Breeding Help

I currently have a breeding group of one male to four females. I have had them together for almost 2 months and I have gotten no babies or signs of pregnancys. The mice are big that I got from a PETCO. I was wondering if maybe these are now to old to breed. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions. I am to the point now were I am thinking about feeding them and starting over with a new...younger colony. :salute:

It is possible that your male is sterile or just not getting the job done for whatever reason. You could try a new male, or just try an entirely new group of mice. Two months is long enough you should have seen some pregnancies by now.

EDIT: I'll add that probably more than half of the founding members of my mouse colony came from PETCO. They don't seem to be a bad source. However, 2 of the very best females I have (big healthy litters) are 2 that I got at Petsmart. If you go to Petsmart, DON'T tell them you are buying to breed for snakes. They have a policy that they won't sell mice as feeders, and breeding for feeders is close enough that they probably wouldn't sell them to you.

Thank you for the advice. I am prob going to start over with a new colony. Hopefully then I will get some babies.

What are you feeding them? Do they have adequate space? Proper hydration? All of these can play an important role in breeding or the lack thereof.

If all is well, it's possible you might want to acquire a new breeding group.

We had the same problem from petco. We bought a what we thought was a breeding pair from petco but 2 months later nothing happened so we feed them to our bp. We found another pet store that sold mice and we found that we bought a very large healthy male that was full grown an a large healthly female and we have had 2 litters from them so for and our colony is getting big. So we found that we figured not to go with the small ones cause they could be to young so we switched and it worked. And also filling up half the tank with pine bedding as well. to make them feel like they can dig a den and mate and have babies that also helpped int he matting process.

pls help,, our mice cage set up is normal, with foods, exercise wheels, tubes, hides and plenty of water. the question is why after 4 months one of our 4 females only laid once? and the other 3 never gave birth? thanks i have a 2:4 ratio in a 20 gal

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Originally Posted by Racerh

pls help,, our mice cage set up is normal, with foods, exercise wheels, tubes, hides and plenty of water. the question is why after 4 months one of our 4 females only laid once? and the other 3 never gave birth? thanks i have a 2:4 ratio in a 20 gal

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I would remove 1 of the males.

I would feed of the male and place another ADULT male in there.

thanks to your replies but i think i cant do that. those mice seem to have bonded with us. LOL the moment we bought them we told ourselves(me and my gf) that they are only for breeding an their kids will be the feeders. any other suggestions like larger cage, change in diet etc? thanks again

There are two people now needing help with this subject. For the OP I would say replace your male and try again. If you bought the mice when they were small they are probably not to old yet to breed.

For RACERH, I would suggest you try splitting your group into a 1:2 ratio if you do not want to feed one of your original males off.