how my mice roll - Page 20

KORBIN5895 · 04-07-12, 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by exwizard

Nice! Your numbers are going up for sure. Your male to female ratio on your rats is just right however on your mice, you need more males IMO. I would go with at least 3 more for that number of females.

You know I used to think that also but as it stand I have 10 females in segregation because they are nursing or pregnant and I have 2-4 females in general population that need segregated soon because they are pregnant. The two males are housed with the 23 non pregnant females and the twenty hoppers. They seem to be getting the job done fairly well.

Don't forget that all my rats are housed in one colony and all of my mice in another. I am not even segregating my nursing rats at the moment.

calotekat · 04-07-12, 10:45 AM

nice breeding habitat!!

exwizard · 04-07-12, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KORBIN5895

You know I used to think that also but as it stand I have 10 females in segregation because they are nursing or pregnant and I have 2-4 females in general population that need segregated soon because they are pregnant. The two males are housed with the 23 non pregnant females and the twenty hoppers. They seem to be getting the job done fairly well.

Don't forget that all my rats are housed in one colony and all of my mice in another. I am not even segregating my nursing rats at the moment.

I understand that and I know your system is different than mine. Youre using deep freezers for your colonies and yeah I can appreciate where youre coming from with that. Youve seen the rack systems were using and this transition is almost complete. Almost all of them are in the South Colony now.

With us, our mice are kept in separate lab cages we call colonies and those ratios are anywhere from 1.2-1.6 depending on the cage size. However we will try separating the females now that we have more room and see if that brings our mice production up.

With our rats on the other hand, our overall ratio is 1.6. This way we can have enough females to accomodate 1.3 in the breeder tubs while housing as many as 3 nursers in a tub at a time. Were not quite there with our numbers yet but are getting closer to that goal with each week.

We just picked up a new customer today who has 34 snakes so it will be even more of a challenge getting our numbers up.

KORBIN5895 · 04-08-12, 06:07 AM

I am very jealous of your rack system Gary. I hope our next place has enough space I can set a rack up. Actually I just hope I can keep the colonies I have.

exwizard · 04-08-12, 06:11 AM

I hope so too.

KORBIN5895 · 04-08-12, 06:12 AM

Yeah. I will have to sell them all off as my wife isn't very keen on me killing them and freezing them.

exwizard · 04-08-12, 06:20 AM

Oh man Im sorry.

exwizard · 04-08-12, 06:51 AM

On another note, were really excited about this new customer. This will give us the impetus we need to expand our operation even more. Currently, were using 5 tubs in reserve. We will need to go to 8. Were also going to need to expand our breeder numbers to 15.90. This goal will be a challenge but its one Im looking forward to meeting.

KORBIN5895 · 04-08-12, 07:10 AM

Can you buy breeding age females to juice up your numbers? Look on your local Craig's list or some such site. That's where I got my most recent group of 1.3 with 11 pinkies for free!

exwizard · 04-08-12, 07:47 AM

The problem with that is that it increases the risk of another RI bug spreading around. Thats what happened late last year when we ran out of stock shortly after the Des Moines Reptile Show, forcing us to import rats from 4 different sources. We lost a lot of breeders and subsequently, a lot of babies. Our peak was at 650+ just before that and we still have not yet fully recovered in our numbers since then. If I can help it, I really dont want to import any more rats.

KORBIN5895 · 04-08-12, 08:21 AM

Set up a second colony in your basement again just to produce smaller sizes.

exwizard · 04-08-12, 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by calotekat

nice breeding habitat!!

Thank you very much.

It took some time getting to this point and we do have a ways to go but we'll get there.

exwizard · 04-08-12, 08:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KORBIN5895

Set up a second colony in your basement again just to produce smaller sizes.

No, Lauras mom taking on these rats has been a blessing to us since now we have more time. We will just simply increase our production from what we already have and build up our numbers the way we've been doing it. I think that will be best all things considered.

exwizard · 04-10-12, 11:47 AM

The transition is complete. All the rats are in the South Colony now and this weekend the last rack will go there as well. All thats left here is the breeder colonies of mice and those days are numbered as well. Even the growouts and acquisitions are over there now. What we need to do is clear out more space there and set up a shelving unit there to house all the lab cages. Until then, we will keep the breeder colonies here.

This is so cool.

exwizard · 04-14-12, 07:41 PM

Now with the combined rat colony fully in place, our first goal of getting to 15 male breeders was surpassed today. With our initial goal of 15.90 we are currently at 16.63. We still have a way to go with the females but that will come in time. Also, we have picked up a few prospective larger rat customers including Necrias. As a result, we have expanded our reserve tubs from 5 to 9 tubs. Over time this and the increased number of breeders will allow more rats to get to that size. Im telling you, the demand is out there and while currently we're having a hard time keeping up, we will be able to to do this before long.

Right now we have 329 rats including the 16.63 breeders and just over 100 mice.

Also, since all the racks are there now we had to move the breeder racks back a bit to make more room. And one more thing I forgot to show you and thats the gram scale chart thats so easily referencable and standard with all our sizing.