Feeder Mice

[pigglet]

I'm thinking about breeding feeder mice for my snakes, and have read a few care sheets, but am a little hazy on a few points.

1) Every care sheet said something different in regards to the m/f ratio and the frequency of breeding. Is it neccessary to separate the female from the male after she has had her litter, in order to prevent a new impregnation too soon? I gather a 4-6 f/1 m ratio in a 20g enclosure is good, correct?

2) What are all the humane methods of euthanasia?

how is CO2 'suffocation' done? I would prefer not to do the spinal cord severing, but will if it is the most reliable and humane method. These are basically the only two I have read about.

3) Should I freeze the prey first in order to guarantee parasite free food?

Thanks for the help, feel free to add any other comments/advice.

~Pigglet

[herpslave]

Another reason to seperate male from female is because males sometimes eat there younge alive.

A humane 1.2.3 way to kill a pinky is a head smack right on the table. maybey alittle gentler or there head may pop off

You can freeze them alive too. But I think this is supporting the suffering of a pinky from slowly freezing to death.

[vanderkm]

The ratio of 1 male to 4-6 females is good. While removing the male after females are pregnant will prevent them from being bred when they come into heat the day they have pups, mice are very capable of having litters sequentially. With mice, the more stable the colony, the better - they don't respond well to changes in their core group and when you re-introduce the male, that is when he is likely to kill any youngsters in the cage.

Males are very good with their own pups but will kill all pups when they are introduced to a new pen. They rarely kill their own pups, but young, inexperienced females may kill whole litters. Mice are actually quite senstive critters to breed sucessfully.

If you do a search for CO2 killing on this site, you will find lots of information on building CO2 chambers. This is a humane method of killing. Breaking the neck or blunt trauma to the brain is also humane when done correctly - causes immediate unconsciousness and rapid death. To kill pinkies and small fuzzies, a pinch to the skull often works better than smacking - less damage - pinch from the nose backwards to push the brain tissue back under the skin of the neck. Freezing is not humane, but many people use that method because they don't have to watch the animal die.

There are a lot of posts on this topic throughout this forum - just use the search field and look for killing mice.

Good luck with your colony.
mary v.

[justinO]

put vanilla extract in the water.

mice are hella stinky to breed or have alive. Most give up after trying for a few litters cuz it is: too hard, too smelly, and not worth the time & effort.

good luck though!

[hooter]

Breeding mice is simple, its the smell that will get you

[arkuden]

omg that is the truth. Ive been breeding them for about 4 months. After a while you just dont care as long as you find babies in there every so often. Plus when you clean it, everything is poop!

[annieb_mice]

Don't remove the male. As Vanderkm said, mice don't like change. I have never had a problem with the males eating the young.... I have seen females killing and eating pinkies, but it's VERY rare for the males to do this. I've noticed that when you add some extra protein to their diet, they aren't as likely to eat the pinkies. I would suggest boiled egg, cooked chicken, or chicken bones, though some people prefer dog food. I'm not going to get into the whole dog food debate again... but I wouldn't recommend this. :P
Good luck...
Take care
Annie B. <:3 )~~