Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I finally got a male mouse to breed to my females for cheaper feedings. How do i get them to breed and how can i tell if a female is knocked up?

Yes, to add to that, we're trying to do the same thing with rats...any advice would be very helpful, thanks!

Not to go against What anyone has said in the past buti find that keeping grouped colonies of 1:5 works best and is most efficient. It doesn't burn the male out, you only have to clean them once every other day and the food seems to last longer. As far as rats go a 1:3 is optimal.

I use to breed my own rodents: I had to, I was producing over 600 offspring of reptiles a year. As well as all my breeders but then I came to the conclusion that It was far to expensive to pay my helper to take care of the colonies and do the dirty work.

I since have found a local breeder who I get a tremendous deal on rodents from and it's more soothing then to have a constant smell of piss and s^%t throughout the day.

Also, if you can find a local feed store that sells swine food it is best to buy that. I t comes in 50# bags for like $6. Also it keeps their coats clean and white and provides good healthy nutrition. And I still stand by the rule of using rats for mothers. You willl find far to many times the mice will eat their babies.
Good Luck!

As far as mice go just put him in with the female and that's it. They'll do the rest. You can leave the male right in there all the time. My mice colonys are in 10gal tanks,I have 6 to 8 females and one male in each. I do my rats a little differant. I have a breeding rack . I keep 2 females in the larger cages. I put a male in there for a week . Rats come in to heat every 5 days or so .Then I move him on to the next cage. I never leave the male in with the pups (not to say you can't) some females may eat them if the male is left in there.

Alan

If you want true success, you need to get a Rat mother who is lactating and when your mice have babies, take them out and put them in with the rat. Mice as parents are horrible. Rats on the other hand will feed not only rats, but mice,gerbils,hamsters, even Squirels.

Even though you are producing the babies. you should write down all your expenses for a month, time invested cleaning cages, and actual feeders that make it to feeding size. Then see if it is cheaper for the time invested.

Good Luck.

temps are very important to good breeding results, concerning Mice.
i try too keep the temp under 72 all year long in my rodent room.
also keep them fed! and watered every day.
its much cheeper, however it is a lot of work.
when you feed over 50 snakes a week like i do, you almost have to breed your own.
P.S. hey to all you hoosiers out there.
Hoosier Reptiles

Personally unless I have snakes small enough to require pinky mice I don't bother with them, just a pain in the tookus. I prefer rats. Any snake that can handle a fuzzy sized mouse should be able to handle rat pinks.

Rats are so much easier than mice, have larger litters, provide larger prey items. I usually will have 1 male colony breeding with 3-5 females. I leave the males in all the time, they are great dads. I would recommend getting your rats all at the same time I usually will start a colony with small rats. They are just at breeding age, I don't have to feed hoppers for a few weeks to get them to breeding age. Introduce your colony to their new enclosure all at the same time. Rat moms really like to have nesting material. This can be shredded up newspaper or the like.

Once your rat pups are weaned then your costs rise exponentially. I usually will take out rats of hopper size and euthanize them with CO2 and freeze them for later. As long as pups are nursing, your feeding the colony anyway. Once the babies start eating they'll eat you out of house and home.

If you have a mom or dad that eats babies consistently then get rid of it and replace it with a new one. Usually they are great parents. You will have to be careful as your females get older then can get real pissy about you constantly taking their pups.
Imagine that LOL.

When your clutch sizes start to fall off start with a new colony.

Hope this helps.
BigT

I don't see how you can say a rat has a larger litter. Rats avg 3-5 babies in my experience while mice range from 15- 30. I think you just meant something else.

My rats have litters of 12 - 18 and my mice have 12 - 26. But rats are alot better parents then mice

My rats have litters of 12 - 18 and my mice have 12 - 26. But rats are alot better parents then mice

My rats have litters of 12 - 18 and my mice have 12 - 26. But rats are alot better parents then mice

No argument there.

We seem to have opposite experiences cause my mice breeding never yielded those kinds of results, while my rats average about 18/litter. Still all in all I'd rather raise rats than meeces.

FAIR ENOUGH.