Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm looking for a good place to buy live mice from, any suggestions????

n/p

Why do you want to feed live for?Just curious...Paul

I know this isn't your original question...But my suggestion is feeding frozen/thawed if at all possible. I have, however, found that the price of live at some reptile shows is reasonable...but that's not going to give you a steady supply. Breeding them is one STINKY venture, of course. Pet stores will charge you up the whazzoo.

Yup...Frozen/thawed is the best suggestion I can think of.

funny thing, is mice really smell........ but rats have less of a smell than mice....go figure

I got a free pair of mice at the tulsa expo on may 21...(guy didn't wanna break a 50 for $3.. ) Anyway I had them in a little plastic mouse container from the pet store and kept them well fed and cleaned out their cage every single day because they smelt so incredibly horrible.... anyway the female ATE the male... for no apparent reason... came home from work like 2 days ago and she ripped open his throaght... ended up killing her because I know how rodents can be when they have a taste for meat... (had a rat that tried to eat my finger once...) well that is my story!
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0.1 Snow Corn "Hope"
1.0 Redtail "Kilo"
1.0 Ball Python "Road Hog"

i have a pair of mice now, they have a litter of 5 babies, to start off they had 13, they ate a few and a few died.... the other five are fine, from my experience, when they eat a baby if you put in dog food it usually helps.

currently, i have 6 rats, (the charmed ones ) they are very social, and very friendly, i had a playmate rat of theirs here who had babies she had 11, my 2 females helped her raise the babies.... when she was out of the nest they tended the babies. the babies are now on the way to being weaned, and i am keeping three.
rats make awesome pets.

Should you decide to try again, don't clean the cage so much. ^.^
Mice are territorial, like dogs, males will mark everything in sight. If you clean too thoroughly they will just feel compelled to mark all over again making the cage smell worse than it did before. When cleaning, sprinkling a pinch of the dirty bedding over the fresh bedding will remove the urge. (The exception to this is when introducing new mice together in which the cage should be sterile and void of any odor.) It helps even more to shop around for lo-odor breeding stock!

I've been breeding my own for about 5 months now. I would just like to get two more breeding colonies, so I can keep up with my snakes demands.My mice now have about 30-40 babies a month but I feed my snakes as much as they want.
I have...
Milks
1.1 Pueblan
Corns
1.0 Snow
0.1 Okeetee/ Het Snow
0.1 Anerytiristic
0.1 Caramel
0.1 Crimson
1.0 Sunglow
Kings
1.0 Cal.

not the best idea. Snakes don't really have a way of telling when they're full. You feed a snake that much, you're going to end up with developmental damage. How old are your snakes?

I would highly suggest feeding f/t also.

And where are you keeping your mice to breed, may I ask? Like how far away are they from your snakes?
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Chondros and colubrids... my 2 favorite types of snakes!

"Life is hard. Life is harder if you're stupid." - John Wayne

I'm not dumb enough to let the snake gorge itself. I only meant
that I feed my snakes about every three days or so. My mice are about 10 feet from my snakes. I keep them in modified 58 QT sterilte containers. I use to just breed mice and rats for a local pet store.

No doubt I will be publicly tarred and feathered for this but here goes...

Addressing your question and a few other points that were brought up; if you are planning on starting your own breeding colony, I strongly recommend going with good quality pet strain mice. More often than not, pet store feeder lines prove themeless unsatisfactory for a number of reasons.

Someone mentioned odor, feeder lines are the weakest genetically and the strongest odor wise. Male mice generally do smell, in some lines the males smell significantly stronger than others, with common petstore feeders being the kings of stink. (Additionally, don't expect them to live long enough to give you more than a few litters.) As an example of the difference in odor; those of you who have kept feeder line mice for any length of time will probably raise an eyebrow when I say that I share my home with no less than 60 mice at any given time with no problems. Many of those are males who have very little to no odor at all.

Do be aware though that it may prove a challenge to obtain good pet line mice as most serious mice breeders are avidly against breeding for feeders. There are a few, however, like myself, who do breed seriously and also have a snake or two on the side that will sell to you.

Diet; a mixture of quality wild bird seed mix, standard hamster mix supplemented with dry dog or cat food will get you lots of plump healthy babies. As someone mentioned, a lack of sufficient protein will result in the parents sacrificing a few babies in order to sustain the rest.

Make sure the mice are comfortable and have plenty of living space. Mice (well bred mice anyway) are far more intelligent than most people would suspect. Females kept in overcrowded quarters may well decide to cull litters to prevent adding to already overcrowded conditions.

If a male is left in the cage with the female(s), he will breed her again the same day she gives birth, thus she will be pregnant and nursing young at the same time. This is extremely taxing physically, especially with a large litter. Its much kinder and much healthier for the mice if you keep more pairs/groups than you need and alternate, giving them rest and recuperation periods in-between. This will also increase production in the long run, rested mice produce better.

Getting a successful colony going is not that difficult once you have the basics, though caring for them is A LOT of work and not for everyone. However, the benefits of breeding your own may be well worth it for many people. Most feeder suppliers use 'dry ice' to euthanize mice... Not only is it about the most brutal end imaginable for the animals but it cant possibly be healthy for the herps that eat them. I will always wonder how many of the unexplainable deaths we see are the result of a build of toxins from commercially purchased feeders. Purely speculation of course but I'll never risk it with my snakes.

This is more than what was asked for I know, but in case some of it may be of benefit to you or anyone following the thread.

Getting back to the initial question, where are you located? I know a good number of breeders throughout the country.

I live in south central PA near Harrisburg.
I have had mice now for about 4-5 months. I change the bedding every three days and i feed them mazuri lab rodent feed. I also give them apples, bread, banannas, grapes and other fruit. I have a group that consistently has more than a dozen babies. They have NEVER eaten their babies. The one female has had 18 for the last three litters.
Please let me know of some places to buy LIVE mice from.
S.O.S Rodent express will only ship frozen to me.
Thanks,
Cory

Try Sand Valley Farms for live. They are up north of Clarks Ferry about 30 minutes. Not knowing exactly where you are around Harrisburg, it could be close by...
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2.3 Albino Nelsoni Milksnakes
0.1 Snow Corn
0.2 Sunglow Corns
1.1 Albino Motley Corns
3.3 '04 Albino Corn hatchlings
1.0 '02 Albino Stripe Corn
0.0.12 Sunglow/Moltey eggs simmering
0.0.20 Snow/Amel-Het Anry eggs simmering
0.0.5 Sunglow/Amel-Het Anery eggs simmering
0.0.13 Motley/Stripe eggs simmering
Bunch.Bunch Bearded Dragons
Bunch.Bunch Crested Geckos
0.1 Great wife
2.0 Great boys
0.0.2 dogs (they're great too!!)
and Corey's Yellow Knee Tarantula "Fang"

Do you have an address, phone number or an email for sand valley farms???
Thanks,
Cory