the mouse cycle

[ADEE]

when breeding mice, how much do you make sure they weigh before breeding? do you keep males in with females? how old before you start breeding them? I have read as young as 4wks to start breeding but that seems so young to me. I know we only have one snake right now but I also know we have two mice and I would hate to feed off a preggy mouse, even though I dont particularly care for mice... one for sure is a male (can see little bits) they are pretty young though as far as i know... ill have to weight them this afternoon.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I usually wait until they reach 10/12 weeks, I keep two females per tubs (I have 6 tubs) and the 2 males rotates between 3 tubs each.

I generally average 12 to 18 babies per litters.

My breeders retire after 5 litters.

[CntrlF8]

10-12 weeks seems to be the general concensus, and there's no way to tell by weight if they're ready or not. I'm currently doing 1.3 per tub (35qt sterilite tubs) and am harem breeding instead of rotating. It works quite well for me, and I too will be retiring my females after 4-5 litters.

[ADEE]

thank you for the input. right now i do know its not nessesary to breed for just cameron but at least I know what everyone is doing here. I also have a place for those "Fancy" mice to go, we do have one auguti colored one and the other is more like a cow print (cant think of something in rat pattern to describe it as) they didnt have many "bew" mice there... It is just a pain to have to take the boys into the pet store to get mice every 5 days.. cause the kids think they are getting a new pet everytime so it made more sense to get three or four at a time

[Jay_Bunny]

when breeding mice, how much do you make sure they weigh before breeding? do you keep males in with females? how old before you start breeding them? I have read as young as 4wks to start breeding but that seems so young to me. I know we only have one snake right now but I also know we have two mice and I would hate to feed off a preggy mouse, even though I dont particularly care for mice... one for sure is a male (can see little bits) they are pretty young though as far as i know... ill have to weight them this afternoon.

I just started breeding my own feeders. At the moment we have two breeders, one male one female and the male has attempted to mate with the female. They are well over the minimum age for breeding as they were fully grown adults when I bought them. They can begin to breed as young as 4 weeks, but they are not sexually mature until 8 weeks. Some breeders recommend waiting until females are at least 12 weeks old before breeding. I will keep males in with the females during the entire process including birth and raising. I have heard this is best because trying to re-introduce the male to the females could result in the male being killed. We only just started breeding and we have 6 snakes.

[littleindiangirl]

I also have a place for those "Fancy" mice to go, we do have one auguti colored one and the other is more like a cow print (cant think of something in rat pattern to describe it as) they didnt have many "bew" mice there...

Uh oh! Better not let the hubby get attached to the perdy mice as well! You may have to start feeding your snakes snausages pretty soon!

[ADEE]

lol.. hes a pain in the butt "why did you have to get cute ones" lol.. "im not feeding those!" needless to say, it was I who fed Cameron last night, poor girl would starve otherwise.....and ahem, no we are NOT keeping mice as pets!


wait is there another way for them to eat?! I would much rather fed them sausages lol