Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

I have been buying mice for quite some time, and I just thought I would give a crack at breeding them. I have a 10 gallon and a 30 gallon tank. I was just going to put a male with a bunch of females, but I don't know if this will work. I have 8 females in my 10 gallon tank, and will get the male in a couple weeks, I want to get the females buffed up a little. I am now thinking this may be crowded? Can one male handle that many females? I also think that one of the females I have is pregnant. I just need to know the basics of how to breed them. I did a search on google and surprisingly found little info. Any help is greatly appreciated.

THanks,
A.J.

I agree 8 females and 1 male would be crowded in a 10 gal tank.

I would use the 30 gal. tank and then use the 10 gal as a grow out tank for the weaned mice.

You may very well have a fighting problem when you introduce a male to adult females. I usually set up my breeders young and introduce them shortly after they are weaned and there is usually
no fighting just some smelling and checking each other out.

If you have to introduce adults here is a trick I used to use on my rabbits when raising them .
I use Vinilla , I put some on a cotton ball and rub some on all the mice already in the cage as well as the new one(s) I introduce to the cage. By the time the vinilla smell is gone they all have picked up the cage smell and can not tell they are new mice.

Second thing leave the male and female together if you want to continue to produce pinks.

Food can be factory made or mixed at home. Most agree if you use any cat or dog food in a homemade mix not to feed any with red food coloring in it. Usually the cheapest cat and dog food does not have any colored food in it and thus a better product to feed.
I use 5 or 6 different things in my homemade mix.

If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me at:
h_ricker@shawneelink.net

I tried to email u at h_ricker@shawneelink.net but it didn't work, so I will try you here.

Thank you for replying to my post quickly. If I set the thirty up, and put the male in there, leave him in there then introduce the females in a week or two is this ok? I was worried about them breeding too early? I have a large female and the rest are normal, cept for the one is a little smaller. Also I hear them making the mouse noise the little screech things, are the mice fighting or just talking? I am using hamster food for my mice which is really cheap, I work at a local pet store and get all dry goods (anything that isn't alive) at 5% above cost, I get the mice for 30% off which is $1.05. I also heard to mix lots of sunflower seeds in their food as it helps with fertility? Can one male handle 8 females then? What did you mean as a grow up tank, do I put the babies and the mom in them, or just the babies? Although they don't smell yet I have heard that you can put vannilla in their water to cut down on the ammonia smell that comes out, is this a good idea? I thought this was supposed to be easy, sorry I have so many questions.

TIA,
A.J.

Its best to start with young females. Set up the 30 gal tank with plenty of hides (toilet paper tubes, paper cups, etc) a couple food dishes and two or three sipper bottles for water. Put the male into the cage and then all the females (as quickly as you can without dumping the lot in at once LOL).

As everybody is in new territory, all are on equal basis. There may be some squeaking and minor fights as they all get used to eachother As long as there is no blood or nobody look overly picked on (especially the male), you can leave them alone. In a few hours things should settle down. The male will do his best to service all the females (if they don't all come into heat at the same time, he should have no problems doing his duty).

For a breeding colony, best to feed a high protien (20% or more) diet with a fairly high fat content (at least 8% but not more than 14%). You can use dog food as long as it doesn't contain any red dye. (won't harm the mice but can harm reptiles they are fed to). Wild birdseed mix can be used in addition to the dog food. (just buy 10bl bag or more, only costs about $5 or so). Other food you can buy are specially formulated lab blocks like those made by Mazuri. More information about food, setup etc can be found by scrolling down and reading older posts.

What is meant by a grow out tank is once the baby mice are weaned (about 4-5 weeks of age) you can put them into the smaller tank (or just a rubbermaid container) to grow to adult size. This is good to do if you need adult sized mice to feed to reptiles.