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Feeder vs. fancies

rippit

rippit

New member
Okay, I attempted to breed some feeders. I purchased 4 females and a male back in early September. Well, they still haven't bred, and now they're starting to kick the bucket - I'm down to three females (the male was one of the casualties).

My question is...have any of you had more success with fancy mice than with feeders? I was thinking of trying it one more time, only with fancies this time.
 
When I did it last year for my corns I didnt have a problem with just regular mice from the pet store. I got a male and two females and I had pinkies usually every 3 weeks or so, so it at least helped with the cost. It did however take a little while for them to start breeding. It's all the luck of the draw really---nothing says that when you buy a mouse it's old enough to breed, etc etc.
 
We breed both fancy and feeder mice. The white mice don't last very long. May be a genetic thing since they are bred in mass quantities. We sell our fancy babies back to the pet store. Make sure the temperature is good for them.
 
How warm does the temperature have to be? I've been keeping them in my garage on the theory that if they can survive winter temperatures in the wild, they can survive them in a garage.
 
i don't know about temps, but I have 2 colonies of mice that I started breeding about 6 months ago. Both are feeder mice that I bought. 1 male to 3 females. I get mice every 2 weeks, depending on how mnay mice are pregnant at one time. My second colony has yet to produce. I believe that either the male is still too young or the males and females are too young. But, they are thriving and doing well. I don't have any kind of heating or cooling setup for them. They are just on the back porch open to the outside weather.
 
rippit said:
Pcar, what are your winter temps down there?
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Depends on the time of year and what the year has been like. This year we have had a very mild summer, and fall. I am expecting winter to be a little interesting.

Last winter it froze and snowed here. Temps had dropped down into the upper teens (at least out in the country...where I live) and low 20's in the City. I had to use a space heater to keep my snakes warm as the UTH's and heat lamps didn't work. But, this was a record winter.

Normally winter here in TX ranges between low 30's to mid 40's with it dropping to upper 20's to mid 30's at night.
 
If the temp drops too low at night they will freeze and die. Especially the little ones. During the winter most field mice find warm places to live like other people houses. So far mine are thriving in the basement and it's gotten down to 60. I'm not sure how low the temp can go before it really starts to affect them. I'm not willing to find out. I'm going to check the temps at night just to see how low it does get and go from there. I have too much invested in my mice colonies to have them die off.
 
I am currently working on a shelving unit that will utilize heat tape along the back so that I can keep the mice warm and at a set temp during the day and night. Especially in the winter.

Temps have fallen to low 40's where I live the last couple of days...good cold front moved through. all mice and babies were curled up and the same corner in one tank and all 4 of the mice in the other tank had made a "hut" out of some of the newspaper and were curled up together under that. was really cute to see, but now I have a heat lamp out there to help keep them warm.
 
I think I'll wait until spring to try my next colony. In the meantime my current survivors will be the guinea pigs (no pun intended).
 
I use a space heater with my mice in the winter.... AC in the summer. Even with the heater if the mice or rats don't pay attention to the babies they die. Just found a whole litter of rat pinks died of hypothermia. Stupid rats. As far as fancy versus feeder, they're all mice. I have had breeding colonies of swiss websters... they never bred like advertised, my fancies had much larger litters. Now I have albinos amongst my fancies, but the fancies feed the snakes just as easily as the albino lab mice. They all have some swiss webster blood in them, but it's better with the fancies. This way if I get a student who wants to buy a pet, I have all kinds of "cute mice" to choose from.
 
I'm kind of there with Sasheena...I originally had all albino mice that were purchased through a mouse feeder breeder. The are the same mice sent to labs and such, from a special breeder for them.

They had high litter counts every cycle, and I just fed off the last remaining female I had originally purchased over 2 years ago. She gave birth to 13 the day she died. So pretty good if you ask me.

I incorporated fancy mice into my breeding stock out of the simple desire to have "non-boring" mice. Albinos work, but colored mice add spice and enjoyment to the whole deal. And the downside to that is if they get too cute, you really find it hard to feed them off. =P

Fancy mice have added a whole different aspect to babies around here. They've increased the size of the pinks and slightly decreased the litter count. So where before I'd have 13-16 pinks who were tiny...I've been getting 8-12 good sized pinks.

The young also seem to develop faster for some reason. Which is nice when you're needing fuzzies and bigger sizes at a ever increasing turnover rate.

The only thing I HATE about fancy mice...the males pee all over everything. They feel the need to mark EVERYTHING. Food bowls, food, hides, and in the most disgusting trait...they climb to the top of the in-tank water bottle and pee all over the top and down the sides. So when you reach in and get the bottle, your hand become saturated with scent. So make sure you wash thoroughly before going to your snakes. :puke01:

Rippit,
Did you get your founding stock from the feeder bins in the back? Generally those mice are marked feeders for a reason. A lot of people, including myself, thought those were a bargain for starting your own colony. All of mine died in short order before ever breeding.

If you want good healthy mice for healthy and nutritious feeders for your snakes...spend the extra money and buy good quality mice. It really saves you money in the long run.

Every once in a while I'll buy a new fancy male and re-structure colonies, or raise up females to add new genetics to the gene pool at my house. But I don't generally have to redo everything.
 
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First of all, let me say that I didn't read everybody's posts on this thread so far, but I wanted to give my opinion on the albino I've had.

I have fancy mice that had been crossbred with albino mice in their past.

I saved an albino baby that was born and raised her up as a breeder only to have to kill her a few weeks later for not thriving.

I talked to the guy who I got my mice from and he says that he originally bred the albino mice into his fancy mice because some guy told him that they were great producers, yet once he did that he found out that all the albino mice he got were deficient in some way. Now he immediately kills off any albinos as soon as he sees them and if he needs to raise more breeders he'll choose to raise up the non-albinos.
 
Taceas said:
Rippit,
Did you get your founding stock from the feeder bins in the back?
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Misty,

I actually bought the mice at Petco, straight from the tank they have on display.

You have all been very helpful (as usual) - I think I'll be getting some fancies here shortly.
 
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