Questions About Breeding Feeder Mice

[SerpentineDream]

I can't spend over a grand on mice every year so I've decided to take the plunge and breed my own. I can't do rats--I just like them too much and cannot euthanize them, so I'll continue buying F/T rats for the contingent of snakes that eats those. But mice I can manage.

Picked up 4 male and 8 female friendly, healthy-looking fancy mice from Petco as that was my only option for purchasing them. 1 male and 1 female upon closer inspection turned out to be too furry for me to be comfortable with so I will only breed those 2 together and harvest all of their offspring as pinkies or fuzzies to avoid stuffing my snakes full of hair and letting that gene get into the rest of the breeding pool.

I have the 4 males in a 10-gallon tank and the 8 females in a 20-gallon long. All of them came from the same groups and get along well. They're on Kaytee Clean & Cozy (Carefresh knockoff) bedding. They have toys, plastic barns, exercise wheels that they cannot get enough of and quality food. They and their babies will have good lives until they are humanely euthanized and frozen for 30 days to kill possible parasites.

We will have separate grow-out tanks for weaned, sexed babies and will replace the breeders with the best of the young adults at about 8 months.

Questions: 1) Plan is to pick a couple females at a time to put with a chosen male in a separate "love shack" for mating and then put them back in their houses. How long do they have to stay in the "love shack?" A couple of hours? Just until 1 mating takes place? 2) Can the females be left together in the 20-gallon long to have and raise their babies? Or do they need to be put individually in separate tanks to give birth and raise young? 3) Does each female need her own little plastic barn or a nest box? 4) Should I breed everyone at once? A few at a time, staggering litters? 5) Are there any color combos that should not be bred together (i.e., lethal genes)? Males are 1 solid black, 2 black and white and 1 brown with minimal white, all with black eyes. Females are 1 each gray with red eyes, pink-eyed white, fawn with black eyes, fawn with red eyes, white and fawn with red eyes, brindle with black eyes and 2 browns with black eyes.

Any and all advice from those who have "been there, done that" is welcome!