Just starting!

[blowgunsgalore]

I got a nice little colony from petco on monda, i have a 1.3 ratio and they are all set up in a nice ten gallon enclosure. How long do you think it will be before i have the first signs of pregnancy? What are some tell tale signs?

[Rhasputin]

Mice are usually fertile every 3-5 days. They usually gestate for about 21 days. So you should be seeing pregnant mice in 4 week, assuming that your mice are mature enough to breed.

With mice from petco, watch out breeding. You may see signs of tumors from their lines, after a few breedings. Make sure to cull any mice that produce tumorous offspring, and don't breed from any that have tumors.
I don't mean to scare you, but petco isn't exactly known for having healthy lines of mice!


Also, have more cages ready, you'll need them once your mice have babies, and they'll need to be taken out at about 4-5 weeks old.

[jasbus]

Petco buys mice from several breeders, so you can't say all of them are bad...
I sell to Petco...

[Rhasputin]

I can confidently say that the mice that any petcos I have ever been to, have not been from well tracked lines of any kind.

And not to be rude, but I doubt your lines are tracked heavily either.

[blowgunsgalore]

Ive bought mice from petco before, they turned out way better than the ones i got from the reptile shop, plus petco has some cooler patterns and they seperate the males from females so i know which is which

[Rhasputin]

Yes. Petco is better than buying from a feeder shop, or from petsmart.

[HighVoltageRoyals]

Congrats on starting to breed your own mice! I'm also just starting to breed mice and expecting my first litter any day now. My first colony (1.2) was from Petco but they do seem a little "runty" compared to the mice that I get from my local reptile shop (and when I say runty, I mean these mice are about half the size of the mice I get from the reptile shops).

The other two colonies I have (1.1 and 1.1) were definitely mistakes (I was looking to get a 1.3 and 1.3). I wanted to compare breeding rates/weight/overall health of the feeders I get from Reptile Outlet and the ones I got from Petco. I told the clerk at RO that I wanted 2.6 mice but the guy gave me 7.1 so I had a bunch of males that I couldn't even use! Needless to say my snake was very happy about this little mistake. I guess I'll have to be a little clearer next time LOL.

Sorry for the rant btw and good luck! Post some pics of your first litter too!

[blowgunsgalore]

When do the mice start getting noticably pregnant? I have two females whose tits are starting to show, is this a sign?

[jasbus]

Yes. Petco is better than buying from a feeder shop, or from petsmart.

Um, ok... that's kind of redundant. Where do you think Petco and Petsmart get their mice? From breeder/feeder shops... Breeders supply the local pet stores. I own a pet store, but I sell to several pet shops around me, and a couple of states over. That's pretty much how most pet shops get their feeders. I do know that some Petco's and Petsmarts buy from wholesalers around the country. But, again, most wholesalers buy from breeders...
So, in short, most mice come from small commercial breeders, such as myself...

[Rhasputin]

I'm pretty sure petsmarts on the east coast all get their animals from rainbow exotics. As do the petcos I have been to (at least 5 in virginia where i live, several in MD, NC, NY, CT, and PA). And rainbow exotics has a not too lovely track record.