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I was thinking about breeding mice. And I know this subject is beat to death and then some. But as far as mice smelling is it only the males that smell or is it females also. I read somewhere that the males spray all over and stink up the cage.
If I did breed mice then then i would wait till the the females around 4 of them are pregnant and then feed the male off.
Just shootin in the dark.
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Pinky mice don't stink. Fuzzy mice, not so stinky. Hopper mice and up, stinky stinky stinky. Have fun with it. :)
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I think i will try rats instead. LOL How are rats.
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Marla's right, although I do think males are stinkier.
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Duct Tape and Healing
Nowhere near as stinky at ALL - I have 4 jumbo adults in a breeding colony (fancy name for laftover feeders isn't it?) and despite the fact that they p00p at a positively MINDBENDING rate they don't smell too bad at all.
And they don't need the noisy squeaky wheels to run in either :P
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Also, it'd be hard to maintain much of a breeding colony if you kept feeding off your males! LOL
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Actually it's just the pups for our finickiest of finicky eaters KaliMa - she is so spoiled. But the last litter disappeared on its own :(
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Agreed, rats are not nearly so stinky as mice, and if you handle them with any frequency they're also more pleasant to be around (for cage cleaning, baby retrieval, etc.).
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yup rats are less stinky and way smarter - I've heard that you don't run as big a risk of the eating of the young with rats but I don't know much about the whole thing other than if it were me- I'd definately breed rats before I'd EVER breed mice - there is a big smell issue and I have issues with bad smells. haha :)
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I had my own rattery for quite a few years.. rats are not so bad, they are easy to care for, way less stinky than mice, and as far as them eating thier babies... I never had alot of problems with it... every once in awhile you get a rogue female who is into eating babies, you just feed her off, males will eat babies that are not thiers- not sure how they know which babies are not theirs, but they seem to know. And if you do handle them enough, makes baby retrieval easier... I currently have a few dumbo eared rats for pets and some standards for breeders, I fed off all my mice- they STINK...
Also- after a female is over 9 months old, if she has not been bred before- I dont suggest it cause then they can die trying to birth.
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Everyone is dead-right with the smell issue. I have had mice, and there's always that horrible scent they give off. But my current breeder rats are not that bad at all. Once a week, I do a full cage cleanout/bleaching (except when the female has babies, then I just clean out everything but the nest, and do not bleach.) I have three 10-g tanks; one female in each, and one extra for the male when he is not breeding. I leave him in with each female for a few days, and they mate.
Just make sure that for rats, your cages are securely lidded. And if you use a wire cage, make sure the wires are not so wide apart that a baby could squeeze out.
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