Live Feeders & Side Effects

[Prognathodon]

As posted elsewhere, my husband has a BP who spent her first 40-some-odd days with us not eating, until I offered her a live mouse.

We're thinking she isn't likely to make the switch to f/t given trials so far. PetCo is on the way home for me but . . . PetCo. There's is an independent store not too far away that I'm inclined to trust, but it isn't in a direction we often go. So Saturday morning we went to that store, got a half-dozen mice, and set them up in a 20-gallon long tank:



Of course they decided to all go try out the hide when I thought of taking pictures. And here's a close-up of the tank label, to help us remember they are food, not pets:



I didn't realize, though, that we were setting up an entertainment center for the dogs. This was taken while we were setting up and the mice were in a temporary holding cell.



I think the black and white dog whined this morning when the mice went into hiding.

The store couldn't guarantee the mice were all the same sex when I asked for them, so hopefully we haven't created a breeding colony. With only one snake insisting on live, that would be a bit much. . We debated rats vs. mice, and decided to stay with mice until we have Kiyo into a good eating routine and growing (she's about a year old, 240 grams), then we'll see about making the transition to rats.


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[wolfy-hound]

With that many mice, you probably do have both sexes. But with weekly feeding, you may still be okay.

Good luck with the mice TV for the dogs!

[PitOnTheProwl]

The couple Petcos close to me have them separated.
If she is happy with mice, keep her happy.

[Marrissa]

Just give in. 1) You want more snakes 2) Breeding your own feeders if fun.

[BCS]

Breeding your own feeders is not fun. Double the work and they are super messy creatures. But, to each his own.

It really would not surprise me if you had all males. Feeder breeders <---haha that rhymes, tend to keep the females for future breeding while selling the males as feeders. Not all do that but I do and I know many others who do this. If they are male or females, you could easily tell. Males do not exactly hide their... male parts. Right below the tail would be a pink or black bulge (depending on the color of the mouse itself). This would indicate male. Females will not have this bulge.

When I first started my breeding of feeders it was really hard. Mice are cute but the babies.... cuter. It is easier now that I have been doing it for so long.

And your dogs... free entertainment... animal kingdom TV. Too cute. And they will never get bored watching them.

[Prognathodon]

The store I got the mice from said each batch they get in is supposed to be single-sex, but they don't check and they've ended up with litters. If we do get a litter, I'll start checking for naughty bits and feed off appropriately - while I'd rather not go in for breeding feeders (and I'm more likely to do rats than mice if I change my mind), I can think of worse things to have happen than additions to the larder.

That's also why I decided on a glass tank: reduced escape concerns. I just have to get some bungee cords to replace the temporary top weights, since the screen-top latches we got won't work with this tank.


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[distaff]

I would love to breed my own feeders.

Actually, we already sort of do. The chicken/rabbit/goat area outside has an on-again/off-again terrible mice problem. I can catch half a dozen a day (or, none - even when there are plenty running around). I dump the live traps in to a barrel, bludgeon the mice (sounds mean, but it is very quick) and feed them to the chickens.

However, everything I read says domesticated feeder mice/rats need more climate control. I don't want them in the house! Our house is very small, and we don't have a basement either. I would actually be open to a pet rat or two, but a breeding colony would be too many.

[Prognathodon]

The two new baby BPs are both insisting on live (well, one of them, still haven't gotten mine to eat at all, but she was more interested in live than f/t), so I decided to bite the bullet and start small-scale breeding. Husband thought it would make more sense to breed rats than mice, since the girls (all BPs) will need rats when they grow up, so we got two females and a male.

We'd started calling the mouse colony Mouse TV, so now we have Rat TV. I keep telling the dogs that the big male rat would not be fun to play with, but they don't listen.

The bigger problem is that rats have more personality than the mice. Just got them yesterday, and already this morning I was chirping to the rats and seeing if they'd eat food from my hand - they obviously haven't been handled much, but the male was braver than the females and took a couple Cheerios. AAARGH! NO! NOT PETS! BREEDERS FOR FEEDERS! Ahem.

And either I got used to the mice really fast, or my nose likes mice better than the rats. I find the rats to have more of a funk. I think both channels of Rodent TV will be moving to the spare bedroom. (which might help with the not-pets thing).


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[Reinz]

Geee?? I wonder what gender this rat was?

[Prognathodon]

Snicker


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