Things keep changing!!!

[drewlowe]

This has been a bad month for me, on herp stuff.

The place i get most my feeder insects (except mealies i breed them) have finally pissed me off enough that i won't be buying off them no more. Now my mouse place shut down with NO warning... There is a few places in St. Louis to get mice one's a 30 min drive the other is 45-60 mins, then there is a pet store i could get them at (but don't really like the quality, and the last time i got a hopper from there i kept it for 3 days gave it a bath and fed it well). I don't go through enough to buy from rodent pro (or else i would) the only other option i can think of is to breed them myself.

I've done a search on the forum and found out pretty much all the info i need. I would probly only need a 1.2 mouse count for the whole 3 snakes i have plus the babies coming soon. Anyway on to the questions...

How bad of a smell am i looking at with a 1.2 if i keep it clean on a regular basis (a few times a week)? What is the best pelets to feed them (i want a good quality diet)? and lastly what is the best substrate to house them on (easy to clean, and absorbs odors)?

I don't really want to breed them, but i feel i don't have too much of a choice with the lack of quality feeders i can find. Plus this way i know there diets and quality of care.

Thanks for any help!!!

Jamie

[GreenNeutron]

Well I've never tried to breed mice, but I have 0.2 rats and they don't smell at all if their cage is cleaned once a week or so. I keep them on aspen bedding and give them one of the hand-towels that you can get at the dollar store every week. A fairly small bag of aspen bedding is like 2 bucks, and that lasts for a few weeks. I was and reuse then until they get too ratty (lol).
I also keep them in a wire cage so there's a lot of ventilation that you couldnt get in an aquarium or a rubbermaid.
We actually feed our rats a low fat dog food for their protein mixed in with lots of grains (think rice and wheat cereal). Avoid corn based cereals though, cause that can mess up their digestive system. Also if your mice will eat it you can add in some dried fruits and canned or frozen veggies, but take anything that will rot out regurally, or you will have smell. The RAATs rescue page has really good info on rat/mouse care. (I'm at least pretty sure that they're almost identical in their care.)

http://www.carolinarats.org/ Lots of good care info.
also http://www.rmca.org/Resources/mousefaq.htm has some brief info on mouse/rat food and does state that they're really close in their nutritional requirements.

http://www.ratsrule.com/diet.html This is the diet mix that I use for my rats, and it's used by many people, though for breeding mice you might want to up the protein content a tad.

[crazykeeper]

I feed mine Nutriblock or Purina rabbit food,and there is no smell really if cleaned regularly.

[snake_goth]

yeah rats dont smell atal, only thing is give them some things to do, i gave mine some toys and stuff, se-saw thingy with there babts loved... never thought i would ever see a flying rat, but i did

[drewlowe]

Thanks for that info, I found info on a company about an hour away from me but he makes deliveries into my area every month or so. Next weekend he's going to bring me a small shippment so i can see the quality of his rodents. My fingers are CROSSED that he has good clean quality feeders, cause i REALLY don't want to do it.

I will def. bookmark those links encase his feeders aren't up to par for me. I'm still looking and will continue to look at info on mice care until i'm absolutly sure i found a good breeder.

Thanks abunch

Jamie

[Auskan]

I keep both rats and mice and agree with the others that rats don't smell. However mice do, and cleaning several times a week will actually make it worse, believe it or not. Females aren't so bad but males mark and if you clean, they will renew their marking efforts. What I do is to kind of spot clean all the time but only do a major clean about once every 3 weeks. By spot clean, I mean that every day or so, I remove their food bowl, wash it out and refill it. I also clean their exercise wheel every few days (yes, I'm a sucker - most of the breeders on here don't even worry about providing an exercise wheel :) ). But the cage itself I leave alone. Also, the mothers often don't like having their nests disturbed, and cleaning is one thing that will make them try to move their nest or even cannibalize their young (though I've never had cannibalism happen, others report that a stressor like a major cleaning pre-empted it). Therefore, I try to time my big cleaning for a couple of days before the mothers are due to deliver and that way I can leave them alone after they've had their babies.