Taming feeder mice?

[akihba]

I've been thinking about starting a small feeder mouse colony and there's a question I want to ask the established breeders here. Do you handle & tame your feeder mice from birth or do you not bother with that at all? If you do put the time and effort into taming them, why do you do so? Personally, I'm trying not to get attached to those buggers so I think minimal contact is best, not to mention it prevents the spread of diseases and all that. Thoughts?

[PitOnTheProwl]

Some of the thoughts upon first reading your post..............................
My rule, Don't play with the food.
Yes I can handle mine but its only for cleaning.
There is no "taming" needed, these are not circus mice moving to mouse city.

[Rhasputin]

Just get good stock from the beginning. If you start with healthy, calm mice, you will continue to produce healthy calm mice. Feed off any that are not handle-able or that bite, and you will keep your line nice and clean.
Babies from tame parents don't need to be played with daily to raise up tame. Mice are highly intelligent animals, who have the capacity to enjoy being handled and enjoy enrichment activities though. So don't avoid contact with them just because you can. I would definitely recommend being as comfortable as you can with handling them, because you never know when you may need to handle them. And if you pre-kill your food (which I'm of the opinion everyone should, but that's another can of worms) then it's important to be comfortable handling your mice, and knowing how they act, especially if you do cervical dislocation, and not CO2.


Also about preventing the spread of diseases? What are you talking about?
Pet and feeder mice shouldn't be infected with any sort of diseases.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I never spent any time taming my mice and I never had any issue with them either whether it's cannibalism, biting or aggressive behavior.

The key is SELECTIVE breeding.

[satomi325]

Like everyone else mentioned, selective breeding and starting with a good stock.
If they are bred to have a good temperament, they will be friendly regardless of handling or not.

[akihba]

Thank you for your input, everyone! I'll start off with good breeding stock, and maintain their temperament through selective breeding, then.

Also about preventing the spread of diseases? What are you talking about?
Pet and feeder mice shouldn't be infected with any sort of diseases.

I have pet rats (no, they are not food), so I would like to minimize the risk of transferring anything unwanted between them. Of course, I'll be taking precautions to prevent that in the first place anyway, and do not plan on getting sick mice (duh) so I think I should be okay.

[Rhasputin]

If you're worried about sick mice, quarantine them separately for 30 days from your rats. If after 30 days they show no signs or sneezing, mites, weeping eyes, hunched backs, or anything else unusual, you can stop worrying and washing your hands.

And after that, there should be no new issues introduced unless you bring in new mice or rats that are infected.

[satomi325]

Yup. Always QT new animals. Especially new rodents.

[MrLang]

I'll probably get a little friction for this, but I have never met a mouse that wasn't hyperactive, nervous, and unsociable.

[Rhasputin]

Not friction, but you've never met a good mouse!

My mice will sit in your hand, and roll over for cheek rubs. Some even know tricks.