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?'s about my feeder mice I need advice

Yeah sexing them is fairly easy my tired old eyes have a hard time with the little tests thank god for magnification devices. I working on a set of plans for a rack I started one then changed my mind on design
 
I got pinkies everywhere The last little girl I was watching gave birth last night I cant go in to count them yet but its alot of them as I was told she had them rite on top of the others that were in the nest will be easy to tell them from the others because there about 4-5 days older. My first litter of 6 were pulled yesterday. I have to tell you I felt pretty bad about putting them to sleep at least it was fast and painless.
 
Sorry, I missed your thread earlier EpicD. Yes the mother will more than likely have the pups in the main nest...

Pugsley said:
I think I've genetics from 4 different breeders now, so I shouldn't have to worry about inbreeding. Over the holidays, I'm building new racks for my mice colonies, so that should make things easier. I hope to get a few pictures soon.
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Actually Pugs... Adding new blood to your line can hurt your line of mice. Be careful, when doing so. When adding new blood, there is a high chance of you adding traits that can hurt reproductivity, as well as life spans and breeding habits... Make sure when adding a new rodent that it is for the right reason and add singles instead of whole colonies... example...If you add a new mouse(lets say for color)... Add it to a young group that you are just setting up. First, they are more likely to accept the new outsider and if the outsider brings in a "bad" trait or habit it can be diluted by the "good" traits or habits given by the other(s) in the colony.

Also inbreeding in mice is not like inbreeding in humans, it is not a huge deal to go lots and lots of generations inbreeding(as long as none of those "bad" traits pop up.

I should be posting a thread on building mouse racks in the next week or so. I am currently building 4 mice and 1 rat rack and have been taking pics of the progress :)

Pugsley said:
Don't forget to leave one or two for them to take care of and nurse.
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Oh soooo true... Great point Pugsley, females that are nursing tend to be more open to male mice when they cycle....
 
Pugsley said:
Don't forget to leave one or two for them to take care of and nurse.
Click to expand...

yep I left 2 in. Those will end up as adults for replenishment both females Think it would be better to leave them in that colony or put one each in another colony? I don't know much about how inbreeding effects them I have read conflicting stories. so far none of my mice are showing any bad habits or traits but I haven't had then that long also.

Buzz I will wait to see what you build, before I start my project. The tanks are a real drag and take up a good bit of space I could stack them but that's a pain to have to unstack to feed and water. I plan on a nice watering string for the rack. I have a question about cleaning I usually scrub my tanks out once a week is it ok to do with the babies I know to take out momma first so she doesn't see me messing with her little ones. I wear surgical gloves to clean up so I don't think there will be a scent issue.
 
epicdoom said:
yep I left 2 in. Those will end up as adults for replenishment both females Think it would be better to leave them in that colony or put one each in another colony? I don't know much about how inbreeding effects them I have read conflicting stories. so far none of my mice are showing any bad habits or traits but I haven't had then that long also..
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Thats great... I would leave them in the colony. After the moms 3rd litter I would set up a weanling bin....Then choose a colony from the weanling bin. Thats worked great for me, however you may come up with a better method that works for you.


epicdoom said:
Buzz I will wait to see what you build, before I start my project. The tanks are a real drag and take up a good bit of space I could stack them but that's a pain to have to unstack to feed and water. I plan on a nice watering string for the rack. I have a question about cleaning I usually scrub my tanks out once a week is it ok to do with the babies I know to take out momma first so she doesn't see me messing with her little ones. I wear surgical gloves to clean up so I don't think there will be a scent issue.
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Thats what pushed me to start building racks. Tanks can be a pain to clean and such. When I clean my tubs, I usually pick the babies up and put them in a large seperate cup with some of the nest(for smell). This seems to help. Or at least in my crazy mind....lol
 
No methods here I'm still new to all of this. I have ideas and a plan but advice from folks like you who know what to do is more important to me then what I think. So I thank you greatly for your advice and time to give it. I will be doing my weekly clean tomorrow I ts a lot of work with 10 tanks to clean but I have 10 tanks already set up with bedding and food dish water bottle and paper shreds. I'll for sure take some nest material out with the babies for the clean tanks that's a great idea. after the last water bottle is filled I take the tanks outside of the garage empty them and start cleaning all the bottles and bowls go inside and get boiled.
 
Next to my mouse rack, I have a little stand thingy. On the stand is a little plastic critter Keeper and feed, ect. All I do is take all the breeders out of the tub, put them in the critter keeper and do the same with the any babies they might have. Then I pull the tub out, dump all the pine out, put the tub back in the rack and fill it with new pine. Then put the babies in their little pile and put the breeders back. Replace water and feed. I don't worry about scent or anything like that at all. I don't put a little bit of used bedding back with the babies and I don't wear gloves. I also don't clean the bowls unless the really need it. That's just how I do it.
 
for some reason my mice love to poo in there feed bowl I tried moving them to different locations in the tank still they poo in it my rack will end that but till them I have to deal with it My neighbor trained his gerbils to use a tiny litter box with kitty litter in it but I'm not sure that will work for mice
 
My weanlings do that. But unless they have the runs it's just little dry pellets so I just dump it out. There is no poo remains left in the bowl.
 
I get a mix of pellet and runs, that or they pee in it and trample it down. I will be buying everything today to build a rack Like the one Buzzard made.
 
Buzz - Thanks for the advice. I'm working on keeping lines 'pure' and mixing up new colonies. I'll always have a fall back.
 
Cleaned all my tanks today second mom in colony 2 had 17 pups used bedding from the nest and all went perfectly. cleaned everything up and bought materials for a rack. wont get to that till tomorrow its raining here today.
 
Hey folks been a couple weeks had to go out of town for training My mice are doing fantastic i have a bunch of fuzzy and hoppers those will be my replenish stock I can see several females swollen with new litters I have my racks built and there fantastic Thank You Buzzard for the great idea and measurements I think i'm gonna build another one for overflow
 
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