Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am getting a few mice to breed and have a couple questions. Can I have a tub that I can put all the pregnant mice in together in to have their babies, like one or two a week. Or do I need to put all the females in the bin at the same time? Also can I just have one big bin that I keep a couple females and a male in and let them have babies in there without takeing the male out. I am breeding these for pinks all the way up to hoppers and would like to know the best way to do it without taking up alot of space.

If your females are already pregnant and you move them in with strange mice they will probably be stressed out and kill all there babys when they are born. If there is a strange male in with them he may kill them because he did'nt sire them. The best thing is to have 1 male and how ever many females you can depending on cage size and leave them together all the time. Don't put in to many females. If you want to raise the babys up they will require alot of room as each female can have up to 15 or more.

Depending on how many mice you want, if I was starting fresh, I would start with two ten gallon aquariums, one male and six females in each. Leave them together constantly. Change their cage once a week or more frequently (for smell-control twice a week is recommended). Make sure they have a high protein food and plenty of water. They can take a while to be ready to have babies.
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~Sasheena

Thanks for all the good info. The bins I am gonna use are a foot wide about two and a half feet long and ten inches tall. I want to have a male and a few females in each one and just take the pinks, fuzzies, or hoppers out as I need them, or just wait untill there are a bunch of babies of all different sizes and freeze them for later use. I just don't want to worry about having to take the male out of each bin. So is six females to one male a good ratio for that size of a bin with some babies being left in there untill they are hopper size. Also if I use a colony for just pinks with me taking them as soon as they are born could I have more females in there. Thanks for all the help.

the standard ratio is 1.4 for mice colonies. Many people play around with their own numbers to see what works best for them. Give food with 18% protein and 8% crude fat. As a general rule I have found that weanlings dominate over pinkies and the pinkies end up dying in the process. I pull my weans when their indepentant or when the next batch of pinkies are born. Breeding moms will only live for 8 to 9 months and their littlers will get smaller as they get older. So you might want to keep a tank of "extra's" so you don't end up with a dead colony. Freezing is a good idea. It will ensure you always have the correct size. Sometimes I get cannibal pans where one or more moms always eat the babies. Those pans you just have to feed off. Hope this helps.

>>Thanks for all the good info. The bins I am gonna use are a foot wide about two and a half feet long and ten inches tall. I want to have a male and a few females in each one and just take the pinks, fuzzies, or hoppers out as I need them, or just wait untill there are a bunch of babies of all different sizes and freeze them for later use. I just don't want to worry about having to take the male out of each bin. So is six females to one male a good ratio for that size of a bin with some babies being left in there untill they are hopper size. Also if I use a colony for just pinks with me taking them as soon as they are born could I have more females in there. Thanks for all the help.

I have similar tubs and I keep anywhere from 1.6 to 1.9 in each and they are fine. DO NOT move mice around once you set up a group. Mice are strictly social and will kill new comers. Male mice will kill each other. So once they are 4 weeks old pull the babies or dad will start butchering males. I pull my babies about like you are describing...as I need them. And or I freeze off large numbers of pinks for upcoming Children's Python babies (counting my eggs before they hatch)in a couple more weeks.
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Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

I am pretty much set up for my mice. I am going to have five tubs. Three for breeding and two for raising up mice to larger sizes for future breeders and larger feeders. I just got a 25lb bag of mazuri rodent chow so I am hopeing that will feed them for a while. So if everything goes well I should be baby mice in a month I hope. And one last question. What is the best way to keep odor under control. Should I just change the bedding twice a week and thats it or is there a trick to keeping the smell to a minimum. Thanks

>>I am pretty much set up for my mice. I am going to have five tubs. Three for breeding and two for raising up mice to larger sizes for future breeders and larger feeders. I just got a 25lb bag of mazuri rodent chow so I am hopeing that will feed them for a while. So if everything goes well I should be baby mice in a month I hope. And one last question. What is the best way to keep odor under control. Should I just change the bedding twice a week and thats it or is there a trick to keeping the smell to a minimum. Thanks

My personal secret is that I dump a handful of rabbit pellets into each corner of the tubs when I change them.(assuming you are using shavings otherwise) I can get about 10 days (really) out of just a group of adults or adults with pinks. Once you add bunches of pups it goes shorter. But I still get 5-7 days usually. I tried to do what I do for my rats and use mostly pellets and barely shavings...but it really didn't do any more good than the fistful in each corner. Mice stink.
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Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

Are those rabbit pellets the rabbit food you buy by the bag or rabbit bedding?

>>Are those rabbit pellets the rabbit food you buy by the bag or rabbit bedding?
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Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

All right I am pretty much good to go. I got the mice, food, rabbit pellets, vanilla extract, and everything else. The only bad part is the pet shop I go to didn't have as big of mice as I would have liked. I guess it will give them a chance to settle in before producing some babies. Thanks for all the help.

..............adding 2 teaspoons of imitation vanilla extract per gallon of water.