Breeding 100+ a week

[Michelle.C]

I think it's important to bring in new blood, but some breeders I know start out with 3-4 lines and don't bring in any after that, for a very long time anyway. Especially with Kilham, SDA and Sendai, etc. I've seen (heard of) Sendai (SV) and SDA wipe out several colonies. It's scary stuff.

In Rats or Mice, I breed for the genetics; disposition first and then whatever goal I'm trying to reach as far as looks. I currently have 5 different lines of Mice (3 show, 2 lines I picked up from feeder breeders with good genetics). With the Rats I have 9 different lines. I likely won't have to add any lines for a while, which is good because it always makes me nervous adding new rodents to my colony that I know is healthy and disease free. Even when you follow quarantine, treat for parasites, etc. You have the problem of indeed having one bad male (or female) messing up your genetics.

The best solution is to do what suzuki did and start out with several strains so if one is diseased you aren't years into it and have it take you out then. It's better to lose the colony when you first start. Which is what I do when I get back into rodent breeding. I make all the connections to get a colony started again and then gather up all of the lines I want and quarantine them separately. After quarantine time is up for the first set, I won't add anymore lines until the my original breeders/pets have died.

[suzuki4life]

One thing I constantly read on here that amazes me is that people will intentionally buy sick looking animals and wonder why they fail.

The sad reality of this matter is that unless you are a vet, taking a sick animal home will not make it healthy. Even if you are a vet, they can't save all of the animals. I commend those who do rescues, but great breeding stock is never sourced from a bunch of rescues.

Research your sources. Buy from breeders who have healthy looking animals. Buy from people who guarantee their animals. Buy from people who, most importantly, KNOW THEIR ANIMALS!!!! The breeder should be able to tell you what traits they were breeding for, what characteristics they wanted to promote and where they feel they are in accomplishing their breeding goal. If someone can tell you all of this with confidence, they know their animals.

Your setup is important. Without a good base of breeding stock, you are destined to fail.

[RichsBallPythons]

Breeding mice is NOT COMPLICATED.

I have 24 breeding groups of 2.8 in small litter pans. This produced 500-600 mice a month on the slow side.


Set them up with food and water and leave them be. Mine breed non stop and i steadily supply stores in my local city.

[Beardedragon]

Jeremy78 wasn't it you you posted a vid of a big communal nest of babies more then 2 females worth of babies.

Aint cha glad I browse these forums still

YouTube - Mouse Barn

I did this for about a year, and did GREAT! Sure, maybe...just maybe... I might have been what *some* people would consider overcrowding... but dont loose too many nights of sleep crying over it. Never had many unexpected deaths, most died from me sticking them in my snakes cages, my success came from feeding any fighters off, and not keeping mean females who would eat babys or take too long to have any.

I did give them a sort of break period... I only had one male between 50 something females (Lucky stud, I know) and Id stick him in different tubs for a week at a time, so they all got pregnant, but not always right after they had babys.

Now... I do warn you... I lost all of my mice at the same time. Not due to dieing, but I was deep cleaning and stuck ALL of my mice in the big tub you see in the video ( You can only imagine...) and silly me tipped the tub. I was in a little trouble, but was starting with rats ( And those I believe in not overcrowding, rats need their space) So I caught most of them and froze them off, and that was the end of my mouse breeding days.

Most importantly, you just need a mighty mouse male. Most think any male will do the trick, and go with the "pretty" color male they either raise up or find at the pet store. Wrong. Put a bunch of males in with your females, the one's that you CATCH breeding ( This may take a little while, but with no life and a little luck you will succeed) Take him as your breeder, and if the big one fights with the other males, 90% of the time thats your male that will be the best breeder.

[ice#1]

Jeremy78 sorry thought it was your vid must of been you just posted it else where in the feeder section or something my bad. as for how labs do it yeah Peta has stepped in and made them change allot around since i use to go help my granddad 25 years ago at EIU

part i mean about communal drinking is lets say you put all this water in a bucket tub what ever is used to hold all the water for the colony and it only gets filled weekly there is a chance anything can happen to it. it could stagnate thus causing illnesses system wide. I'd rather fill 2 dozen water bottles daily then take a chance of loosing all my mice in one mishap. yes my water source could be tainted but i use reverse osmoses for my house hold so while others in town got to boil there water to drink it here and there i get a cup of water from my machine


suzuki4life I'm not really fighting just trying to say you can do it a different way not everybody has tons of money to throw around on mice cages, tubing, Drinking Valves connectors and all the other stuff needed which drinking valves alone for 100 cages is 295 bucks from the site that sells them listed in the sponsors section i think it is and 295 is just the valves not everything to do all the 100 cages i myself would rather spend the money for buying more snakes or building new racks for upcoming snakes i want then spend all my money on decking out a bunch of racks with 1.2 mice per tub when a 1.10 ration in a ten gallon tank work fine yeah if i had unlimited funds and supplied tons of people with mice then yeah I'd do it up but just for myself right now i got what i need.


as far as kitty liter i put not even a cups worth under an inch of aspen or kiln dried pine. (just enough to cover biggest part of the bottom of the tank) i don't use any of that stuff for multiple cats that has extra added chemicals in it(stuff i use looks like ground up rock basically) just the old fashion plain Jane kitty liter you know the stuff it is also used by allot of people to put on oil spills in there garage only reason i started using it is cause i went to a mouse forum and thats one of the things they recommended to help control oder and said which to stay away from and which was good to use for least harm done to them

Beardedragon i know what you mean i don't loose any sleep over people saying i overcrowd mine either. and yeah i do it kind of like you say pull fighters out feed them off.(if i don't feed them off the ones that seem more dominant get a set of females to them selfs) also know what you mean by your lucky mouse you use my main male has a total of 15 females he gets and he still could do more he is always ready for action he was the first male i bought when i got back into breeding my own mice put 5 females in with him and and he took turns with them all first day like he knew that was his job. and does so every time i move him to a different set of females. I've had other that go and try to fight with the females so i give them a warning if i catch the male fighting with the females a second time i thump him on his head and off to the freezer he goes.

but also no that aint the vid I'm thinking of the 1 I'm thinking of was a rubber-maid tote with like 10 or 15 adult mice in it the person who was in the vid kept there mice in tall totes


i myself when i bring in new stock how i do it is i keep my lines separated albinos only with albinos and such and keep track when i put a new male from lets say albino with new females from my oranges then next time down the road i'll put a male banded with the orange albino's i buy from reputable dealer when i want to add new vigor to the albino line. but if it has color i just move a new male from one of my 15 colors in with females from the one i want to add new vigor too