I have a 6 year old, 5' nile monitor that eats very small rats or a few mice every 5 days. When I first got him, there was a family owned pet store that sold feeder mice for $0.89 each. After they closed I went to Petco where they were $0.99. Since then, the price of mice has gotten fucking outrageous. One single little mouse at Petco cost $2.29!!!! Thats nuts. Especially when I have to buy 4 at a time....once a week. He also eats about 5-8 goldfish as a treat every other week. But those are only $0.11. Also, he eats very well cooked chicken and sometimes he likes to chase big crikets around his house. Over the years I have thought about breeding mice to feed to my buddy. If I had that going, I could get my albino retic back from my aunt. (albino reticulated python). Recently I have been seriously contemplating it.... I have done a lot of reasearch about it and know I'll be able to do it. Of course a little work and money would have to be put in to get it going, but in the long run it would be more than worth it. I've read that breeders need 5+ cages to keep a good cycle going. And that you need to keep males away from males, males away from babies, and all ages must be together and not mixed. I know that males piss stinks, so I would have to keep the area ultra-ventilated. I have 3 tanks....two 10 gallons and a 20 gallon/long. I have all types of water bottles, substrates, exercise wheels, food dishes, chew toys, and rodent food. I've kept mice as pets many times... as well as rats/hampsters/gerbils and way back when.... a chinchilla. My question to you guys is...has anyone ever bred mice before??? If so, I could really use some pointers and things to look out for. I'm pretty sure I've got it down and know what needs to be done. But advice from an experienced breeder could be priceless.
You will certainly have no problem with your rodent supply if you breed yourself. I have a rosie boa. The people I got her from said they tried to breed mice for her, and ended up with WAY too many mice. They said they tried to keep the males separate from the babies, but somehow the female would end up being pregnant again (my friends guessed the babies were mating with their mother). They gave up and decided to buy them again due to overpopulation. I can't believe how much mice are for you! They're just over $4 for me to get three per week here in Michigan. Slightly off topic, but we used to have gerbils as a kid. We didn't separate the dad for the first couple of batches. We were most perplexed at the completely disappearing babies. Not one trace of them was left. One day there'd be a few babies, then the next a baby or two were gone. Not one drop of blood on the bedding or anything. Then one day we noticed one of the remaining babies had a piece of tail missing..... we assumed the male was eating the babies! (That bastard!) We never caught him in the act, but once we separated him the babies miraculously survived. Good luck.
i breed mice, and hamsters and snakes...i dont keep all my males seperate, if you get a big brood of babies and the males grow up together, you wont have a problem and can keep them together saving space, occasionally youll have a bully tho, easy to remedy, take him out of the gen pop *general population* you can keep pregnant and milking mothers together if they *again* have been together for a while and are either both going to be popping within a day of each other, there is still a chance of cannibalism tho from new or nervous females/mothers..or you can put a non breeder female *one thats never been bred* with a pregnant female if theyve been together before and then you may end up with a nanny mouse with is beneficial for the babies and the mother, that can also happen with two or more mothers at the same time...i had 4 mothers all at once with about 40 some odd babies..theyll be pix on the bottom...is there ne thing in particular you want to kno about? where abouts are you? i had a huge baby boom and am at about 70 mice..i could GIVE you some...
whats twisted about supplying your pets natural food? and for the record, i didnt mean to have that many babies, each mother had the maximum ive ever seen all at once...whores..the whole lot of them
How so? A lot of animals eat mice, it's just nature. Breeding them for food is actually a really good idea.
that was the plan....but apparently my snakes dont like mice... i breed mostly for fun and for pets...i have a lot of big eared mice, that was the gene i picked, big ears and really soft coats, but of course there are more than plenty that dont quite make par
If you're anywhere near Connecticut I would definately buy some from you. I'm in a location where it takes me no longer than an hour to get to the border of New York, Mass., and Rhode Island. It would be good to know that my breeding endevour would begin with healthy, privately bred mice. Plus I would get a bunch for food until the ball gets rolling. I heard that only the father male needs to be separated, not the offspring males. The thing I heard the most was that each litter/community needs to be kept away from the others because they will attack newcomers. Feeding animals live food is no different than wild animals hunting everyday for their dinner. IMO, its better to care for an animal the way it would be in the wild. I think its wrong to deprive a reptile its natural hunting habits and just feed it freeze dried crickets or processed reptile food. I'm a huge animal lover and I have fed my pets live food since I was 11. As a matter of fact, I like animals much more than humans and would never hurt one. Animals eating animals is something that has been going on for an extremely long time..... way before any humans were around to dictate what another species can or can not/should or should not eat.
