how my mice roll - Page 11

Snakefood · 03-05-12, 01:10 PM

OK, so hubby went out and bought awesome tubs for my mouse rack. They are 35"L x 17"W x 7"D.

So my question is, in a colony tub this size, how many females would you put in each one??

IMG_1801.jpg

exwizard · 03-05-12, 01:34 PM

I would go with 1.10 comfortably. Even though these tubs are plenty big, I would still go with no more than one male to reduce fighting and cannibalism, but even with 10 females in that tub, theres still plenty of room for them. Now if youre trying to start new colonies/breeding groups, there still will be some fighting until their pecking order has been established. Theres no avoiding that.

KORBIN5895 · 03-05-12, 01:39 PM

I was thinking 1.10 also. My colony is in a 4'x2'x3' and I have 2.20 roughly.

Snakefood · 03-05-12, 01:45 PM

Yes, I was only putting one male/tub. I actually only have one breeding male right now as colony #2 females are not breeding age yet so I haven't gotten thier male.

right now I am running 1.4 colonies, so I have one mostly established colony of 2 older females and 2 younger females with thier male.

then I have 4 females that are about 6 weeks old right now, so adding 4 more from the litter that will wean on the 13th of this month should be ok.

I know my older white female will accept anyone into her colony without issue, but I don't know about my black, so far she has accepted my white, but since she's nursing, she has yet to meet the 2 younger ones.

I am finding it far easier to introduce a new male into an established female colony, so I may let him father the newest members of the colonies, then cull him and replace him with one male for each of the 2 colonies I am working on now.

exwizard · 03-05-12, 01:53 PM

Sounds like a plan.

For the most part we are running 1.6 colonies in much smaller lab cages than this tub you have, the smallest of our cages only house 1.4 so that works for us. Comparing the size of that tub with our cages gave me the estimate of 1.10 for you. Even so, your mice will still have more elbow room than mine.

Snakefood · 03-05-12, 02:19 PM

it sounds like a nice round #, 2-3 colonies of 1.10 in the rack and the lower tubs for growouts.

Thanks for the help!! Now I guess I'm only culling male weanlings for the next while!! good thing the rats are going good, my snakes will eat fuzzy-weanling rats (depending on thier sizes of course!)

exwizard · 03-05-12, 02:30 PM

I think thats great I am picuring this mouse rack in my head now.

Its going to look great.

Snakefood · 03-05-12, 03:27 PM

I'll get a pic once it is done. depending on hubby's work schedule, in the next week or two. And he'll install the auto watering system just like on the rat racks.

exwizard · 03-05-12, 03:32 PM

Lookin g forward to that.

KORBIN5895 · 03-06-12, 09:28 PM

So my last batch of pinkies all died. I accidentally left my thermostat at 35°c. I have also had two females absorb or eat their litter. The lack of blood makes me think they absorbed it. I also traded 10 frozen mice for two breeder rats and 11fuzzy/Hopper rats. So I spent the evening setting up another freezer for them.

KORBIN5895 · 03-07-12, 09:53 AM

So I lost 7 of the rat fuzzies last night. I need to put a bigger bulb in apparently.

Snakefood · 03-07-12, 10:06 AM

geez, a run of bad luck!! do you have a long haired dog?? my mice and rats will use my husky's hair to line thier nests against cold.

Jenn_06 · 03-07-12, 10:11 AM

i lost a litter of rats yesterday guess the mom was not ready to be a mom...First i thought it was the other rats eating them until i put the mom and the 5 babies in a cage by them self, when i checked 20min later i saw the mom eating a baby o,0 so i put the babies back in the tub with the others and was hoping the other moms will take them in.

well between my 2 rats in the tub they have 21 fuzzies, so this morning looks like only one pinky made it and the others died because they could not get any milk

KORBIN5895 · 03-07-12, 10:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snakefood

geez, a run of bad luck!! do you have a long haired dog?? my mice and rats will use my husky's hair to line thier nests against cold.

Well my enclosure wasn't ready when he showed up so they spent an hour and a half in an unheated freezer. When I finally realized I was stupid and had my wiring wrong I noticed a couple of my fuzzies weren't moving much. I ended up holding all of the babies under the heat lamp til they started moving again. Another part of the problem was that the female made her nest in a corner of the tank that had a patch of ice. When I picked up the fuzzies to warm them I noticed the shavings were very damp upon further inspection I noticed the ice.

Snakefood · 03-07-12, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jenn_06

i lost a litter of rats yesterday guess the mom was not ready to be a mom...First i thought it was the other rats eating them until i put the mom and the 5 babies in a cage by them self, when i checked 20min later i saw the mom eating a baby o,0 so i put the babies back in the tub with the others and was hoping the other moms will take them in.

well between my 2 rats in the tub they have 21 fuzzies, so this morning looks like only one pinky made it and the others died because they could not get any milk

Sometimes, first time mamma's will do that, if she does it a second time though, cull her.

Korbin, that sucks!! I think you should switch to a rack system, would take up the same amount of space as that freezer of yours!!