The "schedule" was to clean 10 baskets every night. Each held 32 deli cups. Then go through the mouse colony trying to harvest 320 day old pinkies. EVERY night. Unless we were at a show.
We had to cut down on the number of shows we did because that cut too far into the feeding schedule and the babies were suffering from being fed at too wide of a schedule. Target was every 5 days. But that would only cover 1600 babies. There were lots of times when I had a LOT more than that needing to be taken care of. One year I had 8,000+ babies hatch out. I about lost my marbles that year. So, that is when I started bulking out a lot of babies to wholesalers. Unless something was REAL special, in the bags they went to move them out. Otherwise I just would not have been able to get everything cared for. Every year the bar I considered for what was worth keeping to be fed and cared for, whether for future breeders or animals for sale got higher and higher. Once I got to the point where I could no longer even consider keeping normal colored project animals, I knew the writing was on the wall for considering retirement. I was soon going to be dead in the water for being able to produce new things.
Anyway, for a show weekend, it would put 12 days between feedings. If you go too many times of 10 days or longer, you will start losing babies, even if they are ready, willing, and able to feed.
It was quite the grind, to be honest.