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feeders and inbreeding

H

hoppadoodle12

New member
So... I'm thinking about breeding feeders as a nice project, I just have a couple of questions...

if the female mouse is pregnant, and has been separated from the male into a new tub to give birth, and the babies are born... I need them to reach adult size before they are euthenized, but I hear that males from the litter will mate with females from the litter after only 4-5 weeks of age! Does this mean that as soon as they are big enough to tell male from female, I should kill all the males/move each male into his own box? or just leave them all in their together and if any start to look pregnant, kill them then?

I only need enough mice to sustain one hungry snake, so I was looking to use 1 male and 2 females... whats the best number of tubs to use? I have two so far, and was going to put them all in together and then remove the male into the other tub once they both look pregnant, think that will work? I'm guessing I'll need one larger extra box to put all the little weaned mice into to grow to full size?

Thanks
 
I would have 3 bins, in your case.
One for the breeding trio, & two separate ones for male weanlings to grow to full size, & one for female weanlings to gro to full size.
You can cull the males as soon as you sex them(& not wait until they're weanlings), if you want, & let the females grow up in the extra bin, or separate them at weanling stage into separate grow out bins.
You do not need to remove the male when the females give birth.
I just left the breeding groups together the whole time, & just pull the babies out.
They generally work together in caring for the babies.
 
Maybe my mice are just lazy, but I have kept young adults together for a goodly amount of time before euthing them, without anyone getting pregnant (visibly, at least). Of course if you are raising them to get really really big, then yeah I'd separate males from females if you don't want any babies from them.

Like Heather I also leave my males in the group at all times with no problems.
 
You could put them in gender groups, or if you don't need them to get huge, it doesn't really matter.

Males are thicker than females, I think, though, so I would cull the females instead of males.
 
also, anyone know where to get a gas valve for a 12gm CO2 cartridge in the UK, I tried b&q but they dont sell them apparently...
 
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