from this post, you've pretty much proven that you don't take much from any posts other than your own.
But since you have stated repeatedly how much you love animals please consider this for a moment: just stick to reading threads and consider NOT posting at all. I say this because way too many of your posts are just off the top of your head and as you say based upon your ego, etc... Some of your advice is pure fantasy, although well said, and has no scientific ( or common sense) basis other than again, your ego.
Seriously stop posting with your potentially harmful info.
 
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