how my mice roll

[Snakefood]

yup!! that's what my day will consist of, rat, mouse and rabbit cages, and the snake rack too!!

[Snakefood]

well finished off now everyone is clean and accounted for. Here's how my #'s look:

Rabbits 4.7 ( 2 preggers and 2 male babies)
Rats: 2.18.8 (3 preggers)
mice: 1.30.11 )3 preggers)

So the colonies are growing, slowly but surely!!

[exwizard]

Numbers are looking good :)

[Snakefood]

Nothing like your #'s, but I'm happy with the rate of growth in the colonies. I plan to populate colony #2 (rats) with females out of the 18 babies I have, 13 are almost fuzzy's and 5 wean this week.

With these 22 babies colony # 1 (mice) is done, then I'll put him in with the 4 females I have been growing for colony 2, build the female #'s in colony 2, cull the male and bring in 2 new males for the colonies.

Rabbits, well, i just have to wait for some to kindle and raise up, I have 3 babies left, 2 for sale and 1 I am keeping to breed back to the father for a female (fingers crossed) calico rex.

[KORBIN5895]

Careful adding new males to your mouse colony. It always goes terrible for me.

[Snakefood]

really?? I HAD to do it last time because my male was not getting anyone preggers and it went very well, I added the new male and within 21 days I had 2 litters. No fighting at all. It was when I added unknown/new females that I had problems.

[Snakefood]

first time mamma rat in colony 2 gave birth today to 5

[exwizard]

ok, updated numbers from last weekends cleaning...

Rats:
11.51 breeders,6.15 future breeders, 12 mediums, 28 smalls, 15 weaners, 96 pups, 27 fuzzies and 27 pinkies for a total of 288 rats. Our goal for the breeders is to have at least 15.75 in order to increase the production considering the constant high demand.

Mice:
9.39 breeders, 6 hoppers and 28 small and jumbo growouts for a total of 83 mice.

Yes our numbers did drop for both mice and rats but most of that was due to this demand however the mice production dropped as well. Still not bad considering the sheer numbers of snake people that buy from us.

[Snakefood]

Nice!!!!!!

[exwizard]

Thank you. Our biggest challenge right now is keeping up with that demand and yet maintaining our stock. Its a tightrope to walk and one that is always in front of us.

[KORBIN5895]

So two females gave birth to 19pinkies last night. Three seem to have been still born. I think I might get rid of my rats and use their enclosure as a segregation tank for all of my females.

[Snakefood]

sounds like a good idea since you don't have the equipment to do the rats. May as well cull them and give the room to the mice!!

[Trent]

Well the next wave of rabbits are due to go in the next few days.
49 from the first wave have reached the eye open and starting to run around stage.
Think this going to be a very good year:)
Rollin right along....

[Snakefood]

I have 4 females preggers now and another 2 lined up to put to a male in the next week (rabbits that is!!)

[KORBIN5895]

Well I am up to 27 pinkie now. I found three more still born and lost two fuzzies that were really small.

[KORBIN5895]

One of the rats is pregnant for sure and another might also be pregnant. I am probably going to set the pregnant one up in a 10 gallon here soon.

[Snakefood]

awesome, then she'll be able to raise them up!!

[exwizard]

That is so cool! If you can get the rats going, Im telling you, they are much easier than mice. :)

[exwizard]

Ok, we have almost all the rats in the South Colony now. All but one rack are moved, all but 4 nursing females are moved, all but 3 litters of 19 pinkies and 10 fuzzies are moved and all but 16 of the growout mice are moved. The breeding colonies themselves have yet to be moved but that will happen soon enough. Below are some pics of what the new South Colony looks like but even with this stage of the transition, still more rodents need to be moved in the next 2 weeks.

[Gungirl]

I can not believe that with so many animals you don't have them on an automatic watering system. I would go nuts filling and washing all those bottles!

[exwizard]

Yeah well, the sink is right there in the basement and from what Ive heard, automatic watering systems are prone to flooding. I personally know a guy who gave up on watering systems for that very reason. He lost so many rats due to drowning. Besides, this makes it even more likely we will always keep a close eye on them. :)

[KORBIN5895]

That looks really nice Gary!

I had a first time mother give birth a few days ago to 9 pinkies but unfortunately they were all dead when I found them. I also have a couple of more first timers pregnant. My current pinky count is 37.

[exwizard]

Sorry about the dead pinkies but the new ones are very nice :)

[KORBIN5895]

I am too stressed about finding a place to live right now to worry about a few pinkies. Heck a monotheism from now I may have to get rid of them all anyway.

[KORBIN5895]

Monotheism????? A month from now is how it should have read.

