Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I believe that you breed all of your mice for your animals, correct? I was just wondering how many breeders (mice) you keep in order to produce the quantity that your animals command.. Just wondering.... it must be an incredible amount; much more than a python breeder with the same number of captives would need of course...

bob

holy moly, dang if I know.

Hmmmmmm. I started breeding mice, because my local mouse breeder went out of business. Then, what the heck I may as well produce more then I need, so I started selling them. Now we produce more then we need and sell them.

I did the same with crickets, only I only produce what I need.

So, if I divide it out, about 300 females produces all we need. That includes my son, hes in San Diego today, I am caring for his turtles, so I am getting the idea, he uses a lot more then hes been letting on to.

That many females takes about two hours a week. The crickets take about an hour and a half a week as well.(for the monitors, turtles and snakes)

I had the mice cages already, I bought them 35 years ago. We live in the country and our property is zoned urban ranch. I also had the out buildings. I would never and I mean ever, never ever breed rodents anywhere near my house.

Oh by the way, we have reduced the number of monitors, but mostly the smaller ones. Why do you ask? Cheers FR

just seeing what it takes to keep up an adequate number to hold back and feed out... I've tried it in the past small-scale, and gave up...lots of frustrations and torrid smells... no matter how often I cleaned... a buddy of mine has an empty garage on a decent sized lot(for Long Island) and he was thinking about breeding mice for his Antaresia and Liasis collection.. You're the only person I know of here on this forum that breeds mice, figured I'd ask around
for him..

tthanks for the info,

Bob

Its not much different then monitors, only much easier, there mammals for heavens sake.

Like anything else, you need to have a design that means your needs, space and tolerances. Mice like monitors, can be done in a million different ways to fit what you require.

We have a rotating system to replace breeders and supply us with large, but not fat mice. We have a pinky producing system that gives up thousands of pinkies without effecting the production of the breeder mice. Its things like this that allow for success.

You must design your cages to not be WORK and to allow easy service. These type approaches allow for continued success. After all, any one can breed mice for short periods.

The back wall in the picture, holds 1000 females, It takes four hours to service, I do that once a week. Which is tomorrow by the way, I start at 6:00am and I am done by 10:am. FR