Best food for a BP????

[Jonny2184]

Salut,

Quick question....
I have a wonderful lil BP.
I'm currently TRYING to breed MICE. I had success once and she had TEN (count em) TEN babies! BUT I cant get her to breed again! I've been trying brown mice with white and white with white and brown with brown but she just wont do it!
I've heard mice are the easiest to breed but I'm just aint having any luck!

I've been thinking about moving to rats but they are just way to big for a BP right now and my Corn Snake probably wont even be able to handle a medium one! and hes full grown!

So I'm thinking about Gerbils??? Does anyone think that Gerbils are easy to breed or hard??? I used to breed hamster when I was little just for fun and they were easy to breed!

Can anyone explain to me how you breed gerbils...or if you have any tips that would be great! any websites would be nice to if you have any links!

To kill them I currently put them in a bag and give them a good swift wack on a hard suface! If anyone has any other suggestions pls let me know!

and if you have any tips for breeding mice that would be great too!
Currently I put the mate with the female for about a week or two then take him out! but nothing has happened...it worked great the first time!
The female is about 7 months old and the male is about 3 months!
I realize it wouldnt hurt if they where a little older but I dont think that is totally the problem... She had 10 last time eh! : )

[Shelby]

Even a baby ball python can eat a pinky rat. Gerbils could work, but they don't get nearly as big (or grow as fast) as rats do. I don't think they reproduce as quickly either.

For my mice/rats I keep the male with the females all the time. You can't just put the male in and take him out all the time.. you're begging for the female to kill him. Mice kill strangers, and one that is gone for a week and suddenly comes back can be considered a stranger! Talking from personal experience here..

I feed high quality dog food (Nutro brand Lite variety) with a mix of puffed rice/wheat oats, cheerios, and tri-color pasta.

The whack method of killing is not very efficient or humane. I use carbon dioxide to kill mine. Do a search for co2 chambers and you should come up with some threads on making the chamber.

[JimiSnakes]

Freeze'em, alive. They will fall asleep before they suffer. It's almost the same as using CO2. A friend of mine and I timed it, seconds off.

~Jim

[joepythons]

First off i leave my mice and rat breeders together at all times.The males bring food to the females.Second if your corn snakes are adults then they can take a rat fuzzy.I have three breeder females and they eat a nice size rat fuzzy with no problems.Plus rats have more meat on them then mice plus they do not stink as bad .I would not even try to feed gerbils to anything.The way i kill my rodents is i take them in my hand(welders gloves on) and squeeze a pair of pliers over thier necks.Clean and no suffering as they die instantly.

[Shelby]

I sure hope you're only talking about unweaned babies.. you can't humanely freeze an adult mouse/rat alive, that's for sure!

C02 has anaesthetic properties so they feel no pain.. I can't imagine being frozen alive could be pleasant.

I freeze pinkies alive because they do die quickly that way and a newborn mouse/rat doesn't have a fully developed nervous system so their perception of pain is minimal at best.

[JimiSnakes]

I sure hope you're only talking about unweaned babies.. you can't humanely freeze an adult mouse/rat alive, that's for sure!

Yes that is what I was talking about. None of mine are big enough for anything under a weanling. Well, one is, but she gets live anyways.

~Jim

[daniel1983]

If they are adult mice or smaller rats and you don't have a CO2 chamber.....do it this way:
http://labanimals.stanford.edu/Guidelines/Cerv_Dis.html

Or just feed live

[tigerlily]

Be careful. If you feed gerbils you may find you can't switch em back. If you are worried about the size of rats, just feed them off before they reach that size. If you have to many whack and freeze them. I think most people have an easier time breeding the rats, but you may want to try the search funtion because I believe we have a bunch of threads on breeding rodents of all sorts. What are you feeding them? Maybe it's diet related?

(I also moved this thread to the feeder section, since it's more about the rodents than the bps )

[Jonny2184]

GRRRRREAT!
Thanks for all your input on this!

Someone there said to LEAVE the male mouse with the female at all times!
I did that once like 5 months ago... BAD IDEA! The famale mouse not only KILLED the male but you ate the entire guy! HE WAS GONE! It was almost like he escaped, excpet there was blood and some mouse remains inside the enclosure! I almost lost it. The mice are suppose to be for the snake! Not for other mice eh!
I will have a try at it again... but if she eats another one of my mice, she will be the first one to go to the snakes!

The CO2 idea seems kinda crazy just to kill a little mouse! I do realize it is more humaine but gesh! I didnt think owning a snake was gonne be rocket science!
and freezing them alive is just rough! If my mom knew I was putting live mice into her freezer, she would freak!

I've heard drowing them wasnt to bad! I've never tired it though!
I think for now I will stick with giving them a good swift wack in a bag! I'm sure it would be just like jumping off a big building... ur not gonna feel anything when you hit eh!

anywayz I think I will stick with the breeding of the mice!
Thanks again for all ur input!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jonny2184]

I do currently feed the mice regular hamster/mouse food... U know the kind u get at the pet store, like a bunch of seeds... bird food basically I guess!

I will try that oat meal idea! and dog food sounds like its a good idea too!
I'll give er a shot!

Do u have a like a receipt for this???