Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey Gang,
Earlier this summer I finally killed off all of my rodents. I had mice, which did fine, though some mice would start to itch around their ears and lose hair, oddly enough, any black line mice had it worse than others. I treated for mites, to no avail! And my rats, even before the mouse problem seemed bad, would have babies, the babies would grow fine for about a week, then start dying off, one by one, like they weren't getting enough food, and they would grow pale and listless, and just waste away, and I'd end up with only two babies out of eleven that make it to weaning! Yet other times they'd raise a whole litter just fine, they'd go back and forth. Well finally I gave up on the whole project as it was frustrating! All rodents are gone, and I washed and boiled out the cages best I could. I'm hoping it was just a mouse problem that the mice could still produce fine, but the rats had problems with. And that now that they are all gone, and cages have been cleaned, I can start over again. I was feeding the rats a lab chow, and the mice Purina dog chow. I never did see ANY mites, no matter how hard I looked for them. Could it have been some sort of weird mange? I have no clue! Anyhow, am now in the process of looking for new stock again, but have yet to trust anything I've seen in the pet stores. I live in the sticks of North Dakota, so I have to drive two hours any direction to make it to any pet store. And so far I keep finding big cages with too many sick looking mice in the cages! So I'm wondering have other people had similar experiences? Some mice would ooze from their scratching, and some would seem to make a full recovery...and yet all raised mice just fine, and it wasn't like every mouse in a box with an infected one were affected. And it only showed up in older adult breeding mice, never showing up in the babies. Weird! I was doing some summer reading, Life and Times of Roger Conant, and he stated in there that when they got rats and mice from the labs, they produced better, cause they didn't carry any diseases or bugs of any kind. Now does anyone on here do that, or know if I could get some that way? At least then I'd know they didn't have anything, and it would just be my way of taking care of rodents at fault, yet I'm sure it was something they had. Let me know what you think of my mess I had, and what you feel my best options are. I really don't like anything I'm finding in the pet stores...so are there labs that sell privately to a guy like me? Thanks for any input given, I'm hoping to get back into rodent breeding soon. It's WAY cheaper to raise my own for my snake collection than shipping in frozen thawed.
Russell Keys
Keys Reptiles

hey you can buy your rats and mice directly form Harlam tek labs.
They sell different types of rats and mice disease free and guranteed to breed true.
The only down side to that is that they cost alot and the shipping is even more expensive but it is worth it you want disease free animals, buy thre problem might be the litter you use, most mites come from the bedding and then spread to the environment there after.
I sue and recommend gentle touch bedding its amonia absorbany and it lasts a long time, no frequent changing required.
anytime an animal starts showing signs of mites get rid of it and decontaminate the surrounding area within 5 feet or so.
good luck
DexterD
Owner
Double Ds
www.doubleds.org
Link

Also remember that if you handle, own or let near any other mice or rats near the lab rats the lab rats will get it and there goes any benefits from spending all that money. Total quarantine always.
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Sonya

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