I got some mice

Hello everyone. I went to the Taylor, MI reptile show today and got to see lots of cool reptiles. The only BP morph i got to see was a pastel and she was georgous! I also bought some mice as they were $0.60 instead of the pet stores 1.90 each so i got 10. Now my 2 BPs cant eat 10 mice in one sitting so I set up a cage using a small sterilite container. I had bought a bag of these thick log like food pieces from the same breeder. I got a waterbottle from a petstore that has the spring in the ball. I cant tell if the mice can get water from it. Anyone have any experience with these water bottles? It has a picture of a mouse on it, but i know that marketing for small "pets" is usually grossly misleading. What else should i feed them or is the compressed log like food enough for them. Thanks for all your help!

Jared

That's lab block and the base food I feed my rats. I'm assuming it's okay for mice as well though anytime I've fed it to mice I've busted it up a bit as it seems so large for them to manage. I mix in a ton of other stuff that is appropriate for rats just to give them a varied diet and cause I like messing about with that sort of stuff LOL. Daniel has done a fair bit of successful mouse breeding so hopefully he can comment on appropriate diets for feeder mice (I tried mouse breeding and totally sucked at it!)

As far as I know those bottles are just fine for mice and the only real way to supply water cleanly as they will mess in any open sort of water bowl thing. You might want to melt a hole in the plastic and have the bottle on the outside with the spigot leading inside so they don't chew a hole in your bottle. Just make sure it's a tight fit as they love to enlarge holes LOL. Once you set the bottle up and fill it just tap the ball and makes sure a drop of water flows out and you are good to go.


~~Jo~~

Well, i had typed out a long reply, but got some kind of page not found error so im kinda bummed. THanks for the reply Jo, Im one step ahead of you. Using my 10.8v cordless Dremel i cut ventilation holes and a hole for the water bottle in about 5 minutes. I use a few rubber bands on the bottle to stop it from falling through. My concern is that the spring loaded spout might be too difficult for the mice to get water through. Currently 4 of the 6 mice are huddled around the spout attempting to get water. I dont want to kill them cause the waterbottle is too leakproof.

JT

Keeping them in that sterilite with holes in the side will just ensure that they will chew out while you are asleep and chew holes in your socks(or just escape).

I would get another sterilite container and drill just one hole big enough for the water bottle spigot to fit through. Then, using a box cutter(if the lid is thin enough), cut out the majority of the middle of the lid, leaving just the rim to secure it to the tub itself, and replace that with wire mesh. You can either use a staple gun to secure it or use nylon cable ties(Make good use of that Dremel).

Don't worry about the water bottle. The spring-balled ones are the best as they don't leak. Maybe push the ball a few times to make sure it isn't stuck. Sometimes the inside pressure is a little much and won't allow the ball to be moved by teensie meeces.

The lab blocks are a good diet for mice. You can give them a little dog food for extra protein, they do well on it. If you want to give them a treat every now and then, cut an apple into quarters and drop it in. Makes for healthy meeces. :)

mice like a variety of things... but cheese is not one of them LOL (sorry couldn't resist) you can give them cereal (dry), crackers, goldfish crackers are a big hit as well, cooked pasta, cooked rice... dog biscuits, to name just a few of the things they enjoy.

if they are having a hard time figuring out the spout it made to get water from... putting a little tiny bit of peanut butter on the end of the spout will get them licking it off and voila, they are getting water!

i always use water bottles for my mice, bred hundreds of them a few years ago for an owl/birdsofprey rescue center... they do great.

also, you can go to a feed store and get powdered electrolytes and vitamins - adding a small amount to their water assists with keeping them healthy :)

hth,
aleesha

Thanks for the replies and advice everyone!:D

SatanicIntention I will keep an eye on those holes. I drilled them quite near the top and the holes are drilled pretty tiny. If i notice any chewing (which I probably will....) Ill take your advice and construct a new cage.

Im not sure how much space they need. I snapped a couple pics to get a better idea of what I've got.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...n/IMAG0005.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...n/IMAG0006.jpg

I wanted to ask you all if you think this is big enough. If it is big enough could i keep more mice in it? Since I will probably have to replace this soon does anyone have a recomendation for what size tub to get to keep roughy 15 mice in. My plan is to buy enough mice for the month at the reptile show. Possibly take a stab at breeding since ill have to take care of loads of mice all the time anyway.

JT

whew, i've been searching for this site since i last replied to you and i finally found it.

http://www.horns.freeserve.co.uk/mouse.htm

really informative site. when i was breeding all those mice... this is what helped me the most (other than joining some mice groups but make sure you don't discuss snakes and their food in the groups as it's not considered politically correct - most of the members are "mice as pet" owners!)

regardless, if you click on the feeding link you'll get some ideas for food.

as for housing. mice are best kept in smaller groupings. they don't often breed well in larger groups as their natural instincts of 'not enough food' kicks in. so one male to two female is the best set up and, if possible... having one or two males you move from cage to cage so the male is not present when the female gives birth is best. that way the female won't get pregnant again within minutes of giving birth. it's not healthy for her at all. instead, wait at least a week after the babies are weaned before re-introducing the male again.

hth,
aleesha

I just wanted to mention that mice pee... and pee ALOT. Their urine is full of ammonia, and that combined with the pine bedding will do them in quite quickly in that container that has no ventilation.

