how my mice roll - Page 10

exwizard · 03-02-12, 02:50 PM

Man this is great!

Our phone numbers are continuing to get passed around. Just last week, a couple from Atlantic, which is an hour and a half away came into town to get some mice and rats and now today, another guy I never heard from before wants a standing order of 3 mice a week. Im so stoked.

Jenn_06 · 03-02-12, 03:15 PM

That is great. I can never sell my rats because my snakes will not let me be overstocked.

exwizard · 03-02-12, 03:24 PM

Yeah well we started out with 45 breeders and only had about 7 or 8 snakes at the time. Then later a guy traded out more breeders for smaller rats one to one. Later still we were able to acquire dozens more from time to time. For a while, we even had a rat wholesaler whenever we got depleted and last fall, we had several batches of aquisitions that came from 4 different sources. At one point in time, we had well over 600 rats and more than 250 mice. Those numbers have come down a lot since then but they are slowly going back up. Most recently, we bought out another guys entire rat colony which we placed at another location. We call that colony our South Colony. Id say between the 2 colonies, we have over 300 rats right now. The mice, however, are only here but they number over 100 as well.

Jenn_06 · 03-02-12, 05:24 PM

wow thats a lot i just have 9 breeders right now and holding back all the females from my last 2 litters, getting ready to have a freezer full of pinks for the baby boas i hope to have in June.

exwizard · 03-02-12, 05:31 PM

Thats all right.

nothing wrong with primarily having enough to feed your own snakes. Thats our primary purpose as well. It has just blossomed since then.

exwizard · 03-03-12, 01:10 PM

Dont have totals yet but we weaned 9 moms and put them back in with the boys. Some of the weaners were actually smalls. Life is good.

exwizard · 03-03-12, 07:21 PM

I have totals now not including the South Colony

Rats:
29 pinkies, 41 fuzzies, 20 pups, 37 weaners, 29 smalls, 8 mediums, 11 future breeders and 8.34 breeders for a total of 217 not including the 18 jumbos we have going to tomorrows rodent deal.

Mice:
5 pinkies, 44 fuzzies, 7 hoppers 13 smalls and 10.43 breeders for a total of 122 plus the mice we will be acquiring in tomorrows rodent deal

Snakefood · 03-04-12, 11:56 AM

Just had another rat litter of 12 born and expecting another in a week.

new mouse litters are probably a couple weeks away still, but now that hubby has finished the last rat rack, he is going out today for supplies for a nice mouse rack!! I am so excited to get them into a rack in the shed instead of tanks in my house!!

exwizard · 03-04-12, 12:57 PM

oh yeah a rack system is much more efficient than tanks for sure.

I think its great that you are getting them set up in the racks.

Btw, our rodent deal this morning brought in 90 additional mice. Just brought them home and set them up.

Jenn_06 · 03-04-12, 01:32 PM

Hey exwizard when do you replace your breeders like how old? i still have my first breeders and they been breeding for me over a year now i was thinking about replacing them but they still give me good litters 10-12 babies.

Snakefood · 03-04-12, 01:58 PM

replace them soon. mice females will suddenly stop reproducing, usually shortly after a year and a bit (varies)

keep all your female babies till you have enough to replace the colony and raise them up soon. Then your prepared.

exwizard · 03-04-12, 02:07 PM

When you see litter sizes drop, thats a good time but in general after a year, replace them. Younger moms will always give you bigger healthier litters.

We're on generation 4 after only a couple of years.

Jenn_06 · 03-04-12, 02:40 PM

i just have the 2 breeds that are "old" but their litter numbers have not dropped yet, i do have 5 other females that are younger and im planing on keeping all my females from my last few litters. I think im going to let the older girls have one more litter then ill replace them...its just a little sad because they are the girls i first started out with

exwizard · 03-04-12, 04:34 PM

If youre attached to your original girls like that, you can still keep them as pets. They dont necessarily have to be snake food. I would still retire them as breeders though, especially if you have plenty of younger girls to replace them with.

On another note, we just moved all our growouts to the South Colony as the first phase of consolidating everybody to one colony. Breeders/Nursers are next and then eventually, the mice. It will be so much easier to operate from one location but the transition will probably take a few more weeks.

Snakefood · 03-05-12, 10:32 AM

^^^this^^^

I have a female rat that will be times out in the next few months, but I love her, so instead of being culled, we're bringing her in the house to live out her days!!