Anyway I received a huge surprise today. A female rat gave birth to 10 pinks( plus 2 stillborn ). I also found four pregnant mice in my colony.

[Snakefood]

I'm gonna have to start culling newborn pinks for a while now, have to collect them up as my snow girl just clutched 17 eggs yesterday!!

[KORBIN5895]

Woohoo!!!!

[Snakefood]

I know, it was quite a surprise actually because she didn't give a pre-lay shed, I had been checking each morning for a pre-lay shed and peeked in yesterday morning and saw EGGS!! crazy.

So, good thing colony #1 is almost full of breeders (3 are too young) and I just have to throw a male in with the starter females from colony 2 now that they are old enough to breed.

I still need adults too. but can use rat hoppers too for a bit, while I collect enough pinkies for if all the eggs hatch out.

[exwizard]

That is awesome! Congratulations! :)

[exwizard]

Monotheism????? A month from now is how it should have read.

Anyway I received a huge surprise today. A female rat gave birth to 10 pinks( plus 2 stillborn ). I also found four pregnant mice in my colony.

That is great! :) You know what they say, "they breed like mice" :) This goes a long way to bringing your numbers up for sure.

[KORBIN5895]

So my rat pinks are doing great. Another female rat will give birth in the next five days.

I also found 19 pinkies in my main colony. I segregated them out with the female nursing them and a couple of other pregnant girls. I lost two of those pinkies while still in the main colony.

[exwizard]

I think youll find that rats are much easier to breed than mice. :)

[KORBIN5895]

So I just picked up sine rats, three females , a male and 11 fuzzies.

[KORBIN5895]

So last night I had 23 mouse pinkies and16 rat pinkies born.

My total number are as follows.

mice

2 males, 33 females, 20 hoppers and 23 pinkies.

rats

2 males, 6 females and 27 pinkies.

[exwizard]

Nice! Your numbers are going up for sure. Your male to female ratio on your rats is just right however on your mice, you need more males IMO. I would go with at least 3 more for that number of females.

[KORBIN5895]

Nice! Your numbers are going up for sure. Your male to female ratio on your rats is just right however on your mice, you need more males IMO. I would go with at least 3 more for that number of females.

You know I used to think that also but as it stand I have 10 females in segregation because they are nursing or pregnant and I have 2-4 females in general population that need segregated soon because they are pregnant. The two males are housed with the 23 non pregnant females and the twenty hoppers. They seem to be getting the job done fairly well.

Don't forget that all my rats are housed in one colony and all of my mice in another. I am not even segregating my nursing rats at the moment.

[calotekat]

nice breeding habitat!!

[exwizard]

You know I used to think that also but as it stand I have 10 females in segregation because they are nursing or pregnant and I have 2-4 females in general population that need segregated soon because they are pregnant. The two males are housed with the 23 non pregnant females and the twenty hoppers. They seem to be getting the job done fairly well.

Don't forget that all my rats are housed in one colony and all of my mice in another. I am not even segregating my nursing rats at the moment.

I understand that and I know your system is different than mine. Youre using deep freezers for your colonies and yeah I can appreciate where youre coming from with that. Youve seen the rack systems were using and this transition is almost complete. Almost all of them are in the South Colony now.

With us, our mice are kept in separate lab cages we call colonies and those ratios are anywhere from 1.2-1.6 depending on the cage size. However we will try separating the females now that we have more room and see if that brings our mice production up.

With our rats on the other hand, our overall ratio is 1.6. This way we can have enough females to accomodate 1.3 in the breeder tubs while housing as many as 3 nursers in a tub at a time. Were not quite there with our numbers yet but are getting closer to that goal with each week.

We just picked up a new customer today who has 34 snakes so it will be even more of a challenge getting our numbers up.

[KORBIN5895]

I am very jealous of your rack system Gary. I hope our next place has enough space I can set a rack up. Actually I just hope I can keep the colonies I have.

[exwizard]

I hope so too. :)

[KORBIN5895]

Yeah. I will have to sell them all off as my wife isn't very keen on me killing them and freezing them.

[exwizard]

Oh man Im sorry.

[exwizard]

On another note, were really excited about this new customer. This will give us the impetus we need to expand our operation even more. Currently, were using 5 tubs in reserve. We will need to go to 8. Were also going to need to expand our breeder numbers to 15.90. This goal will be a challenge but its one Im looking forward to meeting.

[KORBIN5895]

Can you buy breeding age females to juice up your numbers? Look on your local Craig's list or some such site. That's where I got my most recent group of 1.3 with 11 pinkies for free!

