PEW Rats and Mice

[amon]

Dear all,

I've had my rats and mice colonies for 6 months now. Both rats and mices were all PEW's that I got from another local breeder and some mices from reptile shops which were intended for feeders. In the beginning, there were all kinds of problems with them: mice dying from megacollon, rats and mice eating pinks and letting pinks die... I thought one of the problem may be they are not that healthy to start with. So I found another shop that carries black, brown, and "cow" mice and mix them with the PEW, 2 out of 5 new colonies are producing now, whereas my old all PEW colonies are still getting nothing.

But I read that PEW's are specially bred for producing more pinks and easy breeders. How come I'm experiencing the opposit??

As for the 2 PEW rats colonies, before I moved them into the rack, they were in 2 big boxes and had 3-4 litters. But they ate them all. So I moved each mom into her own tub in the rack and move the 2 males around to try to breed them. Since I moved them 2 and 1/2 months ago, ONLY ONE MOM gave birth to 5 pinks, on the 31st day after the move, one died and she raised up the other 4. The others wouldn't breed, could that be because:

1. They don't like being alone?
2. The tubs are only 6 inches tall, would that be too short for the male to be comfortably mount the female?


What are your experience with PEW rats? I cannot get other rats here. So I'm thinking should I move them back to the tall boxes? And should I get other breeders to try? I can get new young rats to breed, but the shop need me to buy at least 20, so I want to make sure before I go ahead.

Thanks very much for any input.

[Gloryhound]

OK! What is a PEW rat?

We just got our first colony started from pet store feeder rats with a couple fancies thrown in to change up the gene pool. So far one of our rats have given birth and 11 days later all 9 are still healthy. We have another in with her ready to pop and after the first week they have started to share the load of the existing kids and hopefully they continue when the new ones come in also. Both moms in this coming batch are basic white feeders, but the dad is a fancy.

We are not planning a full colony of mice but we do have one female that gave birth to 5 lovely girls. We are raising them up and since mom was so good we plan on using this group to breed to occasionally have mice for feeders. These are also run of the mill pet store feeders. The dad was as well.

[Corrupter]

Iam not familiar with "PEW" either, but I have a few groups of rats that I just started breeding. So far I have had 2 litters. A pair of "fancy" rats produced 10 and ate them all 2 days later. For the second litter, a "lab rat" is now the mommy of 17 babies. She had 18, but 1 was stillborn. Not bad for her first litter! She is nursing them all, but some arent getting as much as others it seems. The father was also white, purchased as a feeder originally but outgrew my snakes before it was his turn to go... I dont know if that helps or not but it is the best I can do.

[amon]

PEW = Pink Eye Whites

I just can't seem to have good results with my first generation. Hopefully the few alive pups can grow up healthy to be my second generation, and hope they do much better.

[amon]

Iam not familiar with "PEW" either, but I have a few groups of rats that I just started breeding. So far I have had 2 litters. A pair of "fancy" rats produced 10 and ate them all 2 days later. For the second litter, a "lab rat" is now the mommy of 17 babies. She had 18, but 1 was stillborn. Not bad for her first litter! She is nursing them all, but some arent getting as much as others it seems. The father was also white, purchased as a feeder originally but outgrew my snakes before it was his turn to go... I dont know if that helps or not but it is the best I can do.

Your "lab rat" should be the same as my PEW, they were specially bred to use in labs (so I heard) and they're supposed to be better breeders than fancy, healthier and with bigger litters. So your situation sounds right according to what I've read.

Unfortunitely my situation is just the OPPOSITE!!!

[littleindiangirl]

Your "lab rat" should be the same as my PEW, they were specially bred to use in labs (so I heard) and they're supposed to be better breeders than fancy, healthier and with bigger litters. So your situation sounds right according to what I've read.

Unfortunitely my situation is just the OPPOSITE!!!

First, PEW is just an albino. Unless you got it from a lab, labeled as a certain strain of mice... their aint nothing special about it unless you take your time over the generations to make sure you hold back the best breeders, and the best mothers.

Don't automatically assume that the feeder you got from a pet store is going to be a good breeder because it's PEW. I think that may be where your disappointment is coming from.

Remember a PEW still could be a black, brown, yellow or brindle mouse. The only exception is that the albino gene stops the production of any pigment in the body, it doesn't stop any of the bad effects from any genes related to a certain color. The genes for megacolon or diabetes or morbid obesity are still there, just you can't see the related colors to those genes because of the effect of the albino gene.

The labs still had to selectively breed for the best PEW's, just like you will.

I say, do some hard selective breeding for hold backs, and within in a few generations, you should see a marked improvement. If you were able to, I would feed off all of the non-producing PEW, and stick with the best mice breeders and mothers from the colored group.

[frankykeno]

I think the problem is likely not related to any particular coat or eye color but more likely to be just poor stock. Feeder rodent bins tend to be the worst place to get breeder foundation stock from as they are often very overcrowded, dirty, etc. with rats/mice fighting for every bit of food and water they can get. When I buy from pet stores (haven't in years) I usually pay the extra and get small rats seperated by gender and intended for pets. They aren't always much better but tend to be better than the feeder bin offerings.

I know back when I started breeding rats I had a lot more die offs, poor litters, etc. Once I was established and raising up my own future breeders and controlling who was breeding to who, it pretty much stopped. Sure you get the occasional one drop over dead or get a tumor but nothing like it was at first.

I always recommend if possible for folks to start a rat colony from just weaned rats bought from someone with a good feeder/breeder home colony. You tend to get a much healthier animal that will go on to breed healthy feeders and future breeders for you.

[amon]

Hm..Hmmmm...I feel much better now. Thanks for the advice.

I'm very much convinced that rodents in the feeder bin would not be good breeders, unfortunately pet shops here don't have pet rats nor mice. So I can only try the numbers game. Hopefully in time I can get enough good offspring from them.

I think the few colored mice from that one shop would be the best bet for my future mice.

I guess I'll have to order the new 20 rats to start all over, hopefully in a couple years when I need those big rats as feeders they will be breeding OK!!

[littleindiangirl]

Hm..Hmmmm...I feel much better now. Thanks for the advice.

I'm very much convinced that rodents in the feeder bin would not be good breeders, unfortunately pet shops here don't have pet rats nor mice. So I can only try the numbers game. Hopefully in time I can get enough good offspring from them.

I think the few colored mice from that one shop would be the best bet for my future mice.

I guess I'll have to order the new 20 rats to start all over, hopefully in a couple years when I need those big rats as feeders they will be breeding OK!!

Where do you live, perhaps there are some members around that would be able to help you out?

I also must mention, I bought two of my first females from a large chain store, and they turned out to be my biggest and best moms. Just be picky, and I think things will turn out much better.

[amon]

Where do you live, perhaps there are some members around that would be able to help you out?

I also must mention, I bought two of my first females from a large chain store, and they turned out to be my biggest and best moms. Just be picky, and I think things will turn out much better.

OH.... how I wish I was living in the States, then I'd be much happier with my herp hobby.

Unfortunitely I'm in China and there's not much choice on rats unless I go out and catch them or something!!!... just kidding.