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mouse colony question

twps Nov 29, 2005 04:32 PM

My questions are for people who breed mice/rats. I am interested in setting up a breeding colony and and trying to get an idea how many I will need to stay self sufficent. I am going through about 100-150 mice, 60 pinkies, 60 fuzzies, and maybe 30 hoppers a week. How many adult mice do you think it would take to sustain those numbers? Also I would be interested in how much money you save. I get all my mice wholesale so for me to breed my own and take the extra time and space the savings would have to be good.
Thanks, Jay
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Find a job you love, and you will never work a day in your life -Confucious
3.20 ball pythons
1.1 dumeril boas
0.0.1 pixie frog
1.1 dogs
0.2 cats
more fish than I can list.

Replies (38)

aviansinoil Nov 29, 2005 05:08 PM

I have bred mice and rats...all I have to say is IF you're getting a good deal on rodents already I wouldn't bother. The time you're going to spend cleaning and feeding them isn't going to be worth it in the long run. Unless you like a lot of cleaning. My typical monday was spent at one end of the cages cleaning...by the time I got to the end of the row it was Friday and I had to start all over again. The amount of shavings/food/water/space you'll go through to produce that many a week is eeeeeexpensive.

>>My questions are for people who breed mice/rats. I am interested in setting up a breeding colony and and trying to get an idea how many I will need to stay self sufficent. I am going through about 100-150 mice, 60 pinkies, 60 fuzzies, and maybe 30 hoppers a week. How many adult mice do you think it would take to sustain those numbers? Also I would be interested in how much money you save. I get all my mice wholesale so for me to breed my own and take the extra time and space the savings would have to be good.
>>Thanks, Jay
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>>Find a job you love, and you will never work a day in your life -Confucious
>>3.20 ball pythons
>>1.1 dumeril boas
>>0.0.1 pixie frog
>>1.1 dogs
>>0.2 cats
>>more fish than I can list.

horned_frog_guy Nov 29, 2005 05:08 PM

geez...how many snakes do you feed? it would have to be a pretty massive operation to sustain those numbers. You need a minimum of 100 adult mice per week. It takes approx 8 weeks for mice to reach sexual maturity. Assume 10 baby mice per litter. This means at any one time you will need to keep at least 800 mice on hand so that each week you have 100 adults to feed off. You would need about 30 females and 10 males to get started. Keep 1 male to 3 females, and keep them in rotation, so you are getting 100 babies every week. If you time it right, after 8 weeks, you should have 100 adults, 100 - 7wk old, 100 - 6wk old, 100 - 5wk old, and so on and so forth. Hope that helps.
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0.1 CB '05 Ball Python
Chlorhexidine

jyohe Nov 29, 2005 05:22 PM

according to your signature list you have 27 snakes and a frog...

how do you use 150 mice and 60 pinks and 60 hops a week?..

you want 300 mice a week.......and not all mice will drop every month no matter what people think.......

so you need 1200 a month.....plus extra females....

average 12 per female per litter

you need 100 litters a month...so you need at least 150 to 200 females to do this and not get screwed....(some will be old and some will be young at all times.....always save new females for new colonies and kill the whole tank at 6 months of breeding).

........so you should setup 20 tanks with a male and 10 females in each.........

I use hundreds of pinks to mice a week and sell alot more.......I have 56 tanks of mice with up to 12 females per tank and I get thousands of mice a month........at times 1000 in a week I bet........never kept that record ........
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jyohe Nov 29, 2005 05:25 PM

according to your signature list you have 27 snakes and a frog...

how do you use 150 mice and 60 pinks and 60 hops a week?..

you want 300 mice a week.......and not all mice will drop every month no matter what people think.......

so you need 1200 a month.....plus extra females....

average 12 per female per litter

you need 100 litters a month...so you need at least 150 to 200 females to do this and not get screwed....(some will be old and some will be young at all times.....always save new females for new colonies and kill the whole tank at 6 months of breeding).

........so you should setup 20 tanks with a male and 10 females in each.........

