Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know these questions may sound dumb....but just looking for alittle info...I currently have a young corn and a young king, both eating fuzzys...I currently buy them frozen fuzzys from Petsmart(6 for $11.00)..I was throwing around the idea of raising my own mice in order to save money, also petsmart is around 45 minutes from me....Anyways, for my questions...How hard is it to raise mice? I would imagine, after buying the tank, it would be cheaper..Also..since my snakes have been eaiting F/T.. how does one continue this if they are now raising there own mice? should I convert to feeding live?(I rather not), if not, what is the humane way to Kill a mouse? and If they currently eating fuzzys, would I raise the mice to fuzzy stage, then freeze all the fuzzys for future feedings?
I guess also, is it worth doing all this in the long run? I do have a closer petstore, but the mice always look horible from there, and i only use as last resort(some freezer burned, others are shaped funny when frozen)..thanks for the help..

I raise mice and there is a lot to consider. If you have to drive 45 minutes for mice then you will probably have to drive that far to but food for the mice. You will eventually need to have two tanks, one for adults and one for moms and babies. You will spend more time raising mice and the results will seem slow to appear. There never seems to be babies when you need them.

Then there is the smell. Cleaning helps, but they are mice and they do smell. Consider spending money to buy frozen mice from a dealer. Shipping is expensive but not so bad for as long as they last. Good luck if you decide to go ahead with this.

Dave
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One man with faith equals the majority.
Thomas Jefferson

Well, I had bought two adult mice (live) and my ball python didn't eat them (she's very picky and only takes rats). So, we put them in a twenty-gallon terrarium with aspen bedding for a few weeks.
They were in the garage with the cats so I went out one morning to check on them and there was four or five pinkies half buried. Since I didn't have anything to do with the pinks, i gave to a friend who has a whole bunch of snakes. We put a pinkie in with his beardie and in five minutes it was gone...
So, i didn't do anything and they had babies! How i don't know but they did. I just fed them Ritz Crackers and they were fine.

I get frozen mice from rodentpro.com and then repackage them using one of those foodsaver-type devices that vacuum seals them. I put 5 or 6 mice in each sealed bag. Then just throw em in a freezer. In the end, it is far cheaper than a local pet store.

jorj

Maintaining mice is far more work that maintaining snakes.
If your snakes eat frozen/thawed food, then I'd just buy a
bag of 50 to 100 rodents from a professional rodent breeder.

Tim

Third Eye

I agree, I did the whole mice breeding thing and it just wasn't worth the hastle,plus if you end up with over 25 snakes it is hard to keep up with them unless you have quite a few breeder mice..........

Buy frozen thawed, they are the best way to go....PLus you don't have to feed and clean up after them.....lol

Now let me add my 2 cent. i did fall into the rodent breeding last year. It was alot of work but remember you can put 5 females and 1 male into a 10 gallon tank. There is no need to seperate the females after they are pregnant. The rodent chow i use Mazuri it cost about $25 for 50lb. I always have a surplus of rodents that it works to my advantage. Last year I traded mice with a friend and in return I was given a pair of baradi rat snakes (thanks for the info on them Jimmy) a few bloodred females a male classic het bloodred motley a female fire and a few other different morphs. So it is alot of work I am at the point now where i breed in the winter and freeze the surplus the rest of the year i either order from mice direct or rodent pro.

Tom