Had a record 19 babies from a mouse!

[cchardwick]

Believe it or not but most of my mouse colony came from PetSmart's fancy mice. They have been doing pretty good... For awhile I was getting feeders from a smaller local pet store that sold white feeder mice and I kept a few back as breeders. It's those white mice that cranked out a whopping 19 babies in one litter! Here's a few photos, the top one is the 19 new babies, the next photos is the parents, and the bottom photo is a fancy mouse from PetSmart, she is fully mature and only had 9 babies. Now I'm in the process of raising up all white babies and replacing all my fancy mice with these super breeders!!!

[Albert Clark]

Nice job! I started a small breeding project with mice also. I used to get my live hopper mice and fuzzy rats from a breeder. Along with the pinky rats it was getting kind of pricey. I needed the mice and rats for my hatchlings and also for my male pied who is a live mouser. I bought two female mice from Petco and already had held back a male mouse from petland. Needless to say I have had a steady flow of mice for all. Recently one of the females had a 12 pinky litter. Should have done this a long time ago.

[wolfy-hound]

People who breed feeders want the biggest litters they can get from healthy females. So they are more likely to hold back females who give huge litters. Pet breeders focus on the look and color more than the litter size.

Both should be focused on the health, of course, but a pet breeder often doesn't even want large litters.

I get the best litters from rats from feeder sources, although I haven't needed to add in outside stock for a long time now. I've got my colony culled to the traits I want, although I'm refining them to the cream of the crop AND the biggest litters now.

[StillBP]

I had 19 in a litter once was a liver and white mouse for me
great going tho i enjoy big litters my rat colony i have females all from the same line cause they throw 12-15 per litter helps when you are breeding feeders

[cchardwick]

My biggest rat litter was 16, although I don't count most times. I isually cull the baby mice by feeding them to my smaller King snakes to thin them out before they get too big, still quite a few runts even after a week or two, mom can't really keep up with 19 babies! I can also move some to other females in a pinch.

[voodoolamb]

Congrats!!!

Not mice but my black eyed siamese rat dropped 18 babies last week! Her first litter too. She hasn't lost any yet either! I've been pulling some pups a few times a day to let the runts nurse. I'll have to hold back a girl or two from this litter, hopefully large litter sizes will run in the family!