Reptile & Amphibian Forums

My rodent room has no windows so when the lights are out in the evening it is very dark. To achieve more productive breeding would a nightlight help or do the mice actually prefer the darkness??
This may be unimportant but my production is running about 60% of what it should be and I'm trying to eliminate things that may be stressing the mice. I currently use a regular childs nightlight in the rodent room during the night. My daytime lights run 15 hours ON and 9 hours OFF.
Any thoughts? Advice?

Thanks,
Brian

You absolutly do not need a night light, and in fact, it may be at least part of yur problem. Rodents do best with a distinct day/night cycle, and the night cycle should be as dark as possible. 12 on, 12 off is good, 14 on, 10 off is good too, 15 on may be a little much. Age & change seem to be the worst things for mice. Are they too old? Has there been any new people in your rodent room lately? Has there been any new additions to the colonies? Are you sure you have one male in each instead of two? Has there been people who smoke near your rodents? Mice are much more sensative to things like that than rats are. Are you running out of food or water ever? Is there temperature fluctuations? They do best at about 70 - 75 degrees. Has it gotten overly hot lately? It'll kill the males sperm if it has. Take a hard look at it is all I can say.
Paul Edwards

Thanks