I use hundreds of pinks to mice a week and sell alot more.......I have 56 tanks of mice with up to 12 females per tank and I get thousands of mice a month........at times 1000 in a week I bet........never kept that record ........
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vip3ridae Nov 29, 2005 05:32 PM

You might have to buy even MORE maybe close to double the mice you purchased for the project due to small litters,pinks being smothered,cannibilized pinks and so many other factors such as smell food,water,bedding,cleaning. It's not easy.... And for 27 snakes it doesn't make sense to breed that many mice. Me? I breed a small colony and produced babies last night and it IS rewarding no matter what anyone says IMHO but the key word there was *small colony*....

jyohe Nov 29, 2005 08:16 PM

the smell sucks..if they are in the house.......forget what you smell...other people know they are there and don't like it....

also remember that they eat alot......and defecate alot.and you have to get rid of the wastes........

.....my trash bill went to $600 a year to do this.....

I use $50 of food and bedding a week........(100 pounds lab chow,50 corn and 25 dog food plus oats and potatoes for the hamsters and gerbils and all...) I go for food every other week..and I carry the 10 bags or so of stuff from car to basement......can you carry 50 pounds when you feel good?....feel bad?....feel totally like crap and have cracked ribs and other stuff?......I did / do it no matter what.....did it this time around for the last 15 years......you cannot stop .......you have to take care of them no matter what you feel like doing........every day..at the aproximate same time....

.........I know...some tanks will give you nothing..?...don't know why...but it happens at times..maybe male is sterile?......who knows..........then you have 3 months or more in thiese 12 mice and 0 to show for it......

like I said.I do 56 regular mouse tanks and get thousands a month and they pay for themselves and all my useage and selling hundreds to thousands a month.......

lots of people usemy mice........they just don't know it.......
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jyohe Nov 29, 2005 08:25 PM

and....

males stink more than girls but girls grow slower than males so you will need to raise up both sexes to have bigger mice......due to females not giving you the best growth rate...

the smell is there....

I pull at about 17 days....

average litter 12.......(yes I have had 22)....

I use American and English crossed from a bunch of sources and keep all my own future stock....

IF you go out and buy mice from a great breeder with a great facility.....they use heat,AC,air purifiers maybe...sanitize and wash each tank and each bottle every time they clean (weekly usually)....and their mice CANNOT take the germs of a normal cellar.......nor the humidity...

you buy good mice...they get pneumonia and die in 3 weeks to a couple months....not all ...but enough to make it not worth it...

my mice are mutts and they can take anything.......buy from a similar situation........(cellar raised mutts).....

you can raise for better color and better fur quality.....good morphs of mice........?..........prettier........anyways...

blue,english fox,super blacks,siamese seal point....siamese blue point,,,tri-color......brindled........mink.......poodle........(long and short haired).......sharpei / rhino.......pied.........roan........meryl.......

you find super blacks let me know.I haven't had them in a few years..they are cool........yet mean at times.....(English).
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vip3ridae Nov 29, 2005 08:44 PM

jyohe Makes VERY good points buddy. You may think it's just a breed,wait a week or 2 get pinks and feed snakes thing but it's a lot more effort. My friend from work has to do everything jyohe is saying, does he enjoy it? Definatly not but it is saving thousands every year and making a little change here and there. Buy males that are big tuff mother huffers for the females and you won't have a problem (aside from he may need a time out now and then). Thats the alternative route to raising them up. I got the biggest uggliest baddest male in the pet shop and he roughs up the girls EVERYTIME except the new mothers, he often sniffs them and marks his domain...

jyohe Nov 30, 2005 04:54 PM

setup a colony of mice ...1 male and however number of females......let them breed for 6 months (more or less...usually 6...I need the big mice)......kill them all.........

setup new mice in that tank....

NEVER move mice from one tank to another....(nor pinks or fuzz or hopps or any mice.each colony will fight with another......period.....

*(yes I move pinks and all from one tank to another........yes I get away with it with all my colonies.used to be half..but after 15 years they have all got to be related to each other one way or anohter and I think it helps....

mean mice make mean babies.........I kill mean mice and yes they have gotten more and more mellow over the years.....

mean males can be better fathers than submissive fathers.........not really.........they can all do the job the same........just some males will "protect the colony" better by biting you and attacking intruders more......

yes I have had 2 males in one tank and they loved the 6 months fine ..........usually .one male will be picked on till it dies.....or is so beaten it won't breed anyways and just takes up food and space.......

one male can breed a tank with like.let's say 50 females and yes he won't miss a one of them when they are fertile.....

some colors just really suck genetically.and the offspring will be weak and alot will die off.........(some tri-color lines......meryls........sometimes siamese or crosses......etc etc......)(my white mice do the best and I use all white females now with a different colored male usually so I can tell that there is actually a male in there and he hasn't died and I am wasting time with no males in tank......((started as knowing the male so I could keep from getting attacked.but they don't do this anymore)......

yes a male will breed for 2 cycle times......you could use the same male for like 2 years even.....but why?......

