Posted by:
amarilrose
at Fri Jan 26 13:51:13 2007 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by amarilrose ]
It's MUCH cheaper to breed your own prey animals. If you're comfortable with the facilities that are being offered to you, do it!!
Something you should know about breeding mice - they are not exactly moral or ethical creatures by our standards  The best time for females to become pregnant is right after they've given birth. No joke. Other than that, their estrous cycles are (off the top of my head) somewhere around 4 or 5 days long, so leave a male and female together for a full week, and they should be golden.
Also, mice are not monogamous, BUT among those who study animal behavior and pheromone effects there is something that is referred to as the "Bruce effect." This describes a scenario where a female that is impregnated by male A will of course be fine if male A is taken away, but will spontaneously abort the litter if a new male B is introduced to her cage (in the absence of male A) while she is pregnant. That all happens because of pheromone interaction. Also, after a litter is born, the male that is in the cage with the female had better be the one that sired the litter, or the mother will probably eat the litter - another little something that is triggered by pheromone interaction.
You can successfully leave a male and female together full-time, if the cage is large enough that when the litter is born, the female doesn't feel threatened by the male's presence. Several years ago, when I was breeding my own rats & mice, we would keep 2 or even 3 female mice in a cage with one male full time. For my set up, 3 females per male actually lead to drastic over-production, and the colony had to be cut back. How many animals you can safely house together really depends on the size of your cage.
Also, melindas' suggestion of stunning the mouse is a great tactic for switching live-only feeders to pre-killed prey, and then eventually to f/t. I'm glad to hear you've been feeding your snake and are just aggravated that it hasn't touched f/t.
Good luck!
~Rebecca
-----
0.1 Dumeril's Boa '04 (Courtney)
1.2 Ball Pythons
[1.0 '05 Orange Hypo (Specter)]
[0.1 '05 Het Orange Hypo (Sylvia)]
[0.1 '03 Normal (Sue)]
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)
[ Hide Replies ]
|
RE: there are ALWAYS more tricks to try! - amarilrose, Fri Jan 26 13:51:13 2007