Still no name X 2

[rubbertoe]

Well, We've decided to not name the "babies" till we have them sexed. We tried to feed 2 times with frozen/thawed/warmed fuzzies. No interest at all. Went to pet-x monday and got a few smallish live mice just to try 'em out. I got the smallest ones they had and still thought they were too big. HA!!! Boy was I wrong!!! Those poor mice had NO chance. Squeezed and devoured in less than 2 minutes each. Even after they both ate they were searching the home for more. Would it have been okay to give them another? Or, do I just wait till next monday to feed again? Also about shedding, do I do anything different other than raise humidity, ie. feed, light, heat...
Thanx,
any one else raise mice or rats for snake-chow. I've got 2 fem and 2 male to start my herd with and was wondering gestation length and growth time.

SLAYER,
Robert G. Smith

[frankykeno]

Congrats on the successful feeding!

We just started trying to breed mice for snake food. Lost the first small litter but apparently that's not uncommon the first time out. We have one male and three females. One who is obviously preggie and the other two better be soon or Mr. Male mouse will be on short timers with me.

I believe their gestation is 21-23 days. The females look like they swallowed a golfball right before they give birth. The babies are weaned at around 4 weeks I believe it is and are seperated by sex around 5 weeks or the lil buggers will start in on each other. I expect to be feeding mine out at about 6 to 8 weeks old depending on how well they are growing and how big my snakes need them to be.

I think it's one male per cage as they will fight.

As I said we are new to mouse breeding so hopefully someone more experienced will chime in.


~~Jo~~

[Jeanne]

Gestation is approx. 21-27 days, but I have seen a few fall short or even extend it a bit. You want one male to a cage, males will fight. Females can get pregnant right away after giving birth, so you want o separate your male before females give birth, otherwise, you end up with a pregnant mouse who will wean her babies very early cause she knows she has more on the way. And really, you want to wait till they wean the current litter before letting them get pregnant again, over breeding does kill them off. Males can go thier whole life breeding. So one good male who consistantly produces is a really good guy to keep around. Recently, I had my breeder male mouse finally die, I used him for over 3 years. In fact, when I quit breeding, I fed off all the mice I had, but him, cause he was not even a domestic mouse, he was a brown field mouse I found in a shipment as a youngin at a petshop I worked at.. he was friendly and very sweet, turned out to be more of a pet with benefits.