........let only enough babies in the tank that they can handle....some tanks can feed 40 babies...50 even..till they get to be large fuzzies..then they can only handle maybe 30...so 20 have to be taken out or you will get all runty looking mice......(that can squeeze out 1/2 inch screen tops)........some tanks can have only like 20 babies and they still cannot feed them correctly........I take them all and let them start over.......

new mothers and dumb....and yes sometimes they will not feed babies or even the other pregnant mothers will eat them .....they are dumb and/ or they need more protein and the pregnant ones eat pinks........((male mice don't usually start the cannibalism first as people think..))

......DO I ENJOY IT????.......LOL.........I like breeding mice........yes somedays I wish I could quit....(but I never hit the Powerball).....do I wish all my balls would eat frozen rats???....hell........I wish 10 % of them would........

have fun..........
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phwyvern Nov 30, 2005 10:37 PM

>>
>>(my white mice do the best and I use all white females now with a different colored male usually so I can tell that there is actually a male in there and he hasn't died and I am wasting time with no males in tank......((started as knowing the male so I could keep from getting attacked.but they don't do this anymore)......
>>

Here is an creative option to using a dark mouse in order to tell the lone male from the females...

1 white male mouse colored sharpie markers a little artistic skill = one colorful "designer" mouse logo on the back of the male.

The design will ultimately fade after a while, so you can opt to freshen it up or start a new design.
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PHWyvern

JM Nov 30, 2005 11:18 PM

LOL!
That reminds me! A few years ago we tried to dye some white mice green (St Patties day joke~ after a couple green beers~ green mice sound really funny)

We used green food die diluted in some water.

DON'T try this at home!! I've never seen such pissed off mice!! Man were they mad!! (I might have been upset if it were me, now that I think about it). And I tell you, it's hard to do. There little coats slick water(and food dye) like little white (MAD) ducks! It's not so funny anymore when a green mouse latches onto your thumb with murder in his little green heart! LOL!

Man~ those were some pissed off mice!
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Cheryl Marchek
AKA JM
Check out my website at:
The Red Dragons Den

phwyvern Dec 01, 2005 09:59 AM

>>LOL!
>>That reminds me! A few years ago we tried to dye some white mice green (St Patties day joke~ after a couple green beers~ green mice sound really funny)
>>

LOL. Green sounds like a nice color. I had a coworker whose husband liked to borrow some of my mice in the winter to use in bait traps when he'd go out banding hawks. Normally they'd use the agouti colors (ie wild looking) but one year all I had was white. The next day my mice came back a very odd mottled dark gray color. Him and his buddy apparently had taken a permenant magic marker to those poor mice - the entire body. Took forever for the color to wear off LOL.
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PHWyvern

jyohe Dec 01, 2005 05:26 PM

remember the peeps and ducks they would sell every Easter that were dyed pink,blue,green even.......?

they would take batches of peeps and dump them into vats with dye and they would come out light pastel shades of color.....

usually male cockerels I would guess.......they would give them away anyways or dump them into dog food production ......(still do by the millions a week)......((the ones we had one year grew up to be white rock roosters.......watched my grandfather cut their heads off one day after they were grown...wrong day to visit?....didn't bother me.....but they do flop around))......

outlawed dying animals long ago.........

...........Hawks ? wonder why they don't use the white???.......

had a redtail here a few years back that was really hungry...she sat on wash poles one day.....snow was deep......long time snow was deep......like I said.she was hungry......I opened back door and winged a large powder blue rat around the corner of my house to the back yard were she was.......by the time I got 10 feet to look out the other window........hawk was setting on it in the snow........she sat and ate it right there in front of the window on the wash pole......(wooden pole 4 x 4 and 15 feet from window not 4 foot).......

she came back everyday for 6 weeks almost.......and I fed her everyday.........she ate 30 rats and alot of mice I bet.....

second day I pushed the envelope........I sat on a bucket of mice right there in the yard.....and flipped the mice 10 feet in front of me......she took it.came down and ate mice in one gulp.....and looked for the next.......flip gulp..flip gulp....she ate right there with me.......but only that once....

she even learned to get dead rats and look in window at me.......then fly off and eat them in a tree.....