[exwizard]

The problem with that is that it increases the risk of another RI bug spreading around. Thats what happened late last year when we ran out of stock shortly after the Des Moines Reptile Show, forcing us to import rats from 4 different sources. We lost a lot of breeders and subsequently, a lot of babies. Our peak was at 650+ just before that and we still have not yet fully recovered in our numbers since then. If I can help it, I really dont want to import any more rats.

[KORBIN5895]

Set up a second colony in your basement again just to produce smaller sizes.

[exwizard]

nice breeding habitat!! Thank you very much. :) It took some time getting to this point and we do have a ways to go but we'll get there.

[exwizard]

Set up a second colony in your basement again just to produce smaller sizes.

No, Lauras mom taking on these rats has been a blessing to us since now we have more time. We will just simply increase our production from what we already have and build up our numbers the way we've been doing it. I think that will be best all things considered. :)

[exwizard]

The transition is complete. All the rats are in the South Colony now and this weekend the last rack will go there as well. All thats left here is the breeder colonies of mice and those days are numbered as well. Even the growouts and acquisitions are over there now. What we need to do is clear out more space there and set up a shelving unit there to house all the lab cages. Until then, we will keep the breeder colonies here. :) This is so cool. :)

[exwizard]

Now with the combined rat colony fully in place, our first goal of getting to 15 male breeders was surpassed today. With our initial goal of 15.90 we are currently at 16.63. We still have a way to go with the females but that will come in time. Also, we have picked up a few prospective larger rat customers including Necrias. As a result, we have expanded our reserve tubs from 5 to 9 tubs. Over time this and the increased number of breeders will allow more rats to get to that size. Im telling you, the demand is out there and while currently we're having a hard time keeping up, we will be able to to do this before long. :) Right now we have 329 rats including the 16.63 breeders and just over 100 mice.

Also, since all the racks are there now we had to move the breeder racks back a bit to make more room. And one more thing I forgot to show you and thats the gram scale chart thats so easily referencable and standard with all our sizing.

[KORBIN5895]

Well it is with a heavy heart I post this. We have found a place and will be moving next weekend. Unfortunately my rodents are not welcome. So I guess this is the end of a truly legendary era. Here is a pic of one of my original gals that is currently pregnant.

http://s18.postimage.org/jq7qk9hn9/IMG_20120419_152806.jpg (http://postimage.org/image/jq7qk9hn9/)

[Gungirl]

That isn't good. Sorry you have to stop breeding. I actually just started breeding mice. I have 1 male and 2 females. Once we move I will get back into breeding rats. I miss my rats....

[Snakefood]

I'm sorry Korbin, that sucks!!

[KORBIN5895]

Yeah. What really sucks is we can't keep the dog.

[Snakefood]

I'm so sorry, I don't know what I would do without my dog:(

[Gungirl]

I would have a VERY hard time even thinking about moving to a place where I can not keep my dogs. Its just not something I would be ok with. To me they are my kids....

[KORBIN5895]

I am posting my response to a thread geared towards random discussion and more privacy.

[exwizard]

Im sorry to hear you have to give up your animals, especially your dog. Idk what Id do if I found myself in that position. Thats gotta be hard.

[exwizard]

Oh man are we in for an influx of new rats tomorrow! Our wholesaler is overstocked and as a reult, we will be able to acquire all sizes incuding more breeders and other jumbos. This is a much needed shot in the arm for us and Im looking forward to this acquisition.

[Snakefood]

sounds great!!!

[KORBIN5895]

That is great!

Also that old girl popped out 14 pinkies today.

[exwizard]

Thats awesome Kevin. Congratulations! :)

[Snakefood]

Good #!! I always LOVE big litters!!

[KORBIN5895]

Yeah but what do I do with them now?

[exwizard]

Do you know any other rodent breeders in your area you can sell out to?

[KORBIN5895]

Not really. I have a friend an hour away that may want them.

[exwizard]

At least there is a place for them to go if push came to shove as hard as that is.

[KORBIN5895]

So my final rodent count is:

Mice

14 XL adults (2 males and 12 females. Four of which are pregnant.)21 L females, 30 small adults, 15 hoppers, 16 fuzzies and 26 pinkies. This is a grand total of 122 mice.

Rats

2.6 with 16 weaned and 7 pups.

It looks like I will be trading them off for two Rhp.

[KORBIN5895]

So I worked out a deal to sell my colonies of for $225. Since my last update I have had another 12 mouse pinkies born.

In retrospect I look at my colony and feel quite proud. I started off with only one male and four females. All of my mice have been bred from my colony or traded for from rodents from my colony. For me it is a sad ending as I finally got production up to about twenty pinkies a week.

Stay tuned because I maybe starting a thread called How my bunnies bounce.;)

[Snakefood]

HAHA!! breeding bunnies is fun!!