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breeding mice
- Thread starter zeek
- Start date
13mur 6
Junior Researcher, MSKCC
Not always. You need to set up a mouse tank first and it's gotta be big enough for them (mice need a ton of space to live properly, atleast 10 gal for a single mouse, and 20 for 4 or more). More than one male never works if there are female mice around, so one male per tank and as many females as you want. Also, might want to set up two tanks of females and swap the male around every month, because constantly breeding the same mice exhausts the mice, and they'll die on you in a few months if you do that.
Also a BIG warning here. If you're breeding even just 2 females at a time, you're gonna get a TON of pinks. I get 12 pinks per female every 3 weeks and that's WAY more than enough to feed my snakes.
Single mice will not live long, they'll get depressed, and if you introduce other mice to them, they won't get along (and I mean don't even think about getting them to breed). If a male mouse has been alone for a month and not played with at all for that time, he'll probably be haggard and die on you. They're social animals, they need constant interaction for them to stay healthy, otherwise they turn into fat lazy things that just sleep all day and bite you everytime you stick your hand near them.
Just to give you an idea of my setup, I have three 15 gal tanks, each one with 2 females, and I switch the male around every 3 weeks, which gives the females in the other two tanks about 6 weeks to rest in between litters which generates me 24 pinks every 3 weeks, or 8 pinks a week, which I usually let mature to fuzzies or hoppers. I have another 10 gal tank I keep two or three young ones in so they can grow and be the next breeding generation, the soonest I ever breed a female is 4 months, and by then, they're big and healthy mice. All of my mice give me at LEAST 12 pups a litter, and if they have more than that they usually end up eating a few. I feed my mice 50% grains and seeds, 25% kitten chow, and 25% miscellaneous table scraps, peanut butter, yogurt drops, meal worms, and other things. My female mice are the size of a young rat, they're figgin hooge. Also each tank has a wheel, a couple ropes and tons of tubes so they all get a lot of excersize.
The bad thing about mice is you need to check on them EVERYDAY, they need food everyday, water everyday, and you need to clean their tanks every week or more because they'll get REAL stinky if you don't. So, it's a lot of work, but if you have like 5 snakes, then it pretty worth it (plus they're fun to play with), for one snake it's just overkill.
-Lemur 6
Also a BIG warning here. If you're breeding even just 2 females at a time, you're gonna get a TON of pinks. I get 12 pinks per female every 3 weeks and that's WAY more than enough to feed my snakes.
Single mice will not live long, they'll get depressed, and if you introduce other mice to them, they won't get along (and I mean don't even think about getting them to breed). If a male mouse has been alone for a month and not played with at all for that time, he'll probably be haggard and die on you. They're social animals, they need constant interaction for them to stay healthy, otherwise they turn into fat lazy things that just sleep all day and bite you everytime you stick your hand near them.
Just to give you an idea of my setup, I have three 15 gal tanks, each one with 2 females, and I switch the male around every 3 weeks, which gives the females in the other two tanks about 6 weeks to rest in between litters which generates me 24 pinks every 3 weeks, or 8 pinks a week, which I usually let mature to fuzzies or hoppers. I have another 10 gal tank I keep two or three young ones in so they can grow and be the next breeding generation, the soonest I ever breed a female is 4 months, and by then, they're big and healthy mice. All of my mice give me at LEAST 12 pups a litter, and if they have more than that they usually end up eating a few. I feed my mice 50% grains and seeds, 25% kitten chow, and 25% miscellaneous table scraps, peanut butter, yogurt drops, meal worms, and other things. My female mice are the size of a young rat, they're figgin hooge. Also each tank has a wheel, a couple ropes and tons of tubes so they all get a lot of excersize.
The bad thing about mice is you need to check on them EVERYDAY, they need food everyday, water everyday, and you need to clean their tanks every week or more because they'll get REAL stinky if you don't. So, it's a lot of work, but if you have like 5 snakes, then it pretty worth it (plus they're fun to play with), for one snake it's just overkill.
-Lemur 6
moreptiles
New member
With three snakes, you should probably look for another source of mice rather than pet store, since it will be costing you probably five bucks or more a week in mice. I would suggest ordering frozen mice on line and keep them in your freezer (if that is possible). I think you need at least 5 snakes to make it worth the trouble of raising your own mice; that is unless you really are interested in raising mice (they are actually quite interesting to raise).
Mark
Mark
TripleMoonsExotic
I <3 Stripes!
I personally prefer breeding rats over mice for my snakes. My yearlings - adult corns take them fine, seem to prefer them over mice. My hatchlings I just buy bulk frozen pinks which is no big deal. My rats have a new litter of 12-14 every 4-5 weeks which works fairly well with my collection (13 corns, 1 leucistic texas rat, 4 ball pythons, 2 boas). I think considering rats over the mice would be better for you, just a single breeding pair. Just kill the extras and freeze them. Rats have many, many more benefits then mice. They smell less and will not cannablise they're young (or eachother for that matter). You can keep a pair in a 10 gallon aquarium easily.
13mur 6
Junior Researcher, MSKCC
If you're the type that doesn't give a hoot about how healthy feeder mice are, just get one male and one female and let em get it on till they burn out (which in most cases will be only a few months). You'll get your dozen pups every 3 weeks and that'll fit your bill just nicely, and when they get geriatric from all the breeding, you get another pair and do it again. Two females and a male will generate twice that amount (which is a heck of a lot), but they'll share the load, but they still won't last that long.
However, this makes your mice exhausted, unhealthy, have weak babies, and generally miserable, not to mention that your snakes can possibly get malnutritioned from being fed sickly mice. Also, sickly mice have less pups per litter or none at all (I've had my mice resorb their pups possibly from miscarriage etc).
-Lemur 6
However, this makes your mice exhausted, unhealthy, have weak babies, and generally miserable, not to mention that your snakes can possibly get malnutritioned from being fed sickly mice. Also, sickly mice have less pups per litter or none at all (I've had my mice resorb their pups possibly from miscarriage etc).
-Lemur 6
moreptiles
New member
A word of caution about mice in the basement. They just might stink up the whole basement, and your mom will probably have a fit. The other problem is that if you get mouse smell in your house, you become accustomed to it and you cant smell it. But your visitors sure can, and usually they won't say anything to not offend. So If you have a garage or other place that is well vented, you might be better off. Of course, then you have to worry about temperature in an unheated garage. Mice like to have temps about 75 F for them to breed well. These are some of the things you might not have thought about.
Good luck
mark
Good luck
mark