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Thought they were easy..

popcorn

popcorn

Popcorn w/ extra "BUTTER"
haha..i know its a silly question..but i still want to know..! So..two weeks ago i puchased 2 males and 8 felmales mouse..put them all in one tank..i have seem the males humping the females..like all the time..2 weeks past by..still none of the mouse got pregnent..?dont even look like they are at all.. How come? i thought they breed like crazy..thanks
 
Didn't read those (you probably should though), but don't put more than one boy in a cage. It's usually works best with 1 boy and 1-4 girls or so. Make sure their diet is good, they have clean water and a clean cage. Temps shouldn't be too high, and that's mostly how to do well.
 
cornsnakeforsale_com said:
Didn't read those (you probably should though), but don't put more than one boy in a cage. It's usually works best with 1 boy and 1-4 girls or so. Make sure their diet is good, they have clean water and a clean cage. Temps shouldn't be too high, and that's mostly how to do well.
Click to expand...

I was going to list that info, plus that it takes more than 2 weeks to produce babies, & I figured it was best to give them the info on breeding & care for mouse colonies. :)
 
Our mice tend to not breed if it is to hot out and during the winter they went nuts making babies. Now that it is spring, even though we have the AC on they are slowing down on their breeding. If your mice are to young they might not even look pregnant. We occasionally get one that has a small litter (3-5) that didnt even look like she was pregnant. When our full grown ones are pregnant though you will notice. They get huge and start doing the duck waddle.
 
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Mice also need an extremely strict day/night cycle. If you do 12 hours day 12 hours night, you can't even so much as turn a light on during the night or you'll screw them up.

I had the same problems you are mentioning, but a strict cycle like that would be impossible for me. If you can shove them in a closet you might be able to get a cycle going. I couldn't, so I went and got some rats. 22 and 23 days later, pups.

However, I tried mice for about five months. All my female rats I've bred haven't seemed obviously pregnant at 2 weeks unless they were from the line that has large litter sizes (with healthy pups). Each time I had a small litter, the doe didn't seem prego until about 3-5 days before birth (excluding the girl who had a small and sickly litter of 13).
 
phht, my mice do not have any real light cycle and I get babies. They do have spells where I won't get any babies, that is when I tend to get some new females or maybe a new male. Saving females from the same lines too long can lower fertility. A good diet with good protien and fat levels that are not too high do well and be sure to clean out the cage regularly, they will not breed in filth even though they cause it ha ha ha. I do agree though, only one male in the cage at a time or you are begging for trouble. The females will usually plump out to "looking" pregnant 3-5 days before they give birth. Some that have large litters will do a slow plumping 2.5 to 3 weeks in but those are hard to come by from pet shop stock. Also be sure your cage is big enough, I find my mice will not breed if they feel crowded.
 
With my set up I have at least 2 girls paired per tub. No day/night set up at all. I keep my males in small bins housed by themselves until i am ready for breeding then i move the males to the female bins and leave them until the females start to show. (this could take up to a month or longer some males are a little slow on the uptake.) my FH group was paired for 2 months and had a single pup.

You have to remember just becuase they are humping doesnt mean its happening. Doe come in heat every 5 days so she might not have taken on the times you saw action.
 
Would too many males be one reason I'm seeing cannibalism? Females produce well but if I don't pull babies early to freeze or feed someone seems to go at them. I realize inadequate diet in volume or type might also be to blame.
 
umm.. i dont know. I only keep 1 male per group as males can tend to fight. I have had females eat 1-3 of their babies to lessen their load if they cant care for all of them. but anytime i see any kind of cannabalism i either try to foster the pups to another that didnt have as many and cull the moms that were cannabalizing. and i havent had any trouble in about 4 months now.

I posted in the topic about the dog/cat food what i feed.
 
Males will kill litters that they did not father, I do not know how they know but they do it. I have put in a new male not knowing a female was preggers and he killed her litter but did fine with all of his own. I never remove a male unless he seems to not be doing the job.
 
Thanks! I had a feeling that was the case. It only seems to be happening where I put in younger males to take the place of the older "less fancy" males that were doing a good job. Will I ever learn to leave well enough alone? Seriously, will I, anyone? ;)
Hopefully when I finally get to breed my corns I will, every bodies still too young!
 
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