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I have (2) 10 gallon aquariums with 1.3 Mice each. All mice are young Adult. I have had them together now for about 2 months. Only 1 female has given birth, just last week. All the other females do not look pregnant. My question is how do I promote more breeding? Should I reduce the number of females? I have tried switching males , is this good? I feed my mice dog food and rodent block. I keep them at room temps.

PLEASE HELP

Thanks
Andrew G

>>I have (2) 10 gallon aquariums with 1.3 Mice each. All mice are young Adult. I have had them together now for about 2 months. Only 1 female has given birth, just last week. All the other females do not look pregnant. My question is how do I promote more breeding? Should I reduce the number of females? I have tried switching males , is this good? I feed my mice dog food and rodent block. I keep them at room temps.

If it were me I would just leave them alone. Every time you make a change you delay breeding. Mice don't like social groups changed around.
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Sonya

I used to have a Colony of 2.8 and i had great success!! over 30 babies a month! most people wouldnt reccomend it, but aslong as you start fresh(pick each mouse out of a different colony) the two males will fight, and only the dominant one will mate, although somtimes they both will. With this setup i had each mouse give birth to about 7 babies (100% live rate) and they all grew up healthy. I had to cut back on this, as it was kinda a mistake, i only have 1 BP and just dumped the mice into one 10gal.

I fed them Kaytee mouse mix, with some dog food (ol' roy dinner steak, and rasin bran) they were Big mice too from feeding this diet.

>>I used to have a Colony of 2.8 and i had great success!! over 30 babies a month! most people wouldnt reccomend it, but aslong as you start fresh(pick each mouse out of a different colony) the two males will fight, and only the dominant one will mate, although somtimes they both will. With this setup i had each mouse give birth to about 7 babies (100% live rate) and they all grew up healthy. I had to cut back on this, as it was kinda a mistake, i only have 1 BP and just dumped the mice into one 10gal.

Just to add my two cents into this mix.... although I've never put two males into the same colony, I would (for groups breeding sluggishly - when other factors such as age did not apply) mix in some bedding from a different cage, "old" or dirty bedding that was already scent marked by another male. This would seem to do the trick, as the male must have sensed another males "presence" and would almost immediately begin mating with the females in that group. More often than not, new litters would arrive 3 weeks later.

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Rebecca
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yea, i found all that by accident remember. I just got some mice from a friend and didnt bother sexing them, nor did i care at the time. I just dumped them all in the same 10gal. Then later i realised i had too many mice...and recorded the group ratio, and babies produced over a 30 day period.

Here is what works for me. I have worked with several strains of mice in the lab I work in. Granted we keep our mice in EXTREMELY controlled conditions, I have found it easy to be successful at my house also. I also used to work for a reproductive biologist that has a lot of experience breeding mice. For breeding, I use a light cycle of 14 hours of light and 10 hours of dark. I keep the temperatures constant at 72-74F. If possible, put the colony in the quietest place possible. If mice are constantly disturbed, they will not breed as well. Mice also mostly breed at night, so disturbing them at night is a bad idea. I also keep a ratio of 1.2 - 1.4 I don't suggest putting males together at all in a breeding group. Also try replacing breeders every 6 months. They may produce well after this but they usually become overweight and males become impotent. If those suggestions don't work for you, then try a different strain of mice. I have worked with strains of mice that just don't breed as well as others. The best strain I have worked with is NSA (Non-swiss Albino). These get the largest out of all the mice I work with. They also produce the largest average litters and more frequently. Good mice should produce a litter every 20 days or so. Hopefully these suggestions are helpful. Let me know if I was confusing or if you have any other questions.

Ryan