MICE

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.

Pinky mice don't stink. Fuzzy mice, not so stinky. Hopper mice and up, stinky stinky stinky. Have fun with it. :)

I think i will try rats instead. LOL How are rats.

Marla's right, although I do think males are stinkier.

Rats are not as stinky.

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

Also, it'd be hard to maintain much of a breeding colony if you kept feeding off your males! LOL

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 :(

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.).

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 :)

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.

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.