• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Spiny Mice

M

mbdorfer

New member
Due to a case of being in the WRONG place at the right time, I inherited a pair of spiny mice today. Has anyone used babies as feeders before? If nothing else, they'll make great pets for my daughter :wavey:
 
Many years ago, I knew a breeder who only bred these for mice. She sold them as feeders, cheap, so I bought from her for a year or two. My corns (hatchlings to adults) at the time scarfed them (pinkies to adults) down as readily as lab mice. I had no problems.
 
Roy Munson said:
Many years ago, I knew a breeder who only bred these for mice. She sold them as feeders, cheap, so I bought from her for a year or two. My corns (hatchlings to adults) at the time scarfed them (pinkies to adults) down as readily as lab mice. I had no problems.
Click to expand...
Thanks Dean. My biggest concern was if it would spoil them, you know what they say, "Once you go Spiny............" :grin01:
 
mbdorfer said:
Thanks Dean. My biggest concern was if it would spoil them, you know what they say, "Once you go Spiny............" :grin01:
Click to expand...

Actually, the breeder I got them from stopped breeding them, so I had to go back to regular lab mice. My corns made the switch back without a problem.
 
Last edited:
They are SO cute. They have huge doe eyes, and I love how round they are. lol Have you ever noticed how many of the worlds "feeders" are so cute? :shrugs:
 
Yeah, they are definitely cute. In just an hour, I've actually become quite fond of them. Imagine that! :shrugs:
 
One possible drawback to keeping these:

If I recall correctly, these guys stank even worse than lab mice. I guess this could have been due to the breeder's filthy, sub-par husbandry. I dunno. :rolleyes:
 
mbdorfer said:
Yeah, they are definitely cute. In just an hour, I've actually become quite fond of them. Imagine that! :shrugs:
Click to expand...

Can't imagine it, Mike. They creep me out. They look like a cross of two of my least favorite looking mammals: opossums and rats. :shrugs:
 
Roy Munson said:
One possible drawback to keeping these:

If I recall correctly, these guys stank even worse than lab mice. I guess this could have been due to the breeder's filthy, sub-par husbandry. I dunno. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
Funny, I did a Google search to read up on these and most sites stated that they were cleaner and less smelly than regular mice :shrugs: I'll let you know next week! :grin01:
 
They are the most adorable mice. Spinies were what I wanted my kids to get for pets if they insisted on mice. How can you not love those little faces :).
 
I used to have quite a few of these until the whole mad-prairie-dog-monkey-pox thing a few years ago. African rodents were banned here in WI, I'm not sure about elsewhere in the states. (Spiny mice are from Egypt).

They don't smell anywhere near as much as regular mice/rats. Spinys are much more similar to gerbils in that respect. However, they are insectivorous and like mealworms and crickets. They only have 4-5 babies in a litter and don't have as many litters per year as regular mice--at least mine didn't. The babies are very well-developed when born, similar to guinea pigs. At 24 hours old, they can run around the cage like crazy, and easily fit through small bars, so I'd keep them in a tank.

lol... sorry for going off topic. I'm sure most corns would eat them, although I'm not sure if the "spiny" coat to them would make them harder to digest (compared to what your corns might be used to).
 
I love these little guys (and gals) I can't tell you how the females smell, as all my females are together (all the breeds, and ages) but I know the breeding males smell nothing like a breeding age male "lab" mouse! Not much of a market for them in the US tho, well, not that I have found yet. Only ever sold them privately and to 3 pet stores, mostly sell them as pets.

From what I've read, I understood that if a snake swallowed one of these little guys tail first, it CAN cause problems, but might not.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top