Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I have been breeding rats really well now for a year. I now am breeding my own mice and have my first group ready for weaning. I did not keep track of the birthing dates so I have no idea how old they are. All I can tell you is they are hopper size and they are eating block and are running all over the tank. They are also still nursing too. They have teeth because they bite me when I pick them up, but they do not break my skin. When do you guys wean off your baby mice?

Thanks,
Bill
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2.1 Tripple Het Caramel, Orange Ghost, Genetic Stripe
1.1 Het Lavenders
1.1 Het Caramel Albino
0.1 Het Albino
0.1 Spider Het Albino
0.1 Het Pied
1,1 Pastel Het for Orange Ghost
1.0 Albino
0.1 Spinner
1.1 Super Pastel
0.1 Jungle Pastel
1.0 Pied 50 percent White
0.1 Clown
0.3 Normal
1.1 Kids
0.1 Spouse
1.0 Chocolate Lab

I pull mine when they start eating food and can hop. I feed biters to snakes. Biters breed more biters. If they bite you then they will bike your snakes more readily. You can breed the biting out of them mostly. I breed my own mice and almost never get bit. Biters must die! LOL

Kevin

Mice wean at the same age as rats, 21 days. You can wean them as early as 19 days if they look big enough.

If the goal is to grow the babies to full adult size, leaving them in with their mothers a bit longer is best. Typically 3-4 weeks of age. If they are still drinking mother's milk they are not fully weaned and though they can manage often their growth drops considerably if they are taking out at or before 3 weeks of age.

If the females (assuming the male is left with them or was with the mothers at least a say after birth) have given birth to another litter, than the older one is probably around 19-21 days old, so it wouldn't hurt to leave them in for another 3-6 days then pull them out into separate containers. Or just pull out the largest of the litter and leave the smaller ones with the females.

To be honest, for ball pythons, breeding mice for them exclusively isn't worth it. Even hatchling balls can handle rat pinkies or fuzzies as their first meal. Unless you happen to have stubborn eaters.

As for biters breeding more biters, really don't think thats the case. Mice bite mostly out of fear..taking the time to socialize the mice with you, takes the 'bite' out of them. I never had any problems handling babies and adult mice or rats without getting bit. Though definitely can see large breeding colonies and hundreds of babies...it would be difficult to have the time to socialize with them.
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PHLdyPayne

Thanks to every ones responses. All very well written and received. The main reason I am breeding mice is for babies in spring and I have two male BPs that love them. I feed them 1 mouse every 14 days. So breeding out the mice keeps my cost down and I know they are clean with no pesticides.

Thanks again,
Bill
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2.1 Tripple Het Caramel, Orange Ghost, Genetic Stripe
1.1 Het Lavenders
1.1 Het Caramel Albino
0.1 Het Albino
0.1 Spider Het Albino
0.1 Het Pied
1,1 Pastel Het for Orange Ghost
1.0 Albino
0.1 Spinner
1.1 Super Pastel
0.1 Jungle Pastel
1.0 Pied 50 percent White
0.1 Clown
0.3 Normal
1.1 Kids
0.1 Spouse
1.0 Chocolate Lab

Biters do breed biters! It is simple genetics. If handled the same, mice that bite more readily and/or frequently will pass the gene that causes them to have a propensity to bite. Defensiveness and aggressive behavior can absolutely be passed along. I have bred anywhere from 200 to 5,000 rats & mice every month since 1980 and this has been my observation. I never breed biters. They die immediately and I now get bit like once a year. Animals of the exact subspecies have been bred for things like aggressiveness for centuries by simply breeing aggressive animals with each other or vice versa for calm animals.

Mice for balls works fine for me! I ONLY feed mice to my balls and all my rosies and colubrids. I have balls that are 3 years old and 1800-2600 grams and gravid this year. On mice ONLY, my balls have near perfect growth rate, no obesity, perfect stools, faster digestion, no problems with meal size and breed well (we'll see how the eggs look any day now but I bet they will be just fine). With mice I get less mess, less odor, less expense, easier freeze and thaw, they take up less room, etc. I rarely have to buy mice and when I do it is only in the summer and fall when they eat like piggies.

This is my opinion based on observation during 30 years of breeding boas, pythons, colubrids and a few other reps. While this is my first year breeding balls (weird I know), I have bred 30 species/subspecies of colubrids, rosies, boas, bloods, savus and some others. To date I have produced over 2,000 snakes and over 150,000 rodents.

Oh yeah, I never leave weanies with a new litter of pinks. Hard on the pinkies.

I hope this info helps and good luck with the breeding.

Kevin

Thanks Kevin,

Great advice. The only thing that makes me laugh is that I have not really had a lot experience with mice and they all seem to have a liking to biting me. I have been dealing with rats for a year and I have basically never been bitten by one of them. Anyway, thanks for the advice.

Bill
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2.1 Tripple Het Caramel, Orange Ghost, Genetic Stripe
1.1 Het Lavenders
1.1 Het Caramel Albino
0.1 Het Albino
0.1 Spider Het Albino
0.1 Het Pied
1,1 Pastel Het for Orange Ghost
1.0 Albino
0.1 Spinner
1.1 Super Pastel
0.1 Jungle Pastel
1.0 Pied 50 percent White
0.1 Clown
0.3 Normal
1.1 Kids
0.1 Spouse
1.0 Chocolate Lab

I have been breeding mice for three years now. Started out as pets for my children who are alergic to everything else but mice. Then Once my son turned two I finnally got my first snake. I have had success with handling the bitters twoce a day they usally stop bitting after about a couple of weeks. And my snake loves mice she refuses to eat rats. but will always eat a mouse.