Finally got my mice colony rolling

[Pixie]

Who would have thought breeding mice would have been this complicated, it all seemed so simple before I started! It's been almost a year that I've been trying and only now is my colony really rolling and productive.

At first I started too small, 1.2-3 mice. Got a couple of litters but then my male ate one of my very pregnant females so I feed him off and lost a girl along with a whole litter. My next male was a dud. Had him with 3 females for 3 months and nothing. He was fed off. The next male finally got things going but only 2 out of my 3 females were producing.

By then, I had a few more snake mouths to feed so I expanded my colony. Every week I would get another enclosure (I use large kritter keepers for my mice) and a few more mice. I've had a lot of problems with canibalism which is beyond gross and really frustrating cause you want more mice, not less! My females have been really hard to match up as they eat each others babies or fight between themselves a lot. So far I have 2 great mom duos that help each other out, all the others have to be housed alone to have their litters...

It's been a lot of work and I've thought of giving up on them many times, the stinky buggers! But I'm so happy that things are rolling now! To the point I'm starting to have extra and will be able to sell off little lots now and then. I'm up to 3.10 producing mice now and it's amazing the quality difference between feeders and the ones I buy from the store.

[Lizzy001]

im pleased to hear it.
glad you got it all rolling but....can i ask...is this thread got to do in the ' new to forums' part.
hope i didnt sound nasty.

Lizzy xxx

[Pixie]

OOPS!!! I totally goofed!!! I was aiming for the "Food for thought" Forum!

[silke]

LOL pixie had a blond moment
i have been thinking about setting up a colony but after reading you story i will wait until i have a house...more room and more snakes
thanks for letting me use you as an excuse
heh heh

[Tim_Cranwill]

Glad to hear you finally got it going on! Hopefully I'll get mine "pumping" soon

[ReptileHQ]

My mice are breeding like crazy! I've had the best success so far by keeping 1.6 in each cage...and try to keep em cool if you can...

I think its something in the air over here in T.O.

Chris

[Matt_K]

hehehe, no worries pixie.. we all make mistakes

[Lisa]

congradulations pixie, I agree, the stuff we get from our mice and rats look to be in better condition the the stuff we get in some petstores too. Now i don't think it's any cheaper infact it's far more expensive (so far we've put in over $100 and gotten back 26 pinkies) but it will slowly pay for them selves. Mainly we've started breeding rodents for the live feeders.

[Pixie]

Thanks Matt for moving this thread to the right forum, I totally did have a blonde moment!!!

I just never would have thought mice to be a hard rodent to breed succesfully and easily. I had had a few years experience breeding hamsters when I was younger and with just 1.1 at a time I ALWAYS had perfect litters every 21 days on the nose. I never had to deal with cannibalism or other problems.

There was a time I was ready to switch back to breeding hamsters instead of mice I was getting so frustrated! But all is well now so I won't need to... Phew.

Does anyone breed or feed hamsters to their snakes???

[Linds]

Congrats! Hope they keep on breeding for you with no more incidents