Help please

[Skilla6000]

Hello everyone I'm thinking about breeding mice.... Where I live rats have been banned for like 50 years or something... Feeding costs for me right now are about 160$ a month for 3 snakes... Why don't I feed them f/t rats? Well they will not take killed items. So I'm just asking is it worth it breeding them when I'm paying about 160$ a month and don't even have a 100% place I'm able to get them cause if places selling out... Not to mention it takes me 45 mins to get to the place then 45 mins back. So what would you guys do in a place like this? All feed back would be great... Thanks

[angllady2]

My goodness. Are you in the US? I am thinking not. You can keep a small mouse colony in not much room, but be prepared to do the maintenance. Depending on the size of your snakes, they could easily take two or three or more in a single feeding. If you feed weekly, you could be looking at between 6 and 12 mice per week. Now, in order to have that number of mice of proper size readily available, newborn mice will need a minimum of 3 to 4 weeks to reach proper size for feeding. So, in order to provide let's say 9 mice that are 3-4 weeks old every week, you will need a minimum of 5 groups producing steadily. I run a ratio of 1-4, one male to four females. Once established, a colony this size should keep you pretty well supplied. The trick is finding enough mice to start up the colony, and then waiting for the groups to start producing.

Once a group is going well, records must be kept as to age of the females and number of litters, so you know when to start holding back new babies to replace retired stock. I recommend buying from at least two different sources, three is better. This gives you enough genetic diversity to keep your colony going well for at least a year without needing new blood. It is critical to avoid excessive line breeding as this leads to health problems and deformities.

You must also be prepared for one important fact. Mice stink. Period. You can cut the smell by cleaning often, some mice are good about only soiling one corner of the tub, and that can be scooped daily or every other day, but the entire tub will need changed weekly at least or the smell will be unbearable. You must also have a source of rodent food, mice not only eat a lot for their size, they waste as much as they eat. A wire food hopper can help this, but it's a fact of life when breeding mice.

Hopefully this give you some things to think over.

Gale

[Skilla6000]

Thanks, I'm also planing to go to a few reptile expos and pick up more snakes but having to pay 1.75$ per mouse would cost me a fortune and I live in Alberta Canada and yes I know I've been buying 25 mice at a time to last me 2 weeks and the smell is terrible... Thanks for the info I'm going to look into it and maybe building a little shack outside... Thanks once again.

[Skilla6000]

My goodness. Are you in the US? I am thinking not. You can keep a small mouse colony in not much room, but be prepared to do the maintenance. Depending on the size of your snakes, they could easily take two or three or more in a single feeding. If you feed weekly, you could be looking at between 6 and 12 mice per week. Now, in order to have that number of mice of proper size readily available, newborn mice will need a minimum of 3 to 4 weeks to reach proper size for feeding. So, in order to provide let's say 9 mice that are 3-4 weeks old every week, you will need a minimum of 5 groups producing steadily. I run a ratio of 1-4, one male to four females. Once established, a colony this size should keep you pretty well supplied. The trick is finding enough mice to start up the colony, and then waiting for the groups to start producing.

Once a group is going well, records must be kept as to age of the females and number of litters, so you know when to start holding back new babies to replace retired stock. I recommend buying from at least two different sources, three is better. This gives you enough genetic diversity to keep your colony going well for at least a year without needing new blood. It is critical to avoid excessive line breeding as this leads to health problems and deformities.

You must also be prepared for one important fact. Mice stink. Period. You can cut the smell by cleaning often, some mice are good about only soiling one corner of the tub, and that can be scooped daily or every other day, but the entire tub will need changed weekly at least or the smell will be unbearable. You must also have a source of rodent food, mice not only eat a lot for their size, they waste as much as they eat. A wire food hopper can help this, but it's a fact of life when breeding mice.

Hopefully this give you some things to think over.

Gale

Im not even sure if it would be worth building a shack if I'm only breeding for a few snakes any other tips that you guys can give would be great.

[satomi325]

Wow. That is an expensive monthly cost.
For a 6 tub rat colony, it cost me $30 a month to maintain them. But I sell some of the babies to pay for that cost, so the rats are paying for their own upkeep aside from my own time and effort.

I think i your situation, it will be cheaper to breed.
It will cost you less than what I pay since you only have 3 snakes. A 50 pound bag of food lasts me a month. With the same bag of food, it lasted my friend with mice a couple months. 50 pound bag of mazuri costs me $27. Kiln dried pine bedding cost $6, but lasts me two months.

[Skilla6000]

With gas money and paying for the mice it's about 160$/month but I'm thinking if I'm going to breed mice should I just go all out and sell to other people and maybe some private owned pet stores to maybe even make profit and purchase more snakes?

[I-KandyReptiles]

Hello fellow Albertan!

Have you tried offering your snakes p/k mice? If you could switch them over to f/t mice, you'd be able to pick up a ton for cheap at the expos coming up.

I currently have 6 snakes, two of which are strictly live eaters. I do breed ASFs and mice, and sell off my extra ASFs for extra cash.

In this weather, I've created a rat van. It's an old box van that I've insulated, and put my rodent racks inside. I use a little heater to keep them warm. In the summer they go back into our shed. They would stay in the shed all winter but it gets way too cold and I lost a LOT due to their water bottles freezing.

If you don't want to feed mice, maybe switch to ASFs. I currently have 3 colonies in my room, with a bunch of little babies and you would have no idea.

Mice stink. Especially the males because they mark their territory. It doesn't matter how much you clean them as they will always have a mouse smell.

[Skilla6000]

Hmmm, nice to see someone from Alberta I'm going to the western Canadian reptile expo in August and a few near Calgary I've saved up a nice chunk of money I'm planing to spend on ball pythons but I'm willing to save and spend some money on racks and what not I was thinking about asf rats cause I have heard that they don't smell to bad. One of my big females has been fed live her whole life by the old owner and i don't think she will ever switch to frozen as she takes awhile and has to examine the live mouse... And the other 2 are basically the same... I'm thinking I should just go all out with it. Thanks everyone more feed back would be awesome.