Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know this is terrible to say, but for now i have a 1:1 male:female , but i really done need as many as a 1:2 or 3 would produce. They are the white lab mice which i purchased from the pet store, the man who owns the pet store really knows his stuff and says they are about 3 weeks away from being breedable adults since they are a little small. He breeds his own mice in the back of the store so i really do trust him. These mice came out of the same tank and now are in a tank together so hopefully they will be friendly( although when they found a peice of dog food in their food dish they did fight over it instead of the other mouse getting another peice *rme*)

For now they are in a foot by half small carrier .. but in about a month our iguana will out grow its 20gal tall tank and we are working on building a larger one, so they can move into it. Until then they are in our bathroom with the door closed because the cats keep trying to knock the cage off things so they can get to the mice. Once i get the cat i rescued fixed and checked out i can put the mice in the bed room he is staying in since we have a female that isn't fixed and is in heat.

We have a zoo at our house so i have tons of feeds and grains and seeds and nuts that i could select from to make a mice feed ..

Parrot Bird seed
**Sunflower Seed, Safflower Seed, Oat Groats, Heat Processed Soybeans, Whole corn, wheat, whole peanuts, green split peas, yellow split peas, diced papaya, Sweetened bannana chips, pumpkin seeds, red chile peppers, cantelope seed, diced pineapple, raisins, ground corn, ground, oats, whole pistachios, alfalfa flakes, cabage flakes, celery flakes, dicalcium phosphate, soybean oil, Cod liver oil, wheat germ, mineral oil, salt, potassium chloide... and a bunch of vitamins and stuff

Dog Food
Cat Food
Rabbit Pellets
Orchard Grass
turtle pellets
fish food
pond fish pellets

We also have these available too.

15 bean soup( sprouted as well )
Kidney beans( sprouted as well )

almonds (shelled and not)
brazil nuts(shelled and not)
peanuts(shelled and not)
cashews(shelled and not)
sunflower seeds(shelled and not)
pumpkin seeds(shelled and not)
walnuts(shelled and not)
pecans(shelled and not)
pistachios(shelled and not)

coconut
rasins
dried appricot
dried pineapple
dried prune
dried banana

kale
collard greens
mustard greens
grapes
fresh fruit
oranges
Veggie Salad ( orange flesh veggie, and several different veggies .. no onions, mushrooms, citrus, or alvacado)
frozen green beans
frozen peas
frozen mixed veggies ( carrots, corn, green beans, peas)

9 grain bread
all sorts of low sugar breckfast cereals
corn meal
noodles
rolled oats for stock

eggs
several meats
chicken innards ( boiled .. and only when we have roasted chicken for dinner )
mealworms

chicken bones ( from time to time)
plain rawhide chips

i also have tons of vitamin powders and liquids

Right now i have them with some bird seed, grain and a few peices of dog food broken into small peices. I noticed that the female mouse went right for the dog food and chowed down. The mice were a little skinny when i first brought them home day before yesterday, but now they are tubby around the middle. I am hoping that is okay and they are just getting used to a new diet.

they have been peeing and pooing regularly and have been really active making nests and burrowing though the short peices of shredded newspaper i gave them ( no color images on the newspaper i used ) I also gave them a little bit of 100% cotton stuffing which they used to line a nest and live to sleep on it *lol* I also give them a peice of rawhide to chew so they dont chew anything else. i have wood bunny chews as well but i didn't put that in there.

I know i'm bad im spoiling breeder, but as soon as the girls saw them they were like MICE .. so only the babys will be food.

Sounds like your mice will be very spoiled. I would make sure to give them dog food... but don't break it up... they need hard stuff to chew on to wear down on their teeth. It's WAY funny watching a mouse trot around the mouse cage with a huge ol piece of dog food, but they enjoy it, and sit their, with the big chunk in their paws, crunching away at it. I'm going to go through your list and highlight those things I think you should NOT give the mice.... going from memory here. Also you need to make sure they have a high protein, fairly high fat food ratio for them to produce and raise babies. That is why the dog food is good. If I had a bunch of treats for them, I would try to build some sort of hardware cloth hopper to put the dog food in, so that is not wasted or spoiled, then give them a mixture of seeds just on their bedding as treats. Notice what they do not eat, and don't give them that the next go round: Note: too much fat can make obese mice that won't breed either. Since they are albinos, it's hard to tell by color alone if they are carrying certain obesity genes (yellow mice and tiger striped mice get obese)

Parrot Bird seed
**Sunflower Seed, Safflower Seed, Oat Groats, Heat Processed Soybeans, Whole corn, wheat, whole peanuts, green split peas, yellow split peasdiced papaya, Sweetened bannana chips, pumpkin seeds, red chile peppers, cantelope seed, diced pineapple, raisins, ground corn, ground, oats, whole pistachios, alfalfa flakes, cabage flakes, celery flakes, dicalcium phosphate, soybean oil, Cod liver oil, wheat germ, mineral oil, salt, potassium chloide... and a bunch of vitamins and stuff

I would give them this as a treat... again, try to notice what they do and don't eat... they WILL eat the sunflower seeds, will nibble on the corn (they don't care for corn) in the summer I give them frozen peas because it's so hot. I don't think they will like the chile peppers. They will probably taste most of the rest.

