Quick Question

[Jrock23]

Ok so a few weeks ago I brought $20 worth of live mice at a reptile expo event. Now let me make it clear i try not to feed my boas & pythons live meals. So what i do is pre-kill it before feeding, but my BRB prefer live or he just wont eat and i dont starve my snakes. So if they prefer it a concert way, i will grant it for them.. But i`m not feeding rats/mice but for the pass week in the middle of the night. I here the mice making noise and i think they are fighting. But when i get up to check on them there is always 3 to 4 mice trying to get on this one mice. Now when i brought them they were all the same size. Now for the pass few days i have notice that one of the mice is starting to get bigger and today as i was feeding my boas & pythons i notice that the mice is get even bigger. I now believe that in the bunch of mice that i brought, there was a female in it and now i believe i have a pregnant mice.. Honestly i have know idea on breeding mice or having the right care for the babies.. What do you think?

[Noelle7206]

Re: Quick Question

I think you're about to become a mouse-breeder, LOL! So you need to decide if you WANT to breed them....there is some work (& smells) involved, but personally, I prefer to breed my own & always have.
This way I always have the right size & more than enough snake food, and can make sure they are fed quality food. IF you want her & her babies to survive, you MUST now house her in a separate cage...if there
are any other females in there, you can house them with her along with ONE male of your choice. Males fight each other (& do damage, sometimes resulting in death). To breed successfully, it's best to keep only
a pair or 1.2 trio (one male, 2 females) together at the most. A small 'lab' cage with the bars spaced for mice (not rats) is best, & use a water bottle with the ball bearings in the tube (trust me on that). Feed
lab chow that is made for mice/rats or buy the seed mix sold for hamsters in petstores. If you don't separate this female, she'll likely kill her babies or the other mice will too...way too much stress in a cage full of
males.

[Jrock23]

Re: Quick Question

Ok well i do have the seed mix with two extra water bottles and i did take out all the other mice and i left her in the cage by her self. So when the babies come, should i separate the babies. Oh wow i did not aspect this to happen cause i have no ideal what so else on breeding mice but its a good experience that i will definitely need LOL. But i will put one male in there with her..

[Jrock23]

Re: Quick Question

This is the best photo i can get, but i don`t want to move her at all because i can see the babies kicking or moving around oh that is very weird. LOL. But any way here is a photo.

[Pandorasdad]

Re: Quick Question

Personally, I'd feed her off before she gave birth. I don't have the time or energy to care for food.

[bcasilio]

Re: Quick Question

Personally, I'd feed her off before she gave birth. I don't have the time or energy to care for food.

I agree with this. If I had more time on my hands, I would consider it but I want to keep my breeding to Boas only.

[Jrock23]

Re: Quick Question

@Noelle7206 and @Pandorasdad she is now giving birth..

[taxcollector]

Re: Quick Question

A small 'lab' cage with the bars spaced for mice (not rats) is best, & use a water bottle with the ball bearings in the tube (trust me on that)

Can I see some pictures of your setup? Im looking into breeding mice, not rats but have found a lot of conflicting advice overall on what works

[Noelle7206]

Re: Quick Question

.... So when the babies come, should i separate the babies.....

Not sure what you're asking? If you're going to raise these mice, you'll leave her babies with her until they are weaned (eyes open & fully furred & eating on their own...called "hoppers" for their behavior). You can then raise
them until they're the size you want. If you plan to continue, you'll need to keep 'hold-backs' now & then to replace your breeders as their fertility declines. You may want to re-think keeping exercise wheels in cages where
mice are having babie: some adults get so hooked on wheel-running, they do so at the peril of their nursing babies. (-pups get injured when flung out of the wheel- still attached to mom- & overall parenting skills decline too)

[Noelle7206]

Re: Quick Question

Can I see some pictures of your setup? Im looking into breeding mice, not rats but have found a lot of conflicting advice overall on what works

"Lab cages" are pretty much the same...what specific "conflicting advice" is distressing you?