IF people were here to see this.she KNEW there were too many cars in driveway....and would grab rat on the fly........and not stop for a view.......she messed up alot of people's pics that way....LOL

.........anyways.........now I get a redtail that won't talk to me and a coopers that eats my neighbor's pigeons in my yard.......I don't tell him or he'd lock his birds in ..and and I like the hawks.......

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phwyvern Dec 01, 2005 06:48 PM

>>
>>
>>...........Hawks ? wonder why they don't use the white???.......
>>

Mainly because most hawks on the wing don't recognize white mice as being mice and avoid the bander's leg traps.

>>
>>she came back everyday for 6 weeks almost.......and I fed her everyday.........she ate 30 rats and alot of mice I bet.....
>>

I had a pair of barred owls raising a rather large nest of babies one bad winter when hunting was slim for about 2 months. The female often came around in the late afternoon looking for handouts when we'd be out feeding our own raptors. I would take any leftovers from the cages from the previous day and sit them on top of one of the shorter cages. She usually waited until I retreated before coming down for the dead mice, but one day she must have really been hungry (or hunting must have totally dismal and she was desparate) because I remember a shadow overhead and I barely got my hand away from dropping the mice before she hit the cage LOL. I was able to get some photos a few days after that of her flying in and picking up her take out order. I'll have to see if I can find them and post them. Later in the season once the weather started warming up, she brought the hubby in for a short visit. About two weeks after that normal hunting resumed for them and she stopped coming for the handouts. Greath horned owls are starting to call now and won't be much longer before the barreds start calling.. winter being the owl breeding season. Noisy. lol.

Now what is neat is watching a sharp-shinned hawk hunting bird feeders - they are small and fast as can be zipping through and then seeing a poof of feathers follow.
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PHWyvern

jyohe Dec 01, 2005 08:08 PM

I say coopers but the one huntin my yard all the time may be a sharp shinned.......I don't know.....

I don't know red shouldered when I see it or sharp shinned or rough legged...even goshhawks .......I know goshhawks have red eyes.males at least......thought the one time I saw a female gosh in the yard setting on a bird but I don't know...never studied them enough..........keep saying I will but never do.....

I know redtails usually and kestrels of course.......keep saying I'll try for lisence someday to own some non -releasables.......

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................someday.........????????/
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phwyvern Dec 01, 2005 09:16 PM

>>I say coopers but the one huntin my yard all the time may be a sharp shinned.......I don't know.....
>>

Possible.. immature male coopers can be mistaken for sharp-shinned. Adult coopers tend to be a gray-blue color with their silly yellow chicken legs lol. I say immature males because females are noticably larger than a fully grown sharp-shinned. Males tend to be about the same size or slightly bigger than sharpies.

>>I don't know red shouldered when I see it or sharp shinned or rough legged...even goshhawks .......I know goshhawks have red eyes.males at least......thought the one time I saw a female gosh in the yard setting on a bird but I don't know...never studied them enough..........keep saying I will but never do.....
>>
>>I know redtails usually and kestrels of course.......keep saying I'll try for lisence someday to own some non -releasables.......
>>

If you do decide on a bird, usually red-tails or harris hawks are suggested. Kestrels are very high strung noisy bothersome things that require a whole lot more patience. They are cute but the annoyance factor makes me glad we don't have one.

