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Too many mice. Sexing correctly?

hiddenhollowherp

hiddenhollowherp

Community Punchbag
I'm being over-run. I have.. Dang, must be close to fifty now.. I have a large cage with four breeding females and one male, who is taken out often to give the gals some peace. They have about ten babies large pinky/small fuzzy sized between them, since I froze most of the small pinkies.

Then I have the "next generation" in a smaller cage, maybe 6-9 females and one male.. Large hopper sized. Then comes the big "OOPS". 20 unsexed/male mice in a tank. They are insane. They can be fun to watch, especially when they walk the tight-rope and steal eachothers' food, but they are smelly boys, and they fight nonstop! If I could sex them all properly, my local petshop would probably take them. The only way I know how to sex them is by the obvious protrusion of their little.. Poms.. :eek:

Does anyone have photographs or methods they use to sex their mice? Pretty soon I'm going to have to start feeding them to the cats or something. :uhoh:
 
I saw some pics recently from google. I have the same problem. Their "parts" are spaced differently between the sexes, but I can't remember which are close and which are far apart. I'll try to find that page.

You're right...the boys smell horrible!
 
I was actually just looking into doing this today as my mice are at that age that they need to be separated. That second link is fantastic!
 
Yikes! Hope the pet store will take them off your hands for you! I have six females and one male, and he stinks up their cage within two days...no wonder you want to get rid of those boys!
 
Oh my goodness it's awful. Good thing I live alone or I'd soon be living alone! :rofl:
My snakes seem more eager to take male mice though, for some reason, which is AOK with me! My best guess is that they smell stronger.. Which isn't too farfetched! ;)
 
32 males!
Bust out the HEPA filter and the air scrubber!
Make a CO2 chamber and keep 'em in the freezer.
They don't smell nearly as much in there, and eat less, too.
 
I change the mice cages 3x a week and i still can't stand the smell. I am seriously considering feeding them off and just sticking with the asf rats. I have 3 colonies going and the smell is still unnoticable with them and they are incredibly prolific.
 
Their offspring are too large for hatchlings though, correct? If I can find a less-smelly alternative suitable for my snakes, I'll get right on it. I have two hatchlings and two small juveniles though.
 
Unlike humans, male mice are only interested in sex, showing off for the girls, and picking on other males who are smaller than they are. If you would separate the mice by sex before they reach sexual maturity (between 3 and 4 weeks old) you will have fewer problems. If you have a cage with only males in it, they will fight less and scent mark the territory less. When there are no females around to mess up their heads, males can be good people.
 
If you get the ASF babies just as they are born and have nice robust hatchlings, they are fine. If you have smaller hatchlings you need mice pinks... but even then there are always the runt snakes that have to be started on pinky heads. A newborn ASF baby is about the same size as a two or three day old pinky mouse. I am thinking of phasing out the mice and just doing ASF but I hate that they bite.
 
Lol, I'm kind of worried about the biting too. Both of my hatchlings are pretty strong feeders, but I want to get into breeding, and I know I won't always be so lucky in that case. I have a cage of breeding adult mice (one male), a cage of future breeders (only one male) and then the "Death Camp" cage full of young males on death row. :)

I could do to invest in a better cage for the males, because they can squeeze through the bars (it's just a large bird cage) and I always find them sitting ontop of the cage waiting to be put back. If I were dealing with ASF's, I'd be reluctant to pick them up and put them back! Lol. As long as they stay ontop of the cage, I'm okay with it. I have five cats outside of the "No-cats-allowed" room, so if they do get out, they'll be quickly reprimanded.
 
I have only had asfs for 3 months but I havn't been bitten yet. I must be lucky. I just grab them by the tail and move them when I have to clean or check on the pinks. I have been having great luck with 1.2 in 10 gal tanks. I fed a 1 day old asf pink to a baby garter snake the other day and he took it fine. I might just keep 1 tank of mice for the pinks and stick with asfs. I noticed if you use "yesterdays news" cat litter as a subtrate it cuts down on the smell quite a bit but it is expensive.
 
I recognised your screen name this am when I looked on there. I noticed its pretty dead on there though. Most of the posts are a month or more old.
 
I've been using this "Swheat" cat litter as bedding, and it works better than aspen for the smell, but they keep eating it..
 
Have you got a fan in with your mice as well, my mice are in my utility room and since I have put a fan in ther to circulate the air round it doesnt smell half as much. I started with about 4 mice now have about 70 and a freezer full of all sizes. I try and get rid of all the boys as early as poss as they do tend to smell more.
 
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