How many breeders do I need?

[Lolo76]

Despite my dislike of the little creatures, I've decided to start breeding mice again... my trip to the pet store for 20 mice today convinced me of that! With a collection of 23 snakes, a handful of whom eat multiple mice weekly, how many breeding females do I need? I'd say that I average 15-20 live mice per week (I also feed frozen but order those in bulk), so would 3 or 4 females and 1 male mouse be enough?

Last time I bred I only had 1.2, since my snake collection was smaller... at first they were giving me small litters, but by the third round I was getting 10 at a time. Is that fairly normal? I'm planning to get the breeders at a different shop this time, where they have larger than average adults - always looking nice and healthy. Should I spread out introducing females, so they don't have litters on the same schedule? Final question! Will a 20gal glass tank be sufficient for this colony, and does glass hold the smell in better than a wire cage? TIA for any advice, and wish me luck...

[Lolo76]

P.S. I also considered breeding rats, since it would make things easier (in terms of feeding the big snakes). But there are two problems with that... one is that I have a couple of mouse-only eaters, and second problem is that I like them too much. Knowing myself, I'd get attached and end up with twenty pet rats!

[tomfromtheshade]

I would set them up in colonies of 1.3 per tub.

Set up four or five tubs.

Introduce the groups of 1.3 with a week's time between introductions.

Day 1: introduce first group
Day 8: introduce the second group
Day 15: introduce third group

etc etc etc

Using this method you will hopefully be getting 2-3 litters every 7-10 days.

That should cover all of your needs. You can always freeze the extras if there are any.

[Lolo76]

Wow, I don't know where I'd fit that many tubs/mice! Maybe I don't have the means to breed my own yet... but thank you for the advice, and I will think it over. Any ideas on squeezing that many tubs into small spaces? And what kind of tubs?

[GoingPostal]

I agree with Tom, you need at least two litters born every week to keep up, they can have a litter every 3 weeks born back to back but you'd want 1.3 since one might not take or litters may be smaller, minumim of 4 groups breeding, one week apart from each other. Most people use morter tubs from Home Depot or litter pans if you are doing a rack setup. That would take up the least amount of space, you can build your own easily.

[ice#1]

I'd say go get you 2 10 gallon tanks 1 male 10 females no need to put them in at different times put them in all at once you need tons of mice now. you can freeze all once they get to the size you need. and besides that trust me i done it this way and started with just 5 female (granted i added more females later.) but each of my 10 gallon tanks now has 10 to 20 females in them with 1 male the male can only breed so much(sorry for the cursing) so babies will be born at different times. I'm averaging 4 to 6 liters a week and i don't have half as many snakes as you got right now anyway this winter i plan on getting me some breeders so i'm getting there food ready long before i need to so i don't have to run to pet shop weekly other then to sell babies off.

i feed off all males as i find them from pinkies on up to adults and keep all females only problem i got is i got a freezer shelf full of frozen mice of different sizes and got tons more on the way and both pet shops that are near me got mice breeders already they buy off of

but first cage i started with has turned into 7 cages in just 3 months just rember till you can breed all your own mice to feed weekly it's best to let your breeding colony do nothing but breed till it gets to the point it can sustain all your needs. so it will take a couple months to get it going for your needs so you will still have to visit the pet shop till it does

private message me if you got any questions