Breeding 100+ a week

[Jeremy78]

No it wasn't me with the video.

Be very careful with the kitty litter. Sometimes the urine from mice can mix with the kitty litter and cause it to clump around there legs. If you have a rack set up and don't check your mice every day it could mean death to your breeders. Also the dust in kitty litter is bad to. Can cause respitory problems.

Running a full time tub of 1.2 is the same as 5 females or how ever many crammed in together. I find that I will start the females together young (around 3-4 weeks) and introduce the male at about 5-6 weeks then wait for babies. I have never not had the moms have a communal pile of babies.

Time off between litters for feeders is not needed. I average about 10-13 babies every three weeks until there about 10 months to a year. Then there fed off and new moms are introduced. Do the math. I'm getting about 40 babies in 4 months. With a 20 pink litter at 2-3 weeks off I'm still doing as good as you.

No offense ice, just seems like you're method is where I ran into problems before.

P.s. You say you don't use communal water systems. Does that mean that each bottle of water for your mice is filled from a different source? Wow now that's a lotta work. I only have bottled water and tap water so 50/50 for my mice dieing... If it is from the same source, then why not use watering system?

P.s.s. I read a paper online about ethics in mice breeding for lab mice. I'll see if I can find it again but it clearly states that overcrowding is a HUGE no-no.

[Jeremy78]

Ah, I new I'd find it.

Source: http://vetmed.duhs.duke.edu/document...quirements.pdf

Read the last item on page 2. And read page 3-5. Even your lab hypothesis falls through...

[tomfromtheshade]

You're right. I don't sterilize my tubs when I clean them. I dump out the old and put in new bedding. That's it. I haven't ever had any illness in my colony.

I think that sometimes people get out of control with the sterilizing stuff. I go to my uncle's farm and he must have over 1,000 mice living in a tunnel system in a heap of manure. These mice are born, live, and die in a pile of feces weighing several thousand pounds.

The main thing that I have found to be important is keeping the ammonia down. If you have urine soaked bedding coupled with a little heat and some humidity you have a BAD situation for rats. All that ammonia causes respiratory damage.

If there is a turd or two left in the container when I put the new bedding in I'm not sweating it.

If you sterilize everything and it works for you I say stick to it. I don't sterilize anything but the drinking system every once in a while and I'm not even sure that THAT is necessary.

To each their own LOL.

[suzuki4life]

posts like these are why I am reluctant to give info anymore...

tired of the fighting.

[tomfromtheshade]

+1 Suzuki

[suzuki4life]

back in the day before we used racks and 10 gallon tanks were "it", this is how we did it.

We ran 1.8 in a 10 gallon and made mini birthing tubs with washing basins and a mesh top.

I ran .2 in a wash tub.

[Michelle.C]

It seems like everyone has covered/corrected most of the misinformation, but I would like to add a very special precaution to using kitty litter in any part of the cage (and leaving it there). It's toxic and will cause Respiratory Distress to any animal that exposed to it for a prolonged period.

I remember when the hobbyist were using it just for litter pans. The rats would also eat it (as well as inhaling it) and cause problems that way. It's altogether unhealthy for the animals. I wouldn't recommend using cat litter.

As for illness caused by not sterilizing the tubs, even as a hobbyist rather than a feeder breeder, I'd say that's probably not going to happen unless you had the disease/illness in your colony already. With the way feeder/breeders usually keep their rodents, it stays decently clean. Disease is not going to be created unless it was there from the start or you bring new blood in. And to be quite honest, most feeder breeders I know REFUSE to bring new blood in once they have a healthy line, because of disease or illness.

[Jeremy78]

Thanks Crissy. I am one who never brings in new blood lol.

[tomfromtheshade]

You have to bring in new blood every once in a while, but you have to have to have to pick the right breeder to get new stock from.

It sounds ridiculous, but I breed my animals with specific goals in mind and I have about two or three people that I trust to get new animals from.

Besides illness and disease, one bad male can set your colony back genetically pretty quickly.

[suzuki4life]

I started with 6 strains from different areas. My stuff started as all whites. I have a few with wheat marking but my premium lines are solid black. I stand by the idea that the perfect genetics somehow are hidden in that morph.