rotate the males or the females?

[Freakzter]

I currently have a setup where I have 2 male mice and rotate them every other other week to a different female bin. is there a better system if I am trying to get 50 + feeders a week? thank you.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Because I am not a fan of back to back breeding which I have found affected the size of the litters and growth rate of the babies, I rotate my animals.

All males rotate between 3 tubs (containing 3 females each) and they spend 2 weeks in each tubs.

[Freakzter]

Because I am not a fan of back to back breeding which I have found affected the size of the litters and growth rate of the babies, I rotate my animals.

All males rotate between 3 tubs (containing 3 females each) and they spend 2 weeks in each tubs.

is this correct?




unfortunately your system seems geared towards producing pinkies. it has the male return to the cage before the pups are fully weaned, I need adult mice.


would you use this same system for rats? I have those too and do not need them full grown.

thanks for any input.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

is this correct?




unfortunately your system seems geared towards producing pinkies. it has the male return to the cage before the pups are fully weaned, I need adult mice.


would you use this same system for rats? I have those too and do not need them full grown.

thanks for any input.

Usually females become pregnant a lot fast in the first 5 days usually so you can produce hoppers which is what I mainly need and breed for, you basically need an extra week or so, so by the time the male returns the babies are 3 weeks old and can be weaned and placed in grow-out tubs.

You can do 3 weeks at the time per tubs or you can rotate between 4 tubs doing 2 weeks at the time.

For rats my system is VERY different, I rotate females, I have tubs setup with males and each week I had a new female in the tub, once a female is visibly pregnant she goes in a individual birthing tub until her babies are 5 to 7 days old at which time she goes in a communal tub (3 females / tub)

I produce a few thousand of feeder each year but the main breeding remains rat, mice need is more of a seasonal thing to start hatchling around baby season.

[Freakzter]

if I understood you right, this would be my schedule if I wanted fully weaned mice?

I'm not sure why but I imagined I needed way more cages than 3 or 4. will this setup produce around 50 mice per week?

as for setting up a rat rotation, I'm not grasping your concept. I guess I'm a visual person and struggle with descriptions. how many male tubs should I start out with? I would like to produce about 25 rats per month. do you add a random female every week, or do you somehow keep track of who needs to be bred next? do you remove her after a week, or when she becomes visibly pregnant? is it always only 1 female with the male, or more? is she moved to the communal tub with her babies? sorry for all the questions. I appreciate any help in trying to understand your system.

[Freakzter]

my current setup is complete, i feel. the first 8 cages, A-H are my mice breeder bins, currently with 2 females each. 2 males get rotated alternatively every week. 9th cage has my replacement male. the final two bins are for rats.

my plan is to eventually have at least 4 breeders per cage, and produce 50+ mice per week (46 for my ferrets, 2 for my snakes, 2 for my arachs).