Marking Mice

Would it be okay for me to put a drop of pink food coloring on my females backs and blue on the males to help me to keep them straight.

Just wanted to be sure that the food coloring wouldn't hurt them.

I still can't tell just be looking what is male or female - I just can't see the difference - its very frustrating.

The food coloring shouldn't hurt them but they'll just groom it right off. I went there with rats. Never did find any method of marking them other than ear notching. I know they make tags, but you'd have to remove those if you fed the animal off later on.

I use nail polish on the base of the tail, or on the ear. Colored
For different groups. Doesn't hurt them.


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I used to tattoo on the tail to keep track of lines.

No worries, you'll get the hang of it eventually.

Nail polish - yes that does sound like a good idea - something they cant lick off. But would that be dangerous for my snakes if they were to get fed off??

I currently have a litter of 4 week old babies and I can't for the life of me determine who are males or females - so they are being housed together right now but that will mean more breeding right?? I just can't see any difference when I look at their butts. lol

In the event that I have an overrun - can a pregnant female be fed off - or would that just be wrong.

I dint put it on my feeders. But sexing them is pretty easy. Females have the holes closer together. Males a bit further down and you can see balls pretty easily. You might just want to get a different bin and put whomever in there who's feeders. It's not bad to feed off a preggo female. If anything it's more nutrition.


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How many times can one female be bred??

To determine if a little rat is a boy or girl, hold them between you thumb and fingers (thumb on the belly) with their rear facing you and give a gentle squeeze. If it's a boy, you'll see them bulge out. After a while, it becomes pretty easy to tell just by looking.

When you pick up a mouse... assuming its head is at top. You can with two fingers push slightly on the stomach. If its a male the testicles should show/drop. If its a female there wont be nothing to show. Thats when you put them in seperate tubes.

Can't you also check for nipples?

The only time I used nail polish it didn't stay on, but I used doggie nail polish.

Human polish is fine. It stays on for a few weeks and then slowly starts to fade away. I put just a small dot on some of the girls that look exactly alike depending on Who's given birth the most recent. I like to give the girls a little break. I have like 5 Siamese girls though that I can't tell apart. I use is to mark my beardy babies too. Never had any issues comes right off with a shed.



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Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

Can't you also check for nipples?

The only time I used nail polish it didn't stay on, but I used doggie nail polish.

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Yes you can... thats when you need to check often between a pinky and fuzzie. It will take a twice a day examine with the baby.

I've got 13 baby rats for my BP. When they are young about the same time the fur comes on then look. I'm new to the game but was able to distiguish male from female. When that first coat comes on look at the tummy. Seriously.. with that peach fuzz you will see nipples running along the right/left side of the baby. If you can see no obivous nipples that young chances are its a boy.

You really should learn to tell the difference.

But if you can't, just take a small pair of scissors, and cut off the top 1/3 of one ear on all your males. Then you'll permanently know the difference, and the mice hardly notice you doing it at all.