Breeding mice

[missconduct5]

Since I normally have to drive 90 mins each way for supplies for my snake, I've been thinking I might start breeding mice to save money and time. I'd appreciate any advice on starting out and kill techniques. :sad:

Thanks in advance!

[possum]

You are wise to breed your own...I have for many years. If you get too many, you might either freeze the surplus or sell some to others nearby keeping snakes. I find the mice I raise to be healthier since they are fed quality food (lab chow for rodents, not the dogfood that many resort to) with grains/seeds for a treat now & then. You'll have to have secure (preferably lab type) cages & use wood shavings for bedding...& of course use the water bottles with the steel tubes/ball bearings in...they are truly superior. Food or water offered in bowls is a disaster for mice...they perceive water as a threat & will fill the bowl with shavings to "put out the flood", LOL. And food gets contaminated with feces very fast unless it's kept above so they eat it thru the bars.

So initially it will cost more to set up & breed mice (check around for used cages as that is your biggest cost...if only you were closer! LOL) but they do pay for themselves, plus the peace of mind of not running out of food if the store does. Be sure to disinfect the used cages... As for humane kills, the best is C02, and I recall just seeing a video (youtube) posted on this forum using common household items (baking soda & vinegar).

[missconduct5]

Thanks possum!! *skips off to Youtube*

[KORBIN5895]

First off co² is not very humane, especially when you use the baking soda and vinegar method. That much co² that fast is a terrible way to kill something.

I'll give some more info later.

[lady_bug87]

We have a whole thread on cervical dislocation which IS the most humane

All you have to do is search for it

[Lupinus]

Raising mice is easy, they make rabbits look shy and reserved. Get a 15 or 20 gallon aquarium with a mesh top, bedding, a few hidey holes for them, feed and water, and they will do their thing pretty naturally.

As to the method to kill them, there's a few ways. Cervical dislocation is one, but takes some practice to make it quick and painless. And you risk being bitten. Putting it in a bag or pillow case and a good solid swing and a hard whack to a hard surface is another method, and if you do it hard enough it pretty much instantaneous. There's also the spear them through the skull method, similar to killing cattle, but it's not widely used as most people aren't to comfortable doing it but it's quick and painless if you do it right.

As to the CO2, it's the way commercial feeder mice breeders do it, and it's the veterinary recommended way to do it. Do it right and the mice are out in like twenty to thirty seconds and it only takes a very simple set up. A popular misconception is that it is pretty much like drowning, which is not true. The mice are inhaling a gas which displaces the oxygen in their system, not just being deprived of oxygen.

In short, any of the common methods (with the exception of just sticking them in the freezer to freeze to death) are, IMHO, humane and certainly a lot less traumatic than their wild cousins will experience if grabbed by a snake or if you just tossed them in the cage live. Which one is mainly a matter of personal preference.

[KORBIN5895]

I killed 230 rodents in an hour two days ago. I used cervical dislocation.

[Mikoh4792]

I killed 230 rodents in an hour two days ago. I used cervical dislocation.

Damn. Do you feel weird afterwards?

[KORBIN5895]

Damn. Do you feel weird afterwards?

Actually no, not at all. I sell frozen rodents and I got a killer deal on these so I did what I had to do.

[slowhite03]

Why not buy frozen ones? So much easier and none of that god awful smell

[Lupinus]

Why not buy frozen ones? So much easier and none of that god awful smell
When I had my lizards and was raising mice for them, it was more economical to raise the mice myself.

[lady_bug87]

I killed 230 rodents in an hour two days ago. I used cervical dislocation.

You Savage :p

[missconduct5]

I had been buying frozen but Vincent goes through them too quickly, they're expensive and I have to drive a total of 3 hours to the nearest pet store that supplies them. HUGE waste of cash when I can raise my own, feed them what they need to eat to make sure they're healthy and then euthanize them myself. I'm going to go with the Co2 method. Thanks everyone. :blink:

[KORBIN5895]

You Savage :p

I used my teeth!

I had been buying frozen but Vincent goes through them too quickly, they're expensive and I have to drive a total of 3 hours to the nearest pet store that supplies them. HUGE waste of cash when I can raise my own, feed them what they need to eat to make sure they're healthy and then euthanize them myself. I'm going to go with the Co2 method. Thanks everyone. :blink:

I have one thing I want you to do before you try co². I want you to make a bunch of co² in a sealed Rubbermaid container then once it has built up I want you to put your face right in and take one breath. Then tell me how you feel about gassing them.

[lady_bug87]

I used my teeth.


Sooo hot....

[Mikoh4792]

I used my teeth!



I have one thing I want you to do before you try co². I want you to make a bunch of co² in a sealed Rubbermaid container then once it has built up I want you to put your face right in and take one breath. Then tell me how you feel about gassing them.

Wouldn't he die?

