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Questions on starting up a breeding colony of mice/rat for feeders

RobertIII

RobertIII

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So I have been thinking it would be more cost efficient if I start up my own breeding colony of mice. Now mind you I only currently Have 2 hatchlings and 2 argentina horned frogs that need to be fed. I have a 40g acrylic tank sitting around not being used, and was wondering if this would make a good breeding tank? Do I have to worry about the mice/rats chewing through the acrylic? Now a couple of questions on breeding and etc:

1) In my 40g I was thinking of one male to maybe 5-6 females? Would a 40g be big enough for that?

2) What do you all feed your feeders? I have heard dog food, corn flakes, mice pellets etc.

3) whats the gestation time for mice? rats?

4) the 40g does not currently have a lid, do you think a mous or rat could escape such as climbing up the sides etc?

Thanks for any help.
 
I did a site search on 'breeding mice' and came up with a ton of posts, have you read through those yet? The search feature is on your uppr right area of your screen, right under your 'welcome' message.
 
RobertIII said:
1) In my 40g I was thinking of one male to maybe 5-6 females? Would a 40g be big enough for that?

2) What do you all feed your feeders? I have heard dog food, corn flakes, mice pellets etc.

3) whats the gestation time for mice? rats?

4) the 40g does not currently have a lid, do you think a mous or rat could escape such as climbing up the sides etc?
Click to expand...

1. Mice it would be fine, for rats it would be to small for that many rats.

2. I use rodents blocks made by either Mazuri or Tekland.

3. I believe it it approx. 28 days for both.

4. I don't think mice would escape the 40 gallon without a lid, but the rats would be able to. Rats can jump quite high.
 
If you only have 2 hatchlings and 2 horned frogs you won't need that many mice. You'll notice one or two female mice will do the job just fine. Putting a cover on top of the cage wouldn't be a bad idea, in fact I'd recommend it (not only so they don't get out, but so things don't get in). It doesn't neet to be anything fancy, anything that is big enough to cover the top will work; I've used plywood before and it worked just fine (I wasn't worried about ventilation since I removed it many times a day to make sure they had food and water...they were garage mice in the middle of summer).
 
cool, I appreciate the tips. Yeah I was thinking 6 mice would be alot, probally 3 females to one male would be more then enough. Garage mice huh? Now thats not a bad Idea...except out here in phenx during the summer my garage gets about 120, I think that might be too warm for em huh? lol. Thanks again. Also has anyone had any luck breeding mice bought from petco/petsmart?
 
You will find that mice bought from anywhere will breed with no problem. High protien dog food works excellent. I bred mice for a while and stopped since at the time I only had two snakes to worry about feeding, and the smell was pretty bad.
I now am working on breeding rabbitts, but they are housed outside in the barn, and smell doesnt matter out there. What you may want to consider having only two snakes to feed, is visiting a reptile show, and purchasing frozen. Breeding your own feeders, for so few, could be just more of a hastle than it is worth. Hope this helps
 
Well I ran to the local pet store and picked up some mice, I decided to get 3 females and one male. I currently have them in a 10g. Think I might use the 40g to raise some of the babies etc. Have a quick question, What do you all feed your mice? Also does it matter if they are the albino white or colored? I picked up 2 white females and a white male and then a gray female. That shouldn't matter I would assume? Yeah the smell is not that great!! does anyone have any ideals to help combat the smell? They are currently on pine shavings.
 
RobertIII said:
Well I ran to the local pet store and picked up some mice, I decided to get 3 females and one male. I currently have them in a 10g. Think I might use the 40g to raise some of the babies etc. Have a quick question, What do you all feed your mice? Also does it matter if they are the albino white or colored? I picked up 2 white females and a white male and then a gray female. That shouldn't matter I would assume? Yeah the smell is not that great!! does anyone have any ideals to help combat the smell? They are currently on pine shavings.
Click to expand...

You can add vanilla extract to their water to help control the urine smell.
 
You may find your snakes have a preference towards one color mouse over another, but that's the only difference between the white and the gray.
 
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