1. The number of females you want in your colony depend on how many babies you need, if you keep the male in all the time you can expect a new litter from each female every 3 weeks, and litters average around 10 babies...but it's not advisable to put more than one male per colony, as they will fight. Most people keep 1.5
2. I personally believe that rats should be given a lot more space than most people prescribe...feeders or not...I'd suggest something along the size of a 2x1x1 cage...but then, others wouldn't agree...so you might want to take their suggestions
3. I've only had a single male mouse, but from that experience I can safely say that mice reek (male mice, at least), so you'll probably want to deoderize the room in some way, or keep them somewhere that the smell won't bother you...also, mice will, naturally, need a lot less space than rats...apart from that, there aren't a lot of husbandry differences between them...
4. when buying your animals, whether mice or rats, make sure that they aren't sneezing and that they don't have any red discharge around their eyes or nose. This is an indication of respiratory infection...also, check their fur for mites, 'cause you don't want those either...and it's best to avoid bitey animals, for obvious reasons, lol. Also, you want to avoid cedar (which you probably already know) and if you chose to get a cage (as opposed to building a rack or something) avoid wire floors as they can damage the rats' feet...oh, and if you're building an enclosure, do not use galvanized mesh or wire because the rats will chew on it and get zinc poisoning...
That's about all I can think of now, hope it's of some help
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