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Rodents, eating babies/eachother.

M

Millinex

New member
I've attempted breeding rodents 3 times, 3 species. My level of success has been a whopping next to none.

1. I bred mice, 1 male 6 females, I fed them a varied diet of dog food/veggies/some mouse food from the store. One of the females ended up being the one killing/eating everyone else in the middle of the night.

2. Rats- I had 1 male 3 females. Sure enough 1 female got eaten, other 2 females got pregnant looking, but never dropped babies, they ended up getting vicious and not producing after several months, I killed them and fed them off. Fed dog food/veggies.

3. ASFs- 1 male 3 females. Everything went well, all 3 females got pregnant, dropped kids, all litters got eaten in 2-3 days each. No good obviously as I have no hatchlings of any sort to feed, they ended up killing one of the females and eating her before I fed them off as well. Fed them dog food/veggies/some protein food from the feed store.

All where kept on shredded paper, had water, food, and kept in an outdoor shed that stayed around 80 or so. I'm stumped. Perhaps I have awful luck with rodents and should simply not mess with them at all. LOL
 
Your temp is to warm. I breed mice in my garage in the winter time once the temp gets to about 75 or above I start having trouble. For me, around March I kill off all my mice and start over in the middle of November and I will have trouble until middle of December.

Just let it get cooler out side and you will be ok.

One more thing if you can get breeder mice and not fance mice you will be better off. Breeder mice do a better job in my opinion.

Fatman
 
Mice and ASFs are horrible devils. I tried both and was unhappy in every single way.

I'm not certain if the temps alone are causing the problems. Try to lower the temps if you can, and also offer a cat or puppy food with their usual food for extra protein. My rat girls drop an average of 15 pups per litter, so when they do, I offer mainly the cat food, then I find the runts and/or females (male pups are meatier and grow as well as female pups with the same amount of milk) and cull those if I can, then continue offering their food but without as much cat food.

Another thing you may want to do is check that they ALWAYS have plenty of water, and offer some more veggies/fruits.

I feed Iams ProActive Health Weight Control and The Goodlife Recipe Cat food. Been using these for around a year now.
I DO plan on switching the cat food to one like the dog food where the kibble is all the same, not the pieces that are each component.
 
I breed my mice in the snake/rodent room here day time temps are usually around 82 in there and the mice breed great. It took me months to get breeder mice that would not eat thier babies. After that breeding was not an issue. They are on rodent block and a seed mix and get treats. Everyone has thier way of doing things and what works for them. I would try getting breeders from someone who is already breeding mice as apposed to a pet store. I lucked out and found a place 35 miles from me that breeds a large amount of mice and rats. Everytime I got pet store mice they would kill and eat babies and each other. Most have better luck with the white mice I did not. All my best breeders are the fancies. The snakes don't care about the color anyways. Best of luck to you.
 
Its the Dog food. Dog food has poisons in it that are toxic to dogs and other animals. Even though the package says its healthy. Many dog and cat food manufacturers products that they put in the food are PROVEN to cause cancer and other illnesses.

I feed my rodents anything that is left over from my meals, snacks, etc. or any food that might be about to go bad. and I have never had an issue with them eating each other.

The only time I have ever had the cannibalism issue was when I was 11 and wasn't trying to breed mice, and ended up with 30 in one cage. then, they started cannibalizing each other.

Try removing the dog food and adding something else. Or maybe they need more protein in their diet like some chicken or lunch meat.
 
I use the same dog foods recommended by a lot of people who breed mice, I don't feel as though it was a food issue, considering the variety they had.
 
you should try replacing that food with something else for a week or two and see if anything different happens.
 
Also, when you introduce any new rodents to your older ones do you completely remove everyone from the cage, clean it completely, then put the new ones in first, then the old ones? I find that rodents are pretty territorial when they dont know you (the other rodents in this case) and will eat the others. I had this happen a few weeks ago actually when i completely spaced out and didnt think about it when i put two new teenage mice with my older female, in her cage. they ate her the first night.
 
then the above person is probably right about the temperature, and you should stil ltry the food thing. maybe, get a new enclosure for them. or put them in separate encolsures? how big is the enclosure you have them in?
 
I don't know about mice or ASF's, but I successfully breed rats. I remove the female as soon as she is "pear-shaped" to her own brood cage where she births and raises her babies in peace. I have never had cannabalism using this method. Many times with rats, 2 females will "fight" over who mother's the babies, quite often the babies will be killed during this battle and then of course, they will be eaten.
 
It's normal for the first time moms to eat their babies, and happens more often than not. this is the point where many people give up on keeping mice. Many moms will do better on the second litters, you must cull those that do not so they will not spread the bad habit. Also trying to hold back the babies from the best moms to raise will have an effect long term. I have raised mice for a while and only occasionally buy a male to add new blood, but when I do I go for fancy mice rather than feeder ones. I keep mine in 10 gallon tanks in groups of 4 or 5, one male per group. I feed mazuri rodent block, with occasional treats. It's food specifically designed to meet their needs while mixing your own can be hit or miss and leave them craving nutrients that they then resort to cannibalism to get.
 
The ASFs each had 2 litters each, still ate them, then one of the others, and I fed them off ;( almost too much of a hassle haha!
 
I have been breeding for a while and tried lots of different things. One thing I know for sure is that rats can get by on anything. Mice and ASF's cannot eat dog food. It made them nuts. I feed them only Mazuri 6F and they are very healthy, breed well and do not eat each other. You can supplement with lots of stuff but not dog food.
 
SEE!!!! Dog food is BAD!!! you should really do some research on Cat and Dog foods and find out just how unhealthy they are. Even for cats and dogs. They are not good at all!!! For Anything!!
 
I have fed dog food to the mice, with no ill effects. they are on a mix of seed and rodent block and if run out before my block gets in they get dog food. Just goes to show everyone does things thier own way. There is really no set in stone way for anything.
 
fleapop said:
Its the Dog food. Dog food has poisons in it that are toxic to dogs and other animals. Even though the package says its healthy. Many dog and cat food manufacturers products that they put in the food are PROVEN to cause cancer and other illnesses.
Click to expand...

Man you couldn't be any wronger on this i have been breeding rodents for over 10 years and have never heard this in my entire life. The best dog food to feed is Purina large breed food. It has many of the same stuff that some of the rodents blocks carry. If your going to be breeding rodents for feeder you need to think is it my cost wisely to buy a 50 lbs bag of dog food or seeds and oats and other kinds of crap which in the long run cost more. Rodent breeding is a hit an miss buisness. I f i have Rats or mice that are problems i just put them down and start with a fresh new batch. i keep all the females i breed and put down all the males for feeders. I really like to know where you got your info on dog food being that way cause i love to read it lol.
 
http://www.preciouspets.org/report.htm

Please REad. I have been researching dog and cat foods for about 8 months now and it really IS NOT that great for our pets.

cats and dogs are carnivorous animals. most kibbles are filled with corn starch and carbohydrates. that is not a normal diet for any carnivorous animal.

Also, did you know cat an ddog food is not regulated by the FDA meaning that pet food and pet product manufacturers are actually ALLOWED TO LIE TO YOU on their packaging?
 
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