[Jrock23]

Re: Quick Question

Yea I totally forgot to take that wheel out of there and that's for the insight. Still deciding of i should continue to process with mice. Cause this is not what I thought would happen. But looking at my longer term commitment with taking care of my snakes, it would be best to produce my own food supply. [MENTION=17615]taxcollector[/MENTION] I would say get a normal setup with at least two water bottles and a nice size food dish. Later this evening I can send you a photo of what I have But keep in mind that I took a lot out do to the birth, I forgot about that wheel. Hey we both learning about this Lol, because I didn't plan this, it just happen LMBO

[taxcollector]

Re: Quick Question

what specific "conflicting advice" is distressing you?

I've seen many people say you can keep multiple mothers together and some say no they will eat all of the babies. Once a female gives birth, do you have to seperate her from your 1 male to 3/4 female ratio tub?

[Noelle7206]

Re: Quick Question

I've seen many people say you can keep multiple mothers together and some say no they will eat all of the babies. Once a female gives birth, do you have to seperate her from your 1 male to 3/4 female ratio tub?

I'd recommend you keep no more than 1 or 2 females with 1 male. Most females will cooperate & nurse each other's babies...but just like with ppl, some don't get along: some will steal each other's babies & keep at it, stressing the babies by
carrying them back & forth to their own nest. If you have some that just don't get along, it's best to separate them. You'll know...their fights are noisy & annoying. And never put 2 grown males together...they fight dirty & for keeps, each
trying to neuter the other.

Male mice: have the stronger smell, so fewer is better IMO. That scent also serves a purpose though...mice know their own babies by their scent & will kill "other" babies unless you take care to make them all smell the same.
(like if you want to even up some litters that are near in age...maybe one mom isn't nursing very well yet, or her litter is just too large, and another one can handle a few more easily)

Eating babies: some new (first time) mouse-mom's get carried away with cleaning up the babies & don't know when to stop. (give a 2nd chance!) But usually, it's an older mouse that suddenly decides she's had enough
of motherhood, & at that point, you may as well feed her off, as typically the gruesome behavior is repeated with any subsequent litters. I normally keep my pairs or trios of mice together ALL the time, during birth too.
If you take the male out, some females don't want them back & fight them seriously. Mice generally make good parents in a SMALL group & cooperate to keep the babies warm. Larger groups are too chaotic and their fertility is lower.

One more thing to know: Mice have very high metabolic rates and cannot tolerate excessive warmth; over 78-80* they lose fertility & at some point don't survive at all.
They are most comfortable around 68-72*. Colder temperatures can be managed by insulating their cages and partly covering them so as to retain more of their heat while still allowing for
air flow, and by feeding a slightly richer diet. (more sunflower seeds etc) Mice that are too cold aren't going to be productive or healthy.

[Noelle7206]

Re: Quick Question

This may never come up (unless you breed as many mice as I do?) but one thing I found very interesting was that when a new (first-time mother) mouse gives birth, sometimes she doesn't know to remove the placenta
and she'll just set the babies aside with them attached.

They'll turn blue & cold & eventually die, but if you pick them up & snip off the placenta with small scissors, you can often save them, actually bring them back from BLUE! They may also need the membrane wiped off so they can
breathe, and then do "CPR" with your finger on their chest. If it's not too late, they'll revive-cough-turn pink & live on...they look too tiny for this to work, but I've done it many times over the years, lol. Usually the mom does just
fine when you give them back to her, & typically she'll correctly 'clean up' the next litter she has. Seems to be a "light-bulb" moment..."oh THAT'S what they're supposed to look like!" -LOL

[Jrock23]

Re: Quick Question

You just answered my next question for me. I was just gonna ask you about the placenta. I notice yesterday that it wasn't off the babies, by when I got off work, the mother took it off. She had about 13 to 15 babies and all seems well. They are very pink and looks healthy. Although the mother tends to move the babies from different spots or I see a few buried in the bedding but seems to always find themselves looking for away out and when mom sees them. She quickly grabs them. Last night it was p u trying fresh water in and the mom was trying to attack me LOL. It was funny to see her protecting her babies. I also tried putting another female in with her, and the mom started smelling her and following her everywhere. But the female start bitting on one of the babies and the baby started screaming so I immediately to ok her out because I felt like the baby was being harmed. But the baby is doing fine, just have a mark on the baby but that's all. But reading what your saying helped me a lot.