[KORBIN5895]

Wouldn't he die?

No but he might wish he had. One breath of co² will cause his eyes and lungs to burn something awful. It could also make him experience quite a bit of nausea.

[Lupinus]

I have one thing I want you to do before you try co². I want you to make a bunch of co² in a sealed Rubbermaid container then once it has built up I want you to put your face right in and take one breath. Then tell me how you feel about gassing them.
Sure!

At the same time, have someone hold your feet and someone else grab your head and yank. Let me know how you feel afterward, especially before they get some practice down to make the neck snap quick or the 5-10 seconds it actually takes to for the brain to go nini after the neck snap :O_o:

These animals are dieing, there is going to be some momentary unpleasantness involved. Humane/inhumane is merely a matter of when that line is crossed and is causing undue suffering. There's a LOT of people, including the AVMA that feel the use of CO2 is perfectly acceptable and humane for small rodents.

No but he might wish he had. One breath of co² will cause his eyes and lungs to burn something awful. It could also make him experience quite a bit of nausea.
I also don't think you have very many people who are saying you should fill a container with a high concentration of CO2 and then toss the mice in. Mice go in, then CO2 is introduced. Preferably slowly.

[KORBIN5895]

. Let me know how you feel afterward, especially before they get some practice down to make the neck snap quick or the 5-10 seconds it actually takes to for the brain to go nini after the neck snap :O_o:
.

I could tell by your first post on this thread you didn't know what you were talking about and now this statement proves it. Cervical dislocation destroys the brain stem which instantly shuts down the brain.

Also one of the co² methods that has been offered up is to add vinegar to baking soda which would not be q controlled way of creating co² therefore it wouldn't be introduced slowly at all.

Please stop giving advice about things you so obviously know nothing about.

[Lupinus]

Riiiight.

A difference of opinion means I "obviously don't know what I'm talking about" :rolleyes:

[KORBIN5895]

Riiiight.

A difference of opinion means I "obviously don't know what I'm talking about" :rolleyes:

No. Your made up facts mean you don't know what you're talking about. Good try though.

[Lupinus]

You are more than welcome to look them up for yourself. I have, they are available. Would you like me to quote them for you?

All forms of dispatching a rodent are going to involve some level of unpleasantness for them. Being relatively quick and painless humane, being unnecessarily traumatic is not. Cervical dislocation is humane. CO2 done right is humane. Some other methods are humane. I'll take the advice of organizations and their studies in the matter, along with their published facts and findings, and go with one that I feel confident replicating so as to cause as little pain and trauma to the animal as possible.

If you feel cervical dislocation is a good method, great. I even agree with you that it's a good method, particularly on the scale most people are going to be doing it. But that doesn't make other methods inhumane or those that have no issue with them not know what they are talking about.

[KORBIN5895]

You are more than welcome to look them up for yourself. I have, they are available. Would you like me to quote them for you?

All forms of dispatching a rodent are going to involve some level of unpleasantness for them. Being relatively quick and painless humane, being unnecessarily traumatic is not. Cervical dislocation is humane. CO2 done right is humane. Some other methods are humane. I'll take the advice of organizations and their studies in the matter, along with their published facts and findings, and go with one that I feel confident replicating so as to cause as little pain and trauma to the animal as possible.

If you feel cervical dislocation is a good method, great. I even agree with you that it's a good method, particularly on the scale most people are going to be doing it. But that doesn't make other methods inhumane or those that have no issue with them not know what they are talking about.

I have looked them up. I also have experience with most, if not all, of the major "humane" methods. My personal first hand experience proves that most people are incapable of doing co² properly and it is therefore inhumane. Now you can champion it all you want but it doesn't change the fact most people are incapable of using co² correctly.

[smy_749]

All the methods are inhumane when done wrong. Even cervical dislocation. Korbin is just referring to the fact that its not hard to learn proper technique in it, where as c02 in the way that most practice, is inhumane. If everyone took 10 tries on a mouse to do cervical dislocation, he'd say the same about that I'm sure. The proof is around, just go watch someone on youtube use c02, alot of the videos, if not most, show the mouse panicking and trying to escape, not falling asleep painlessly.

[missconduct5]

I used my teeth!



I have one thing I want you to do before you try co². I want you to make a bunch of co² in a sealed Rubbermaid container then once it has built up I want you to put your face right in and take one breath. Then tell me how you feel about gassing them.

Just about as fantastic as when you use your teeth to kill yours. Save your judgements for someone who actually deserves them. :smug:

[missconduct5]

Wouldn't he die?

She wouldn't, no. :p

[KORBIN5895]

Just about as fantastic as when you use your teeth to kill yours. Save your judgements for someone who actually deserves them. :smug:

Judgements? Please. I want you to have first hand experience with your chosen method of torture.... I mean euthanasia.