Dog Food

Good. Cheaper dog food is better, as it has a higher grain content. Low protein (dog food) is good also, as it usually has the right protein for mice... High Protein is bad. Also must not be red-colored dog food, as that is bad for herps and stores up in the mice, plus some mice just don't tolerate the dyes and die.

Cat Food

Usually too high in protein.

Rabbit Pellets

Makes good mouse bedding, and they'll nibble at it, but won't actually eat it.

Orchard Grass
turtle pellets
fish food
pond fish pellets

I'm clueless about these... you can try them, but with so many other options they WILL like, I would say no need.

15 bean soup( sprouted as well )
Kidney beans( sprouted as well )

Again, not sure if they will like these, but I think it would be a nice treat to see if they will eat either of these.

almonds (shelled and not)
In very small quantities... if you are trying to tame them this would be a good thing to give them as a sort of reward for good behaviour.

brazil nuts(shelled and not)

I've heard that Brazil nuts are NOT good for mice. (very bad)

peanuts(shelled and not)
cashews(shelled and not)
sunflower seeds(shelled and not)
pumpkin seeds(shelled and not)
walnuts(shelled and not)
pecans(shelled and not)
pistachios(shelled and not)

Treats... I do add about 1/4 cup of black oil sunflower seeds to their cages once a week as part of their staple diet. But all of these are very fattening.

coconut
rasins
dried appricot
dried pineapple
dried prune
dried banana

Again, I'd try these as treats, and strike off anything they don't like.

kale
collard greens
mustard greens

Try a little of these but too many greens can cause them to have diahrea.

grapes
fresh fruit

No citrus or oranges of any kinds. Like with fresh veggies... too much fruit can result in diahrea.

frozen green beans
frozen peas
frozen mixed veggies ( carrots, corn, green beans, peas)

If/When it's really hot, they will LOVE frozen peas given to them frozen, it's like a popsicle to them.

9 grain bread
They will love this.... I've noticed that breads make them have stinkier waste though.

all sorts of low sugar breckfast cereals
corn meal
noodles
rolled oats for stock
They will love the rolled oats. Heck, so far, if I had this list of ingredients, I would give them sunflower seeds, safflower seeds, dog food, and rolled oats as their staple diet. The rest of these they will also like.

eggs

They love scrambled eggs.

several meats
chicken innards ( boiled .. and only when we have roasted chicken for dinner )
mealworms
chicken bones ( from time to time)

I would keep the solid meat food down to a minimum. I give my rats and mice the bones from when hubby and I have chicken. They love them. I hope to start raising mealworms if I can get a flourishing colony I might just give the mice a few mealworms a week.... they LOVE them.

It is always good to spoil your mice if you can. I love my mice, they are my "little friends"... I come home and I relax watching them--they are so much more relaxing than high school students! I bed my mice down in a mixture of pine shavings (1/4) usually just dumped in the corners of the cage because they will pass their urine in the corner. the rest is alfalfa hay, which they make nests out of. In the winter I add newspaper and raw cotton for them to make nests out of as it can get a bit cold in the "mouse house". In the summer I don't give them those, as they are not lookking to conserve warmth, they are dying (sometimes literally) to be cool. Mice can be fun and interesting to have around. I'm just glad i have enough snakes to justify all the mice, rats, and gerbils I raise.
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~Sasheena

The list of foods is so ... large because we have so many different types animals .. *lol* We have 2 ( we might keep a rescue so that would make it 3 ) cats, 1 120lb. dog, 1 african grey, 3 dwarf bunnies, 1 iguana, 1 turtle (6 turtles out side in a pond), tons of mealies and now 2 mice. My fiance wants a snake and fish, but we don't have the room right now for anything more *lol*

We buy bulk when we get animal food obviously hehehe ... i buy rabbit food in 50lb bags so using it as bedding would be a great idea .. we have cat litter but being on it all the time would probubly give them breathing problems later on.

I hope these two breed ... and have very small litter .. *lol* weird thing to say huh hehehe ..i just dont need a huge number, but the pet store in town the pinkies are $1.49, hoppers are $1.50( which i hate to feed cause our turtle makes a mess and a half with them) and the lab adults are $2 and fancy mice are $2.50.. Expensive little buggers !!