had you caught me a year ago i woulda been able to hook you up, im in the south now...the only reason you need to separate the males from the new mothers is because they go back into estrus almost immediately, so youd be getting another litter before the other one was even weened, which is hard for momma and you get a HIGH potential for sick babies. after 12 weeks old the baby males need to be separated from the females, or to help stop over population of males you can cull the litters so that you get mostly female babies. when your breeding the mice and during pregnancy and while the babies are still gettin milk, you can supplement the mothers diet with dry kitten food for the extra protein, this will also help make sure that her milk is full of fats and you get fat babies. the worst part about starting, especially if you dont go thru a mousery and have no idea how old the females are, you could get sick pups or a mother that is cannibalistic for a few litters. you should only breed a female three times in her life and not after 6 months of age or before 2 months...i usually go by size when to start them, some are still too small IMO but what in specific did you want to kno?
Basically I want to know if its really worth it. I mean, $10 a week to feed a pet really isn't much compared to some pets. I have 4 cats and they probably run me $50+ a month....plus vet bills, toys, litter, etc. I think I've got the idea of what to do and what not to do. Between you and the internet I've gotten a bunch of pages of info. The only thing holding me back is the commitment. I'm still trying to figure out if the work required to breed will lighten the load I already have. One huge factor that drives me to start breeding is my love for animals. Only a few will be given as food each week....which leaves me plenty of cute little buggers to look at/play with. Ok, so here goes a list of some questions I have......(you asked ) How old do the pinkies have to be before they can be handled? I know that many animals do not accept their offspring back once the human scent gets on them.....the last thing I want is an unfit mother or worse, dead babies. Are black mice any different than white? Or is it merely genetics at work? I am at Petco a minimum of 2 times a week and 90% of the time the mice are white. But once in a great while one sex will be black. Strange that it is usually only one sex that is black.... although one time both tanks were filled with dark little cuties. How often do you have mutations in the babies? Any cool colors/extra limbs? What are my chances of having a succesful, healthy first litter using store bought mice?? Do you know of a website that lists breeders locations? If at all possible I would much rather have the first generation start from properly bred mice. Like I said earlier, my location in CT makes it quite easy for me to get to adjacent states in reasonable time. I would be willing to take a drive if need be. (dumb question) I don't suppose live mice can be FedExed? You mentioned you 'picked' big eared mice. Was that a choice from a breeder or did you selectively breed your own mice for desired traits? What is the minimum number of enclosures I can get away with?? From what I've read, most breeders suggested having 10 and rotationg the last one back to the front in order to keep each age apart. Say one mother had a littler of 10 babies. Once weened, how do you decide which ones to keep to breed and which ones to feed? Or should I keep breeding the same mother until her 'ripe' period is over? How long after weening will a mother be able to breed again?? How bad is it to let an offspring mate with its parent? What kind of set-up do you have? Do you have a specific time line or particular mice age that you prefer...or found works best?? Sorry for all the questions. Take your time...I understand if you don't feel like answering them all. I appreciate any feedback you can give. Talking to you has given me some great info. I want to make sure I know most of what to expect before delving into the operation.
I suggest signing up for this forum http://forums.kingsnake.com/forum.php?catid=9 well, all of kingsnake.com, but you can use that forum to ask questions about your mice breeding project. Also, http://forums.kingsnake.com/forum.php?catid=270 there is the link to the Nile MOniter forum. Basically, you sign up here http://pethobbyist.com/myaccount/register.php and you have access to all of the forums on here http://forums.kingsnake.com/ I used this forum (the bearded dragon part though) and they can help you with tons of questions and you can share pics of your monitor and all that. Hope this helps. Happy New Year