Ever tried sticking your head in a 10gallon tank that hasn't been cleaned in a week and only has 2 male mice in it? I will never do it again, let me tell ya. *faint*

High humidity isn't good for rodents, it messes with their respiratory tracts(sneezing porphyrin all over the place). If you can, get a bigger tub(or a couple big tubs) and only drill one hole for the water bottle, and replace the lid with wire mesh. It will save you alot of trouble in the STANK department, LoL. They will do much better separated into smaller groups and put into bigger cages. You won't have to break up fights, feed/water them as often, and especially won't have to clean those cages as often. Nice huh? :)

becky,

you are soooooooooooooooooooooo right!!!

small problem with the mice today. Upon closer inspection I think there are 3 males and 3 females. I checked on them a few minutes ago and 2 males are bleeding from the rear leg area somewhere. Ive caught the brown male fighting earlier today so now ive seperated him. What should i do? Thanks for the help

JT

Males LOVE to kill each other. Feed off the extra males or they will just murder each other and you'll find little lumps of meat with a mousie tail sticking out of it. (personal experience unfortunately)

:bleh:

I feed off the one that was the most agressive. Now tonight the other 2 males are going at it a lot. They seem to be shorter scuffles and there is no blood yet. Do you think they will last until saturday?


JT

I wouldn't keep them together that long. You're asking for them to kill each other. Just put the second one in another cage if you have one.

how many sleeping areas do you have? that tends to reduce aggression if you add some... also add more food dishes... that helps as well.

i would sep. them if at all possible.

You were asking about housing. Well if you can find a used 10 gallon fish tank, this did great for me. Just be sure to wash is thoroughly with a bleach and water solution and rinse well before putting the mice in. The glass won't absorb the amonia from the urine the way a plastic tub will.

I actually have a 10G aquarium. I like the small tub because its easily moved around and cleaning it was a snap. Pop off the lid and dump in trash (move the mice first of course). wipe out with disinfecting disposable wipe, let dry and add bedding. I want it easy like a tub but not as heavy and akward as a glass tank. I think I need a little bigger tub though. These guys seem a little cramped. I read on some sites that 3-4 mice in a 10g is the max, but others say 6-10 is good. Either way theres 5 mice and I'd be lucky if this tub has half the floor space of a 10G.

Next time I get feeders I think i will try to get all females or maybe build a 2nd tub and keep males and females seperate. But then im thinking to give breeding a try. Aside from the fighting I find them quite interesting little critters. But I need to figure out how many and how big of enclosures I'll need for number of breeders that would produce enough for 3 piggy BPs.

JT

*snort* I have 15 females in various stages of growth in a 10 gallon... Whoopsie. They all get along fine and they stink much less than my two males who are in a lab cage about the size of a 10g long(shorter, longer 10g).

Did I mention I hate boy mice? Stinky little turds.

You know Becky I cannot figure that one out! Why in the world does a tiny little male mouse stink that bad? I've had one male mouse that could stink out the whole laundry room in one day more than all my rats together (including a big male breeder rat). They all get good husbandry and clean cages so why in the world does that one male mouse stink so much worse?


~~Jo~~

On the topic of mice wut size mice do hatchlings eat? (hoppers, adult mice). I get all my mice for my other snakes a my pet store frozen and they have all kinds of mice as in age.

jo, i've found the opposite. my male rats... oh man did they stink! i would clean their huge enclosure 4x2x2 and within 10 minutes it would stink again as they went around spraying on everything...

perhaps it was simply the two males i had???

LoL, I think so. I have 6 males, and they don't stink anymore than my 11 girls. Maybe I just can't smell anymore... I just use aspen bedding(as I can't stand pine or any of the other unsuitable beddings) and haven't had any problems with the smell. I clean out the big girls' cage(it's a 3x2x4 custom melamine cage) maybe once a month. Sneezy's gets cleaned once a week or so as there is only one of his cute self. I have 3 boys(2 big and 1 teensy) in a big tub converted into a temp cage, and it gets cleaned once per week as well. I have 2 other HUGE boys in a SuperPet Chinchilla cage and it gets cleaned maybe every 2 weeks depending on the stankiness of it, LoL.

Now I have 3 mice and their babies in the bathroom, and after about 4 days they STINK! Did I mention I hate mice... *grumble* Female mice don't really smell much if you clean them out regularly. Mine are kept on aspen like the rats are, and I just clean everyone out once a week. Stupid boy mice...

Hmm wierd about the male rats. Back when I kept two males just as pets they really didn't smell at all that I can remember. Now I just have the one big male with his 5 females cycling in and out of his main cage and he doesn't have an odor (probably too freaking exhausted to care about spraying anything....he does seem to need a lot of power naps however LOL).


~~Jo~~