Just built my mouse breeding setup.

I just built 4 tubs out of 14 gallon tubs from walmart. They are rubbermaid brand, and very heavy duty. I love them and I used all of the help I learned from everyone here on these forums. Thanks guys!

I have a couple questions though.... I have 4 tubs, so how exactly do I seperate the mic? Of course cage #1 has the 1-3 males and 3-9 females....

I was planning on doing the following

Cage #1 - 3 males, 9 females (I should leave the babies in this cage with the mother right? Should I take the males out after the female gives birth or will they be fine in the same tub?)

Cage #2 - I will put all of the babies in here after they turn 3 weeks old.

Cage #3 - Males 4 weeks and older

Cage #4 - Females 4 weeks and older

ALSO - what is the cheapest kind of bedding I can use?

14 gallons is not enough for 13 adult mice. I would also only use one male. Try 2 breeding groups of 1.5 at most. It may be different for you but I found that 1.2-1.3's work best. Hope this helps.

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Originally Posted by theturtlepond

14 gallons is not enough for 13 adult mice. I would also only use one male. Try 2 breeding groups of 1.5 at most. It may be different for you but I found that 1.2-1.3's work best. Hope this helps.

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so in 2 of my tubs, put 1 male with 3 females

then in my other two tubs, i can just use those to seperate sexes?

Could you provide pictures of these enclosures? I have a 56qt tub which is equivalent to your 14g tubs, though I'd want to see how much floor space they have. I have a 1.6 group in my 56qt tub and they do well in it.

There is no need for multiple males in a group like that. If anything, they might kill each other.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

Could you provide pictures of these enclosures? I have a 56qt tub which is equivalent to your 14g tubs, though I'd want to see how much floor space they have. I have a 1.6 group in my 56qt tub and they do well in it.

There is no need for multiple males in a group like that. If anything, they might kill each other.

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yeah I will take pictures right now, and try to get them up a little later. My girlfriend knows how to get them on my PC. I am kinda bad at figuring that stuff out lol.

I will have the pictures up sometime in the next few hours most likely.

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Originally Posted by PurplePython

Cage #1 - 3 males, 9 females (I should leave the babies in this cage with the mother right? Should I take the males out after the female gives birth or will they be fine in the same tub?)

Cage #2 - I will put all of the babies in here after they turn 3 weeks old.

Cage #3 - Males 4 weeks and older

Cage #4 - Females 4 weeks and older

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With mice, you should not take out any mice that you would want to put back in with the group at a later time. They are more likely to attack and kill any mice that are added to the group. Set them up and leave them alone. Leave the breeders together at all times and only take out the babies that will be used for food.

I only use three cages. Two are breeders and one is a grow out tub. If you produce a lot of babies you may need more grow out tubs but if the babies will be food anyway I just don't see the point in seperating the boys from the girls. I don't see what difference it makes if the females are pregnant when being fed off unless it makes the mouse too big to feed. Of course I could be wrong and over looking something, it wouldn't be the first time. :P But this method has worked extremely well for me.

I can easily pull a male from a group of females and reintroduce him later. However, I do not pull females from the group and reintroduce later or introduce new females to a group with a male. Females get territorial.

I like to separate mine just because the way I see it, if they are not focused on breeding, they will focus more on eating. Maybe it doesn't matter, but that is just how I like to do things.

so if i put a male in with 3 females, will he get all 3 pregnant? or will he stop porking them after he gets 1 preganant?

The male will breed as many females as there are.

And Jay - that's the great thing. We can give him many different ways and options of doing things and he - like we did - can find what works best for him. :)

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Originally Posted by Jt.

The male will breed as many females as there are.

And Jay - that's the great thing. We can give him many different ways and options of doing things and he - like we did - can find what works best for him. :)

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nicce!!

so I will just assume that having 1 breeding tank of 1 male and 3 females will be more than enough. I only have 1 ball python at the moment lol.... I also plan on using some of the babies to feed my tarantula occasionally.

if I have 1 tub with 1 male and 3 females, how many mice do you think I should expect to get every month or so?

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Originally Posted by Jt.

The male will breed as many females as there are.

And Jay - that's the great thing. We can give him many different ways and options of doing things and he - like we did - can find what works best for him. :)

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Exactly! :D

And Purple, if you keep the male in 24/7, you can usually expect a litter from each female every 3 weeks. On occasion, they won't get pregnant right after giving birth and will breed after their litter is weaned and you have to wait an additional 3 weeks for that female. A mouse can have many many babies, but if you go by 10 babies per female, then every 3 weeks, you should get 30-ish babies.

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

Exactly! :D

And Purple, if you keep the male in 24/7, you can usually expect a litter from each female every 3 weeks. On occasion, they won't get pregnant right after giving birth and will breed after their litter is weaned and you have to wait an additional 3 weeks for that female. A mouse can have many many babies, but if you go by 10 babies per female, then every 3 weeks, you should get 30-ish babies.

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dang thats a lot.... lol

that makes me very excited.

I am only going to need like 7 mice a month though.... So it looks like I am going to have to sell the extras :banana:

a little extra cash never hurts nowadays

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Originally Posted by Jay_Bunny

And Purple, if you keep the male in 24/7, you can usually expect a litter from each female every 3 weeks. On occasion, they won't get pregnant right after giving birth and will breed after their litter is weaned and you have to wait an additional 3 weeks for that female. A mouse can have many many babies, but if you go by 10 babies per female, then every 3 weeks, you should get 30-ish babies.

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In theory this is true, but in reality, at least in my experience, you won't end up with that many babies. Some times females won't get pregnant on schedule. Some litters will be small, especially at first, until you've had a few generations to selectively breed for better breeders. Some babies just won't thrive. Some litters may get eaten, again especially at first.

I recently read a post from someone that if I remember correctly, they were running 100 female mice, and producing 500 mice/month. That's only 5 babies per female each month. I can probably find the post if you are interested in seeing it.