Please let me be rude, as I am a rodent breeder. And this bugs me. Rodend breeders must keep their stock year-a-round, but reptile keepers cannot seem to think ahead. That is, they not only do not buy mice in the winter when stock is up, they do not even buy in the spring when stock is still up and they are using mice. They wait until fall to buy mice, when stock is down for two reasons. First everybody wants mice at once and two, summer is the lowest producing months. In fact, if a rodent breeder slips slightly, he can lose all summer production and he becomes a consumer too.

For instance, I have been producing mice to sell for four years or so. Every year around march or april, my freezers are full so I advertise. I am normally sold out within two weeks and do not have to advertise for the rest of the year.

I am a small breeder(3000 sellable mice a week) and I cannot imagine what a big time breeder does with all that extra stock in the winter, or the worry of whether it will sell or not, in the summer. I have a friend that produces 12000 adult mice a week, I cannot imagine him producing more just so there will be enough for fall. Just think about having 24000 mice and nowhere to put them? We have to plan on producing some extra in the winter, and try to get thru summer/fall as best we can.

So the answer is, the summer causes lots of breeders to slow down or stop, and feeder mouse consumers cannot think to purchase when mice are in season. So yes, summer and all, mice are gold. FR

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