Reptile & Amphibian Forums

When you have set up a breeding colony, lets say 1.3, what do you do when the females have their babys? DO you remove the male or keep him in the cage. I have heard that they will kill the baby mice if he is left with them. Thanks

Keith

leave them all together. He will not kill the babies, mice are soical animals. you'll have more problems if you move him then try to reinterdus him back later.

The parents usually only kill the pinkies if they are stressed, are new parents or if the father does not think he is the father. If you introduce a new male into a group he will kill all the pinkies but otherwise all my males are great fathers.
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0.0.1 Common Columbian Boa (Damian)
0.0.1 Amel Cornsnake (Kernal)
0.0.1 Okeetee Cornsnake (Guido)
1.1.0 Lhasa Apso's (Monkey, Tiffany)
1.0.0 Rat Terrier (Ricky)
1.3.0 Mice (nameless)
0.0.4 Goldfish (nameless)
0.1.0 Beta Fish (nameless)
0.0.1 Snail (Gary)"Meoow"

Also Canibal the Musical is just about the the most funny movie ever!!!

The male mouse wants HIS genes passed on. If he finds pinks from a different male, he will eat them and impregnate the female himself. If they stay together, he will NOT eat his own young. The motives behind the males eating pinks is for propogation of the individual mouse's genes. As long as he's the father, he shouldn't bother the babies.

UNLESS, he's VERY stressed, or really needs that protein in his diet. If you're feeding and housing them right this shouldn't be a problem. Hope this helped, Dave.
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"i have a mortal wound!"
"where? where does it hurt?"
"oh, pretty much around the big bloody spot"
"come inside. ill get the neosporin. da na na na na - NEO! ba na na na na na na - SPORIN! blee nee nee......."

Thanks for your replies but i have one more question. Has anyone ever bred and fed reptiles hampsters? Just wondering. Thanks

Keith S

Hamsters are so not worth raising for reptile food. You can feed them to the reptiles.. but they have a low yield due to the females often cannabilizing litters. I guess some Russian Dwarf Hamsters are being raised as food but again.. small yield for more work. Thats why most of us raise rats and mice... I personally have rats and gerbils. The gerbils are mostly pets that I breed though I'll cull out specific colors I'm not looking for.. or that I have too many of. I also use them when I have a finicky eater.. and the pinks are small enough for my female leo's to take during laying season. But otherwise, there just isn't enough yield from gerbils and hamsters to raise them for just reptile food alone.
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Lucien

1.1 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)(Sutekh and Isis)
2.2 Leopard geckos (2 Blizzards (Caine and Goliath), 1 het Blizzard (Lilith) and 1 Tangerine Albino (Tequila Sunrise ...Tiki for short))
0.1 Savannah Monitor (Kiros)
13 rats
5 Gerbils
2 Dogs (Loki and Storm)
2 cats (Sahara and Hercules)

This is common in the animal kingdom. I have seen some pretty graphic footage of a lion killing young lions he did not produce once he took over the pride.
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Jay A. Martin