Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Since none of my snakes seem really interested in frozen mousies, I was wondering if there was anyplace I can buy live adults ready (and willing) to do the wild thing and give me some live babies to feed to my snakes???

At present my snakes are eating pinkies and fuzzies, but that will change as they grow. I've never done this before, so I need tips on where to go, who to talk to...things like that.

Don't know much about raising mice except its supposed to be really easy and really smelly which is why more people don't raise their own mice.

I'm not exactly a snake expert, but all of my previous snakes got used to the frozen/thawed idea eventually, even a picky ball python. I try not to feed live mice past the fuzzy or hopper stage due to the danger they can pose to snakes.

Anyways, best of luck to you. If you find an over abundance of mice, feel free to send some my way.

-ABlueflame

P.s. This link seems to be informative. (no, i am not from this site, nor do I know anything about them. take all info w/ grain of salt.)

http://www.feederinsects.co.za/feederinsects_rats_and_mice.htm#Breeding Rats & Mice

Since none of my snakes seem really interested in frozen mousies

There are very few species of snake which won't readily take frozen/thawed mice. How have you tried?

I was wondering if there was anyplace I can buy live adults ready (and willing) to do the wild thing and give me some live babies to feed to my snakes???

Most petstores readily sell live rodents. But raising your own mice, while it might save you some money, will take a lot of your time and the smell really has to be experienced to understand. Mice stink!

The other problem with breeding your own is having enough of the right size at any given time. If you need fuzzies, you have to wait a few days for the pinkies to reach the right size. Then you have 15 fuzzies at once but two weeks later when you need them again, they have grown up.

The solution most people use is freezing them and then using as they need them. Of course, you can just buy them frozen and save a lot of time and effort.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

I agree withthe previous post! I tried raising my own feeders, and WOW! My wife almost left me. Even with regular cleaning, the stench was horrible. Then the money I was spending on cleaning supplies, it just was'nt worth it. The mice were quickly the wrong size for my hatchlings, and still too small for my adults. Then I had a problem with my mice killing eachother.
I quickly learned its only really worth breeding your own mice, if you have a large quantity of snakes!
I dont know your situation, or the amount of snakes you have. You might even have the perfect spot away from your house to raise mice. But for me it was'nt worth it. I was spending more time with my mice then my snakes
Good luck with project. Sometimes you just need to get out their and experience the nightmare yourself!
Hopefully everything works out for you!

JasonMc

Hello,
I gave up on breeding mice not long after I started, due to the stink as others have mentioned. I really enjoyed breeding rats for a while, since they hardly smell at all and make great pets, but I eventually developed a severe allergy to them (asthma, chronic sinusitis, hives) and had to give them away. You may find a way to make it work for you, but in many situations breeding feeders can be more trouble than it's worth. Besides, when you order frozen rodents in the mail, they come in insulated boxes with dry ice. The boxes can be re-used and the dry ice is just plain fun to play with!

Nate

I agree also. Spend the time with your snakes and not continously cleaning and breeding mice. You have to put a lot of money and time and effort into what can turn out to be disappointing results, not to mention the constant smell of urine. One live mouse left in my snake room overnight (to be fed later killed) produces a terrible smell by itself--now multiply that times dozens of breeding adult mice needed to substain the size requirements you'll need. Then you have the dead mice that may be the worst smell on earth. If you need a live mouse from time to time find a local breeder.

I started breeding my own mice about 5 years ago and will never go back to buying mice. If done properly, it can be very effectively done giving you a constant supply of mice, fuzzies, & pinkies...as well as some surplus that you can sell or kill/freeze. At one point I was producing enough mice to feed a 100-snake collection and also sell 100-150 mice weekly.

Start by going to a pet shop. Tell them you want to pick out your own mice. Get at least 3 females for each male, depending on how you want to set them up. In a 10 gallon aquarium, you can use a group of 1.10 and have great success. Most people use smaller groups of about 1.3 or 1.4

Be sure to keep their water bottles filled and clean at all times. They will panic and quickly start killing each other when they run out of water.

The smell can be controlled too. I keep my mouse racks inside my snake room, which is just behind the kitchen. I never have a problem with odor.

Good luck!

Breeding feeder mice

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mike Heinrich
mike@amazontreeboa.org
www.boakingdom.com

I cany imagine you having any problem finding mice at any petshop
The only problem you might have is finding breeder size mice that are fairly young. Older mice breed well enough but the older females wont have as many babies. 5 females to 1 male is good although i have had as many as 8 to 10 females to 1 male and still have a huge amount of babies.The comerical mouse and rat cages that LL reptile supply sells works great for mouse and rats and are convienient to clean and house 5 to 1 ratios perfectly.Give your mice some hiding spots, temps 65 degrees plus, clean water bottles and refill when they get half empty or sooner.Do not disturb mother mice any more then neccessary and use commercial rat and mouse blocks as food.I recommend you do NOT house mice in your snakes room because i think that it confuses snakes always having a "food" odor around. clean mice cage 1 time a week. I give mine treats whenever i feel like it even though the "experts" say it isnt goods for the mice. But hey, they work hard for you so what the heck, cheese, bread, carrots and whatever.Also exercise wheels are great for them and besides you might find the mice kinda interesting to watch.Also when your snakes get bigger you can use the same cage above for a trio of rats and i even get my babie hondurans to eat newborn rat puppies and you talk about spectaular growth of baby snakes!!when your snakes start taking rats they grow like weeds.
good luck ----Greg