If it's a non-releaseable (perm. injured) usually only just need the state permits. You also have to have a veterinarian in the area who also has permits to handle and knows how to work with raptors. Falconry lic. (in addition to the permits) are only required if you intend to train birds to fly and hunt... a lot of hassle from what I hear (1-2 years apprenticeship and what not) and it tends to be an expensive hobby to say the least. I spent over $500 re-stocking up this summer on basics like kangaroo and buffalo leather, leather punches, alymeri templates to cut my own jesses, jess grease, grommets, custom grommet setters, etc. At our center we have all non-releasable birds so I don't even bother getting a lot of stuff falconers use, but dang what I do get is still expensive lol. I really want a nice elk hide custom fitted eagle gauntlet, but I gotta save up for that myself cause ain't no way I could get the boss to reimburse me for personal equipment LOL. The current eagle gauntlet we have is ok (kevlar lined kanagroo), but the fit doesn't suit me well and the other basic gauntlets we have are not long enough to suit my tastes. I had our redtail land one foot on the arm past the glove one day and nearly impale me by accident when she tried to recover from a bait...left a nice bruise. Only saving grace was she knew right away she was grabbing the wrong thing and let up quick. The eagle sent a coworker to the hospital the other week after impaling his arm from both sides...grabbed the arm that didn't have the glove on (of course).. nicked the tendon. He didn't mind though, the antibiotics were more useful in clearing up a sinus infection than really needed for the puncture wounds lol.

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PHWyvern

twps Dec 01, 2005 10:30 PM

While I have never dyed mice green I did let my wife talk my into dyeing our 80 lb shepardxhuskie mix. She is an all white dog and when the wife was done she was an all pink dog. Everyone thought it was pretty funny to see big ole me walking a big ole pink dog. Really have to thank TV and stupid Paris Hilton for that idea getting into the wifes head LOL.

Thanks, Jay
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Find a job you love, and you will never work a day in your life -Confucious
3.20 ball pythons
1.1 dumeril boas
0.0.1 pixie frog
1.1 dogs
0.2 cats
more fish than I can list.

jyohe Dec 01, 2005 05:06 PM

did it before.........yep

even did the marker so I could add a new male to a fairly new colony that had the male die.........the females hated the marker smell I would think and wouldn't smell him as a new male..and let him live........orked ok.

baby powdered them all too to add males........

color of markers fade quick.....too quick...

.....my mice don't bite anymore so I don't worry about reaching in there at all.......

rats and rabbits that attack usually don't live very long that day they did it.........
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Christy Talbert Nov 29, 2005 05:59 PM

Do you feed the fish, dogs, and cats rodents too?

jyohe Nov 29, 2005 08:27 PM

I'm waiting for that answer too......

...sounds like 27 to 50 mice a week will do?........
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phwyvern Nov 29, 2005 09:03 PM

>>I'm waiting for that answer too......
>>
>>...sounds like 27 to 50 mice a week will do?........
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Is it possible that what is being used is multiple smaller food items when fewer but larger items would just as easily suffice? Some people do misjudge the size of food they think their snakes can take or are afraid to use larger sizes for one reason or another.
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PHWyvern

vip3ridae Nov 29, 2005 09:14 PM

N/p

jyohe Nov 30, 2005 04:58 PM

are people that dumb?....

feed 10 fuzzies for $4.00 or feed one big mouse for 50 cents......

///////...even with the idea it would be hard to use 250 mice for 27 snakes........

....

yes I have dumped 15 fuzzies in with an adult cal king....fun too.....popcorn.........

almost as odd as 50 peeps in with a 12 foot 60 pound burm.........
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phwyvern Nov 30, 2005 10:31 PM

>>are people that dumb?....
>>
>>feed 10 fuzzies for $4.00 or feed one big mouse for 50 cents......
>>

If a snake was a picky feeder, then yeah it's very possible someone would be willing to shell out more money for more animals of a smaller size or spend money on a more expensive species (gerbil over a mouse for example).

popcorn feeding can be useful sometimes. even snakes like a little variety in their diet occasionally.
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PHWyvern

TomChambers Nov 29, 2005 09:24 PM

Forget about ever taking a vacation.
I haven’t been away for over a day since I can’t remember when.

It's hard to get someone you trust, let alone anyone at all that is going to take care of a large rodent colony.

At least I haven’t found anyone who would take care of mine.
I can get people to care for the snakes, but not the rats/mice.

Maybe you have better friends though.

TomChambers

jyohe Nov 30, 2005 05:00 PM

you cannot stop taking care of them for even a day....

snakes can go a week without looking at them.....

mice or rats.....no way.......
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JM Nov 29, 2005 09:32 PM

Your sig says most of your snakes are BPs. Breed rats. Less smell. Better temperments. Less work to get each one to size. If you need mice only breed as many as you must. They stink and are nasty.

