Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, breeding mice is SO easy... just leave them be, and *boom* you have a billion babies!!

However, this all happens when it's my Ball Python's first winter, and she is off feed. grrr.....

I feed life or fresh killed, and would rather not freeze....

any ideas??

I am up to approx 42 males split into 2 cages - way too many, I know, but they are popping out faster than females - and about 10 females in one tank, and a batch of 14 pinks that are now 5 days old. should I kill the pinks off as they are born, just to stop the flow?! I don't know if I have the heart... help!

thanks!
Muggle

If you find a solution to your problem I would love to hear it! My freezer is full and I have mice everywhere. Same problem,all the BPs went on a hunger strike. Unfortunately the mice didn't go on a "breeding strike" My BPs are eating again,well.... all but one, but they are not catching up with the mouse supply.
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1.3 Ball Pythons
1.0 Brooksi
0.1 Goini
0.1 Goini x Brooksi
1.1 Blairs Grey Banded
1.1 California Kings
1.0 Normal Corn
1.0 Pastel Motley Corn
0.1 Okeetee Corn
0.1 Emory Rat x Corn

Remove the males from your breeding groups.

Easy answer to your problem - Buy More Snakes!!!!! Hehe... that's the excuse I give my fiancee anyway... "But Hunny, the mice are taking over the place, SOMETHING has to eat them...."LOL. Take care!
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?.?.? Leopard Geckos (eggs incubating)
1.1.1 Rhacodactylus ciliatus
2.5 Paroedura picta(eggsincubating)
1.1 Paroedura picta (Xanthic/Amel)
1.1 Paroedura bastardi(eggs incubating)
1.1 Paroedura androyensis
1.1 Hemitheconyx caudicinctus
1.1 Cyrtodactylus irianjayensis
1.1 Gekko gecko
1.1 Pachydactylus turneri
1.1 Uroplatus henkeli
0.0.1 Hemidactylus turcicus turcicus
1.2 Teratolepis fasciata

Snakes
1.0 Blizzard Corn
1.0 Christmas corn
1.2 Reverse Okeetee corn (1 tang)
1.0 Ball Python

Maybe try to sell them to local pet shops

I know that the pet shop here in my town will take my extras if I get to them the day BEFORE they order from their suppliers; if it is the day after they won't buy.
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Russ

>>Well, breeding mice is SO easy... just leave them be, and *boom* you have a billion babies!!
>>
>>However, this all happens when it's my Ball Python's first winter, and she is off feed. grrr.....
>>
>>I feed life or fresh killed, and would rather not freeze....
>>
>>any ideas??
>>
>>I am up to approx 42 males split into 2 cages - way too many, I know, but they are popping out faster than females - and about 10 females in one tank, and a batch of 14 pinks that are now 5 days old. should I kill the pinks off as they are born, just to stop the flow?! I don't know if I have the heart... help!
>>
>>thanks!
>>Muggle
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JMHO, FWIW, YMMV.

yeh or try getting some monitors..Those guys will eat anything. ^_^

If you want the females to stop having babies, take all males out of the female's bins. Then, kill any pinkies the females have and surprise, no more babies.

I would just kill and freeze the 42 males you have and sell them as feeders, either publically or to the local pet stores.

Keep a few for your snake when he is back on the job of consuming mice. Course, by then he probably be big enough for rats....

ok, I didn't mean to come across as ungrateful or rude in my subject line, but in my initial post, I stated that the males and females are separated.

"I am up to approx 42 males split into 2 cages - way too many, I know, but they are popping out faster than females - and about 10 females in one tank, and a batch of 14 pinks that are now 5 days old. should I kill the pinks off as they are born, just to stop the flow?! I don't know if I have the heart... help! "

I think the babies are just knocking their moms up before I get them out. they sure do mature fast! I will have to kill off any pinks that are born until... well, at this rate, until 2010! If I kill off the next batches, and double check that I have males and females separated correctly, I should be ok.

Selling to pet stores - I had wondered how that works. what kind of price are you getting when you go that route?

thanks for all the replies!

Muggle

male mice mature in about 4 weeks of age, pretty much when their testies drop. Mice are weaned at 3-4 weeks of age so if you separate the males and females between 3-4 weeks of age, you won't have any problems with the females getting knocked up. Advertise in your local paper, talk to local petstores etc that you have feeder mice available. You can either kill them youself and freeze them, then sell them, or sell them alive and let the new owner worry about killing them.

When I first started getting extras, a local mom'n'pop petstore would take the mice from me (pay me nothing, give me no store credit). Then I started calling around. One nearbye store gave me $0.60 per mouse in cash, which I found to be good. Another one that was much further away would give me an even better deal, but it wasn't worth it. Another one about the same distance away offered only $0.50 store credit. After a time the store that paid sixty cents dropped it to 45 cents so I started settling for the store credit. The store that gives me credit is also giving me $2.50 each for mature rats. Now I find it is worth it to just go for store credit. They also buy some of my snakes and other critters for store credit. They are a bit expensive, but I find that it still works well for me, because as you mentioned... they keep on breeding and breeding and breeding and they never seem to stop. Hubby and I have gotten several very nice display cages and stands, paying for them completely with mice.

I also now sell my mice and critters to local people. We moved much further out from town, and most people don't want to drive the 80 miles round trip to buy mice for their snakes if they have a local source. I charge $0.60 per mouse $2.50 per rat, and more if they are buying them as pets. (being a high school teacher with my critters in the classroom means that a lot of the students want pets of their own).

Now that I'm getting ready to warm up my snakes, and the weather is about to turn, I should soon reach an equilibrium point. By the time I have hatchlings I'll be on the scarce side for mice, again, as is the normal course of events living in a desert.
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~Sasheena

Hi, I was wondering how many mice do you have? I just set up my third sterilite tub (one of the 3 foot ones) with 9 females (all sisters from the same litter) and two males (the males are brothers who seem to be really bonded-not related to females). I am starting to get extras, but not that many (3rd tub is not breeding yet, but I think the females are pregnant).

Thank you for taking the time to read this,
Jasmine

They may need more mice. And, you'll make a little money off of them.