...My current colony of rats has been going for about 15 years. I have only brought in a few males from outside the colony during all that time. The first few years with this colony it was fairly common when cleaning cages for one to bite me. But, biting me was a capital offense. The punishment was swift and sure. Any rat that bit me, even a momma with a new litter of babies was imediately killed and fed to the snakes or put in the freezer. Any mother rat that killed her babies was also immediately put to death. Over the years my entire colony has developed a very civilized personality. No matter what I do with them they do not bite and they always take good care of their babies. They have been selectively bred for personality and it has worked very well. I have had a few hairless ones show up in litters. Just out of curiosity I have bred them back to other hairless ones. The hairless ones have generally had small litters and the babies have not been very hardy. The colony had been reproducing for several years before the first blue one showed up in a litter. I kept that rat as a breeder and now have quite a few blues.
...I have tried raising mice seveal times. I can raise mice but they will sometimes kill their babies just because the weather changes. Mice are smelly evil little SOBs.
Jeff

>>I was thinking ten dollars apiece. I've been working with this strain for a while now and it seems to be a simple recessive trait. Slogan maybe something like " Feed your Piebald only the best... piebald mice!"
>>(This is just a joke I'm hoping the boa forum has more of a sense of humor than the ball python forum)
>>Also does anyone else breeding their own food find themselves breeding for certain traits in the mice and rats?
>>Just asking because I tend to do just that. The snakes don't really seem to care that I've bred a solid black hairless rat they just want to eat him. Go figure.
>>

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