Everyone else answered your questions. JYohe tells you straight. He told me when I first started too. Lots of work. Lots of smell.

I don't run as many as some others do. Just 20 tubs of rats and 10 of mice. I go through 50# of feed a week. At least that much litter. I'm very efficient, have a system in place. I can clean the entire room in about 2 1/2 hours every 5 days. But there is more to it than just cleaning the tubs. It's amazing how heavy 100# of soiled rat litter is~ on a rainy day when you have the flu. Doesn't matter. They have to be cleaned~ whether your sick or not. Rain or shine. And don't expect to be leaving town for a weekend ~*someone* you left in charge will forget some vital thing you told them (like check the water spigots or close the fill the swamp cooler BEFORE it gets hot everyday) and you'll come home to a bunch of dead rats and the guilt of knowing it's your fault.
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Cheryl Marchek
AKA JM
Check out my website at:
The Red Dragons Den

twps Nov 29, 2005 09:40 PM

OK although most of the senarios that everyone came up with for my needing that many mice a week were good none were close. My signature lists only my personal pets and after reading it I forgot some. The reason is I own a pet store and that would help to cover what the herps eat with me being able to sell the extras or buy more when they dont produce enough. So vacations while nice are few allready but I also have a great crew of a dozen or so to help out with cleaning and feeding. Since I am allready buying 2-3 times that many once a week I am familiar with mouse maintanace. I was just wondering if it was worth the hassle of the maintanence vs. the cost savings. I was planning on setting up small rodent racks just to breed things like hamsters, gerbils, egyptian spiney mice etc. Thanks for all the replies, and maybe now that my situation is more clear I can get a better answer. lol.

Thanks, Jay
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Find a job you love, and you will never work a day in your life -Confucious
3.20 ball pythons
1.1 dumeril boas
0.0.1 pixie frog
1.1 dogs
0.2 cats
more fish than I can list.

vip3ridae Nov 29, 2005 10:02 PM

Obviously this topic is your topic and answers were directed at you becauce it's your topic but dozens of other people that are novices will now know and think twice before asking the same question or going right along and starting a large colony. I don't mean to be rude or passive-aggressive (king snake forum ) but a lot of other people ask the same questions. Maybe someone will clear it up for you.

JM Nov 29, 2005 10:31 PM

jyohe did answer your original question.
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Cheryl Marchek
AKA JM
Check out my website at:
The Red Dragons Den

jyohe Nov 30, 2005 05:08 PM

for you? why a problem?.....pet shops buy mice for 40 cents and sell them for $1.09 here.........?......why breed them....find a breeder........

as for egyptians ......they can breed very well.....

Peromyscus leucopus breed well with 1.4 per tank...high tank they jump...(10 gal).....

Chinese hamsters...very well.......I use 5 gal bucket with pairs......

russians......suck.......mean

Djungarians...cool as all.......they DO NOT BITE..and I try and make them bite me....they won't.....

syrians.....buy them.......time consuming.....

Roborovski's.....cool.........3 months till they breed...not as fast a turnover......

gerbils.....suck be we all need them.....

jirds and duprasi and degus I have no idea......never tried.....yet

rats are cool.....gang breed them in 2 foot square bird cages then place the pregnant females into lab cage or 10 gallon tank till they drop and wean......then throw female back to gang cage.......

6 months breeding for everything but the Robs.......

........yes my mice pay for themselves and alot more.........yes it is work........hour a day and 3 for mice cleaning and 1 hr for hamster cleaning and 1 hour for Peromyscus cleaning once a week.plus trash time......and treats....
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twps Nov 30, 2005 06:40 PM

