Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone,
I was wondering if there are problems with feeding wild mice to my snakes, or feeding their offspring to my snakes. My problem with keeping live mice in the past has been that I can't keep them in my house, so they need to be in my basement which gets down to 50 F in the winter. Domestic mice just can't survive, much less breed. Are there parasites that could transfer to my snake?

Thanks,
Taylor

>>Hi everyone,
>> I was wondering if there are problems with feeding wild mice to my snakes, or feeding their offspring to my snakes. My problem with keeping live mice in the past has been that I can't keep them in my house, so they need to be in my basement which gets down to 50 F in the winter. Domestic mice just can't survive, much less breed. Are there parasites that could transfer to my snake?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Taylor
Yes, there is a parasite issue.
Besides parasites you will need to worry about warmth for them too to some degree and containing them well. I would think you are thinking of peromyscus/ deer mice. They have small litters (4)less often. They are going to stress like crazy, move like greased lightening and not get as big as a domestic Mus. Have you tried domestic mice?
To me the troubles wouldn't be worth it.
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Sonya

Failure is not an option. It comes bundled with the software.

I suppose you could breed wild mice, providing once you get some, they are parasite free (vet check for internal parasites, treatments for external parasites (ie fleas, ticks and mites) then hope they get tame enough not to attack every time you have to handle them. Then again most wild mice in cold climates don't breed in the winter anyway, waiting instead till spring and early summer.

However, that said, it would be cheaper to buy a couple ceramic heaters for your basement, or build a small room and insulate it well and keep your domesticated mice in there. Depending on how many mice you need to breed, it may be alot cheaper to just build and insulate a 2'x 2' 'closet' for your mice. Just big enough to have a shelf with several tubs of mice and a over head light. The insulated walls and light may be enough to keep the temperature a nice constant 70F without additional heating.

Excellent idea! Even a cardboard box with a 20 watt bulb will keep it signifigantly warmer.

That said, I also go on record once again as being against keeping wild rodents. They bite, carry diseases (Hanta and Plague come to mind), carry parasites, if loose will infest your house, and don't reproduce well. If you are talking about deer mice, assume they will get loose. They are half mouse, half bottle rocket. I have seen them jump 15" straight up from a sitting position.

DeMak

I had a fancy mouse jump 12" straight up, needless to say she was turned into food, can't have her giving my other mice similar ideals, especially given the fact I don't put tops on my mice bins.

I've wanted to introduce wild house mouse genes into my mouse colonies, more out of pure curiousity than for any other reason. Never could figure out a way of doing it. Then lately a wild mouse took up residence in the shed I keep my mice in. Several of my females got loose, and by the time I got them caught again, they were pregnant. So now I have hybrids, without having to try to keep a wild mouse.
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~Sasheena

Thanks to all who responded. I don't think I'll bother with these wild ones.
To the person who (accidentally) bred the mice to wild mice, are the offspring any better? Did they improve your strain at all. I sort of though that crossing may be like crossing horses and donkeys. They're both mice but they are very different.

Thanks,
Taylor

>>To the person who (accidentally) bred the mice to wild mice, are the offspring any better? Did they improve your strain at all. I sort of though that crossing may be like crossing horses and donkeys. They're both mice but they are very different.

The mouse who bred to a wild mouse was only recently, and this wasn't a deer mouse, it was a wild mus musculus, same basic breed, but I won't know how the project is going for a while, since the hybrid babies are only fuzzies.
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~Sasheena