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thinking of raising pinkies

T

tommyxivx

New member
Hey Gang! Most of the reptile stores around where i live usually don't sell live feeders and the closest one that does is like 10 miles away (going there from my house and back= 20 miles, and everyone knows 20 miles is hell with our current gas prices):headbang:. I asked my mom if i could raise mice to feed to my snake but she said no. So i have a plan. I was thinking on only buying around 5 or more pinkies, raise them until they're fuzzies and then feeding them to my snake. Norbert, my cornsnake, has just eaten his first live fuzzy and he seems to enjoy them more than the frozen ones he eats. so here's my question....

will my "pinky plan" work and what will my supplies need to consist of, such as how big their container needs to be, what foods to give them, etc? Thanks again everyone for taking your time and answering my question.
 
tommyxivx said:
So i have a plan. I was thinking on only buying around 5 or more pinkies, raise them until they're fuzzies and then feeding them to my snake. Norbert, my cornsnake, has just eaten his first live fuzzy and he seems to enjoy them more than the frozen ones he eats. so here's my question....

will my "pinky plan" work and what will my supplies need to consist of, such as how big their container needs to be, what foods to give them, etc? Thanks again everyone for taking your time and answering my question.
Click to expand...

Why do you want to feed your snake live when it is doing well on frozen thawed?
And if you get live pinkies are you planning on nursing them yourself???
 
haha yeah, you can't really just take pinky mice, bring them home and feed them normal mouse food, if you want to keep them alive, they have to at least be weaned from their mothers, which is FAR past the pinky stage. just keep feeding your snake f/t, it's a lot less hassle, and it's safer for your snake.

also if you start feeding live, and then the live food sounrce becomes unavailable, your snake might decide not to eat frozen anymore.

so if it were me in your situation, i wouldn't take the risk.
 
also how are you going to raise the pinkies to fuzzies, bottle feeding? If you want to raise mice you will have to have the moms to nurse them. You would need get yourself 1.3 or so already weaned mice and start a colony in a 10 gallon tank or something.
 
because i just thought breeding and feeding him live mice would be a good way to save money because the closest i can get to frozen mice is petco and they rip you off completely. and would nursing live pinkies be a lot of work? i've never had mice as a pet before so this is kinda new to me...sorry.
 
tommyxivx said:
because i just thought breeding and feeding him live mice would be a good way to save money because the closest i can get to frozen mice is petco and they rip you off completely. and would nursing live pinkies be a lot of work? i've never had mice as a pet before so this is kinda new to me...sorry.
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No need to apologize it's a good question IMO. It wouldn't be a lot of work if you had the mom lol... I keep two tanks of breeder mice right now as hatching season will be starting soon. I'm stockpiling pinkies for my future snake babies. If you don't want the snake to have live you can always euthanize and freeze them before feeding. Considering your situation I think it WOULD make sense to start a mouse colony, it would take a bit for them to start producing though...
 
alright...so i just need to buy one male and one female and make them mate. but how long do you think it'll take until she gives birth?
 
tommyxivx said:
because i just thought breeding and feeding him live mice would be a good way to save money because the closest i can get to frozen mice is petco and they rip you off completely. and would nursing live pinkies be a lot of work? i've never had mice as a pet before so this is kinda new to me...sorry.
Click to expand...

usually it is not a money saver, usually it actually ends up COSTING you money. because in order to continually raise the mice, you will be constantly changing their bedding (ongoing expense), and constantly buying food for them (which is another ongoing expense). plus in the first place you would have to shell out money for caging, and the colony, and a water bottle for them to drink from, etc etc.

if you have lots and lots and lots of snakes, it might be worth it for you. but if you have a handful of snakes, or just one, it would cost you a lot more than it would to go get the frozen feeders.
 
I buy their food and bedding in bulk so it has probably cost me about $40 give or take all year this year to keep mice. That's not counting cost of the mice which I traded a baby snake for pet store credit (and they did throw in a bag of bedding) or the housing that I already had laying around, though.
I was just thinking gas prices and the arm and leg petco charges for pinkies. If you can find a breeder near you that orders frozen in bulk you can always try getting them to sell you a few or going in on an order with you...
 
ok...so i guess the whole plan wouldn't work lol..i only got one snake. thank you sooo much. guess i gotta keep on feeding him frozen then.
 
yes think that would be the best idea, I have also started breeding mice and to be quite honest it took a while to start with but now they tend to be having babies once a month, I have hatchlings due in a few weeks so I am removing half the pinkies but it does take a lot of time looking after them all, and if you dont remove them all at pinkies you will need more than just one cage as well.

I have 3 snakes and they have a nice supply for them.
 
Breeding mice can be done cheaply on a small scale. It depends on the availability of good cheap lab block locally and being able to find some cheap used lab cages.

I got shoebox sized lab cages with wire food hopper tops and water bottles for $5 a set. 2 or 3 sets of those and you can breed mice easily on a small scale. Start with 1.2 young mice and in a month or 2 you should have your first pinkies. At 3 weeks remove the weanlings to another lab cage.
 
yes my weanlings get sep at 3 weeks, I have to sep a litter tom as by the looks of the mum she is well and truly pregant again, how many litters do you let your girls have before you give them a rest. My girls next litter I will need to take most of her pinkies away for my hatchlings so will only leave her about 5 next litter anyway, her current litter is 14.
 
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