Thanks Jyohe and everyone else that replied. The simmer down was my attempt at humor, because usually you get 3-4 replies per post on a good post and I was suprised to see every one posting. It was my fault on all the guesses as to why some one with a signature list like mine needed so many. But I think that I will skip the actual feeder breeding and try breeding more of the pet fuzzy stuff, that way I can keep myself supplied and if I have extra I can selltrade them with an animal wholesaler for more mice or animals. The profit margin seems to make more sense. For instance Black bear hamsters available at any pet shop including stores like petco/petsmart sell in the store for $19.99 a wholesaler would buy them for maybe $4.99 then resell them to petshops for $8.99. Even a run of the mill mutt hamster retails for say $7.99 store pays $2.99 wholesaler buys it for $1.25. They would take the same room to breed but with more profit, although not as prolific as mice. Maybe that is the way to go after thinking about it and reading posts. Jyohe what do you do with your more exotic rodents do you sell them to wholesalers or stores or is it a fun offshoot for you? Whatever you do with them stay away from degus I dont even sell them anymore. They will chew out of anything you put them in and I firmly believe they are evil spawn of satan pets lol. The fat tail gerbils are fun though. Anyone else breed rodents other then mice and rats to sell/trade for the advancement of you snake addiction?

Thanks, Jay
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Find a job you love, and you will never work a day in your life -Confucious
3.20 ball pythons
1.1 dumeril boas
0.0.1 pixie frog
1.1 dogs
0.2 cats
more fish than I can list.

jyohe Nov 30, 2005 07:15 PM

I have 56 tanks of mice......10 tanks of peromyscus.....about 24 pairs of chinese hamsters.......8 pair of djungarians........1.4 rats........10 tanks of gerbils........

and I feed it all.........LOL.....

.......fed spinys.....russians.......robs (sold most)........etc etc.......it's all food......

once in awhile I sell chinese to pet shop for $1.50....they get $5.99..........they sell well here now.....

never tried degus....NOW you make me want to try them.....satan's spawn huh..........hahaha

I (we) NEED RAT breeders in the area...we need a couple hundred rats a week if we could find them ....live.......

........have fun........
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twps Nov 30, 2005 07:52 PM

I guess your snakes like fillet mingon of the rodent world lol. Where are you located Jyohe? You should figure out where your local pet shop gets its critters and trade some of your exotic food for rats. Some of the things you have I have not seen and alot of it I have not seen on a regular basis. As a store I would be interested in trading someone local for credit/supplies/feeders and (cash as a last resort lol) for more interesting rodents. I can get gerbils, hamsters, and evil siberians on a regular basis. Anything else is hard to locate except for once in a great while. I even have problems finding (cute pet rats and mice) to sell. Degus are evil I couldnt keep them in a nice display like the rabbits and ferrets they would chew out so I kept them in a tank (40 breeder) with a screen top in the display. What a pain they would breed faster then you could sell them, chew thourgh the screen top, and to top it off if you sppok them of touch the tail to hard they will drop it like a leopard gecko. They are the most aggressive chewers I have ever delt with for example I put one of the large hollow hide logs you find in the reptile section of any store in with a group of 4 it took them about 3 days before there wasnt anything left. So if you do them dont say I didnt warn ya.

Thanks, Jay
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Find a job you love, and you will never work a day in your life -Confucious
3.20 ball pythons
1.1 dumeril boas
0.0.1 pixie frog
1.1 dogs
0.2 cats
more fish than I can list.

jyohe Dec 01, 2005 05:11 PM

Lancaster county.........

Amish I not be..........
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twps Dec 01, 2005 05:46 PM

Not to far away Im in Northern Va. If I ever make it up to the northwestern berks show everyones allways telling me about Ill have to let you know. Maybe you could trade me some critters lol.

Thanks, Jay
-----
Find a job you love, and you will never work a day in your life -Confucious
3.20 ball pythons
1.1 dumeril boas
0.0.1 pixie frog
1.1 dogs
0.2 cats
more fish than I can list.

jyohe Dec 01, 2005 08:11 PM

..........so hurry up and make up your mind..........LOL......

actually kidding........

show is ok.......long drives suck.........

takes me 1 hr 10 to get there and 1 hr half to get home.....

traffic suxx
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twps Dec 01, 2005 10:35 PM

Im not going to be making that one, but I think I will try to come to the next one. Had an employee go back in the summer I think, he had a blast. Ill have to ask him how long the drive was prob 3-4 hours. I think I can make it to that pet place/that fish place store in like 3.5 hours isnt that in Lancaster? Long drives do suck but its allways fun going new places its driving home that sucks.

Thanks, Jay
-----
Find a job you love, and you will never work a day in your life -Confucious
3.20 ball pythons
1.1 dumeril boas
0.0.1 pixie frog
1.1 dogs
0.2 cats
more fish than I can list.

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