Breeding mice

[Naagas]

Hey- I know there is a TON of information in this forum on breeding mice...

I was thinking that there should be a sticky... My searches are returning WAY too much irrelevant stuff.

Questions:
-mice setup
- colony size
- when to move mice (if ever)
- food recipes

Oh... And do mice drink out of dishes at all? This is more of a curiosity to me than anything.... But why do wwe use water bottles instead of water dishes?

Links to relevant threads are welcome.

Sorry about my laziness concerning sorting through existing threads for these answers.


Oh- I bought 1 male and 3 females- they are currently housed in one of my snake racks! Until I come up with something better.
One of the females is obviously pregnant.

 

[MysticExotics]

You know, at some point, I plan on having several stickies of info, this included, on my personal forum. It's a matter of organizing my info, & sitting down to post the threads...maybe that will be a goal for 2012. LOL

I'll list what I have, you can see what might work for you.
Ok, I have 3 small colonies (3 bins) of mice.
They look similar to this http://beanfarm.com/product_info.php?cPath=1233_1234&products_id=5672 but mine are opaque. I have two of the larger ones, & a smaller one. The larger ones have one male & four or five females in each one. The smaller one has one male & two or three females in it.

I leave each colony as it is, I do not move any once the babies are born (I know some people do). I have found that they work together as a group in caring for the babies.
I don't use water dishes or food dishes, as I have found the mice soil them pretty quickly. The style cages I use has the dip in the wire lid to fit he water bottles in, as well as a section for food.

I primarily use the lab food blocks, & I also give them a rodent food mix that I pick up from a local Co-op, that contains various seeds & such. When there is a litter or two on the ground, I will also toss in a handful of high quality dog food, for added protein. I know some people have given their mice leftover meats for added protein (you just have to be careful about sauces & spices).

I give each colony hides, (either the plastic hide/houses, or the ones made of wood (woven) that they can chew on, I also put toilet paper tubes in there, as well as added toilet paper for them to shred & made bedding for when they have babies.

They're pretty self suffucient, I just make sure to keep their food & water full, & check for babies. I cull babies at whatever stage I need them at.

After I get into a bigger house, I will expand my colony, but for the time being, I will keep it small, for supplemental food. Someday I hope to have a self sufficient sized colony, so that I only need to order rats, for my Carpet Pythons.

For bedding, I generally use shredded aspen, & I also throw in some wood pellets (horse bedding) on the bottom. The wood pellets help absorb some of the odor (the males are the ones that really stink).

Another thing I plan on adding to my forum stickies, is a euth. chamber. I made one pretty easily, & I think others might find it helpful.

 

[xStaticSnow]

I don't breed mice for feeding to snakes but I keep some as pets

3 mice can be kept in a 10 or 15 gallon tank pretty easily. You need to change the bedding pretty frequently though because ammonia from their urine will build up quickly and can irritate their lungs.

You can usually keep all the mice together, but you might risk one of the adults eating the babies (this will probably happen to you eventually anyway) But it helps to provide a nice cozy little hide box for the mother to give birth to and raise her babies.

Make sure you have a secure screen lid. You want good ventilation but my mice are very good at climbing and they will try to chew out and escape. They love to have toilet paper tubes and paper towel rolls to hide/play in/shred apart. If you give them shredded newspaper or paper towels they will build nests to sleep in.

Bedding its easy. I use newspaper that I've run through a paper shredder. It's free, easy, and hypoallergenic. You can also use aspen and carefresh, but like snakes you shouldn't use pine cedar, or any other aromatic woods.

Mice can drink out of a dish very easily. The problem is that mice also like to dig and run and will fill their water dishes with bedding very quickly. Mice need to have a constant supply of fresh water. Mice have a very fast metabolism and only consume small quantity of water at a time, so if they are deprived of water for as little as 8 hours they can die of dehydration. Gravity water bottles ensure they wont run out or soil their water.

I feed my mice a main diet of rice, oats, small seeds, breads, and other grains. I supplement with mice and rat diet mixes but these are expensive and quite fattening. The best option is to buy a lab feeding block specifically designed to meet all of the nutritional needs of mice. Just make sure to offer extras as mice can and do get tired of eating the same food all the time and sometimes will stop eating right.

Good luck! Mice aren't that hard to keep and raise in my opinion. Just make sure you follow good sanitary practices and monitor their nutrition and water.

 

[Naagas]

Thanks you two!!

I have them on aspen... Boy do they love their wheel!

How do I mount a water bottle onto a bin? Do I need to drill a hole? Is there another way that I'm missing?

 

[xStaticSnow]

Mice really do love running on wheels!

I mount my water bottles with a special water bottle cage. If you look around at petstores you can find them really easily. My mice are in a 10gallon aquarium so I have a metal cage that has a little lip that goes over the edge of the cage. You then close the lid ontop of the lip of the holder to keep it there. I'll try to get a picture to make it more clear.

I can't find an actual example but I found a home-made model on another forum!
http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/exotic-mammals/568850-rodent-water-bottles-glass-tank-2.html

Something like that may work.

You can also experiment with wires and suction cups. You can even buy water bottle hangers that include suction cups

 

[Naagas]

I rigged something out of copper wire... seems to work great.

Do I have to worry about them chewing out of the plastic tote I have them in? I mean, I wouldn't think it would be possible, but I've heard stories.
I'm going to get a nice tank like Heather suggests above, but so far... I just want them to stay put in the plastic tote.

Two of the females were already pregnant when I got them... They were being kept in a cage at the pet store with males/females and they don't separate them except to sell them.
How long do mice pregnancies last? The one girl is huge.

 

[Buzzard]

How long do mice pregnancies last? The one girl is huge.

19-24 days is the norm for mice pregnancies.

Here is a good link for mice information. However they are very "pet" friendly and recommend seperating moms from the males. However, when breeding for food, I would strongly urge people to keep females and males together. for constant production and often, if you do seperate, the females may attack and chew the boy parts off of the males.

http://www.thefunmouse.com/info/general.cfm#ovulation

Plastic tubs are fine. When your ready for a rack let me know, I am thinking of posting a "How to" on a table top rack.