mouse keeping questions....

[Clownfishie]

I've recently decided to try my hand at breeding mice... I have one female that's a bit older, and yesterday I picked up another female and a male, who are both younger (and smaller) than my older female. Can I keep these 3 together, or would it be best to wait until the younger 2 are a bit bigger before putting them together? I'm worried about the bigger female picking on the younger 2... At the petstore they had smaller & larger mice in together and they seemed to be getting along ok, but when I had these 3 together in a tub for a few minutes my bigger female started going after the younger 2 (especially the younger female), so I'm not sure if this is just something that they have to go through to establish a pecking order, or if I should be worried about the bigger female actually hurting the younger 2.

Thanks for any input you can give :)

Jen

[alex_33]

Hello, Sorry I don't have any Input about the mice breeding, But i have heard they smell really bad, and looking at you snake collection, I think you might want to try Rats? I heard they Don't smell as bad, and considering the Snakes you own, Mice just don't seem worthwhile as Rats while be needed for when you snakes become adults. Anyways That's just my 2 cents! Good Luck with the breeding!

[Clownfishie]

It's actually not so much for the snakes (you're right, rats would be the way to go for them since most of them are eating rats already anyways) as for my geckos -- I'm going to feed the pinkies to my adult breeders... although I might feed some of the babies to the snakes too, if I have any extras.
Maybe I can work myself up to rats -- LOL. They're ok when they're little, but quite frankly the adults gross me out. Hehe.

[BoidKeeper]

All of my colonies are 1.3.
Cheers,
Trevor

[Clownfishie]

So you don't have a problem keeping several females with a male -- are they all of similar size though? The new additions are only around 5-6 weeks, and I'm guessing (by her size) that my older girl is at least twice as old... And she definitely doesn't like the 2 younger ones. Sometimes she's fine, and sometimes she'll go after them... does anyone know if this is a temporary thing, or if I can expect it to continue? At the moment I've separated her -- I don't trust her alone with the younger 2...

[BoidKeeper]

I've always found it to be temperary. I also keep larger cages that I raise mice to adult hood in. In that cage there's all different sexes and ages. There is some fighting at first but it soon stops.
Trevor

[Clownfishie]

Ok... so maybe I should put her back in there and just keep a close eye on them to make sure that no lasting damage is being done? I'm just terrified of coming home and finding the 2 little ones dead or something... lol... How long do you find it usually takes them to calm down and start getting along?

[reptile boi]

Hey clownfishie
One thing i know for sure is rats smell WAY WORSE than mice! They somewhat smells like old rotting flesh, but on the other hand, mice have more ammonia (i got the bad red eyes once just by keeping my mice in my room) but anyways, if they have food and water and enough space i dont think there should be any problems. They might fight for a couple of days but it should die off eventually.




Thanks,
Ben

[Linds]

I house my mice together, regardless of size. I keep mine in an indisturbed colony of 1.4. You can keep even more females, but I don't need any more than that right now. I have never had any problems resulting in different sized animals. I do this with my rats as well. Weanlings to adults share the same tubs. Whenever I have added a new one to an existing colony, if there was any kind of scrapping going on I just ignored it. It eventually dies off. They are just letting the new ones know who's the boss ;)

Yup. Mice smell awful, no matter what you do - the more you clean the more they scent, if you don't clean enough they really stink, so you just have to aim for the middle area and put up with the smell. They are also very dirty as well as they bite :mad: Rats are great though. They don't smell if you keep em clean, they also have wonderful dispositions.

[Clownfishie]

Ok, thanks guys :) I guess I'll stick her back in there and let them figure it all out themselves...

I've noticed the smell already! It's not awful or anything, but it's definitely a smell. I don't have room for a colony of rats at this point... Probably not worth it for me to start breeding them until I have a few more snakes anyways ;)

Thanks again!
Jen