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  1. #1
    BPnet Veteran frankykeno's Avatar
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    Mouse Breeding Questions

    Okay I've been googling away and using the search function here so just a few things I'm not so sure on yet.....

    1) Do I leave Licorice the male mouse in with Taffy the female mouse even when she's delivered her litter? Some places say to remove the male so he doesn't rebreed the female right away, but others say never remove a male or the female(s) will never accept him back (something about seeing him now as an "invading male"). So which is best really?

    2) I usually wean my rat pups around 5 weeks of age and I assume this is also the correct age for weaning mice too? One fancy mouse site I visited though had mice still nursing on their mother at 13 weeks of age and I wondered if this wasn't way too long or do mice develop slower than rats?

    3) I'd like the mice litters to be accepting of humans (who needs to get bit by mice more than you have to). Is it okay to try to handtame the feeder litters a bit or will mom eat them if I touch her babies at all? I have tried to gently stroke Licorice and Taffy...he stays still and sort of freezes but Taffy cusses at me in mouse language and scurries off to clean her coat of stanky human scent LOL. I'm going to try and slowly get them used to me as much as possible for a mouse.

    4) Anyone have a homemade mouse mix much like Becky's homemade rat mix? I picked up a bag of mouse food from the petstore. It actually looks pretty good....lab block, seeds, nuts, etc. but I'm always interested in making my own feed up so any suggestions are great. I assume it's just basically the same as rats but smaller sized stuff. Do they make a lab block specifically for mice? The regular lab block looks huge for them to deal with LOL.

    5) Any suggestions on how to avoid as much as possible, the babies getting eaten or otherwise abandoned by the mother?
    ~~Joanna~~

  2. #2
    BPnet Senior Member joepythons's Avatar
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    Re: Mouse Breeding Questions

    Quote Originally Posted by frankykeno
    Okay I've been googling away and using the search function here so just a few things I'm not so sure on yet.....

    1) Do I leave Licorice the male mouse in with Taffy the female mouse even when she's delivered her litter? Some places say to remove the male so he doesn't rebreed the female right away, but others say never remove a male or the female(s) will never accept him back (something about seeing him now as an "invading male"). So which is best really?

    2) I usually wean my rat pups around 5 weeks of age and I assume this is also the correct age for weaning mice too? One fancy mouse site I visited though had mice still nursing on their mother at 13 weeks of age and I wondered if this wasn't way too long or do mice develop slower than rats?

    3) I'd like the mice litters to be accepting of humans (who needs to get bit by mice more than you have to). Is it okay to try to handtame the feeder litters a bit or will mom eat them if I touch her babies at all? I have tried to gently stroke Licorice and Taffy...he stays still and sort of freezes but Taffy cusses at me in mouse language and scurries off to clean her coat of stanky human scent LOL. I'm going to try and slowly get them used to me as much as possible for a mouse.

    4) Anyone have a homemade mouse mix much like Becky's homemade rat mix? I picked up a bag of mouse food from the petstore. It actually looks pretty good....lab block, seeds, nuts, etc. but I'm always interested in making my own feed up so any suggestions are great. I assume it's just basically the same as rats but smaller sized stuff. Do they make a lab block specifically for mice? The regular lab block looks huge for them to deal with LOL.

    5) Any suggestions on how to avoid as much as possible, the babies getting eaten or otherwise abandoned by the mother?
    Joanna,i leave my males with the females all the time.Its just like in the wild the males normally help feed the mothers(bring them food) and keep the babies warm.I use 5008 lab block for both my mice and rats.I buy it at a farm supply store for $25 for a 50# bag.I dont mess with the seeds and such as i found it makes the mice fatter and lazy.They also had smaller litters.
    Joe Haggard

  3. #3
    Steel Magnolia rabernet's Avatar
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    Re: Mouse Breeding Questions

    Quote Originally Posted by frankykeno
    Okay I've been googling away and using the search function here so just a few things I'm not so sure on yet.....

    1) Do I leave Licorice the male mouse in with Taffy the female mouse even when she's delivered her litter? Some places say to remove the male so he doesn't rebreed the female right away, but others say never remove a male or the female(s) will never accept him back (something about seeing him now as an "invading male"). So which is best really?

    2) I usually wean my rat pups around 5 weeks of age and I assume this is also the correct age for weaning mice too? One fancy mouse site I visited though had mice still nursing on their mother at 13 weeks of age and I wondered if this wasn't way too long or do mice develop slower than rats?

    3) I'd like the mice litters to be accepting of humans (who needs to get bit by mice more than you have to). Is it okay to try to handtame the feeder litters a bit or will mom eat them if I touch her babies at all? I have tried to gently stroke Licorice and Taffy...he stays still and sort of freezes but Taffy cusses at me in mouse language and scurries off to clean her coat of stanky human scent LOL. I'm going to try and slowly get them used to me as much as possible for a mouse.

    4) Anyone have a homemade mouse mix much like Becky's homemade rat mix? I picked up a bag of mouse food from the petstore. It actually looks pretty good....lab block, seeds, nuts, etc. but I'm always interested in making my own feed up so any suggestions are great. I assume it's just basically the same as rats but smaller sized stuff. Do they make a lab block specifically for mice? The regular lab block looks huge for them to deal with LOL.

    5) Any suggestions on how to avoid as much as possible, the babies getting eaten or otherwise abandoned by the mother?
    Joanna,

    I guess I was incredibly lucky when I set up pregnant mouse females from the pet store (wasn't interested in breeding myself, but was willing to let a pregnant girl have her litters). I usually would pick them up and inspect them on day 2 or 3, and never had momma try to eat them or reject them as a result.

    I never had a momma eat or abandon her litter either (I think I had up to 8 mouse litters before I decided to go to rats).

  4. #4
    BPnet Veteran Shelby's Avatar
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    Re: Mouse Breeding Questions

    1: I never separate them.. I've had way too many females kill (and eat off the heads.. gross gross) the males.

    2: ..well my mouse litters usually don't live long enough to become weaned.. I usually need pinkies and fuzzies and not much bigger.

    3: nothing wrong with that.. just wait a day or two after the babies are born at least.. if you handle them too soon after birth the mom may kill them

    4: mine eat the same stuff as the rats.. Becky's mix is great for mice too. The pet store mixes are crap though.

    April
    My art gallery (herp related) http://cerulean-serpent.deviantart.com/

  5. #5
    BPnet Veteran frankykeno's Avatar
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    Re: Mouse Breeding Questions

    Thanks for the advice folks. I do want to mix my own mouse chow as there tends to be a lot of waste in any pet store pre-made rodent food. The bag I did grab (since we didn't actually intend to pick up mouse breeders yesterday...we were out to get feeders) isn't too bad and I'll just add in my own good stuff to it to make it better for them.
    ~~Joanna~~

  6. #6
    BPnet Veteran TekWarren's Avatar
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    Re: Mouse Breeding Questions

    Late to the show but I leave my breeding groups together also.
    www.ASFRats.info African soft-furred rats information and exchange.

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    Website Hosting available see site for details

  7. #7
    BPnet Veteran recycling goddess's Avatar
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    Re: Mouse Breeding Questions

    i used to breed lots of mice and always removed the males and then just reintroduced after the female had a break.

    i would wean the babies around week 4 but often at 3.5 weeks. never left them longer than 4 weeks.

    mice will eat anything...

    i found that if the mama was accepting of me... then i could hold the babies on day one. if she wasn't comfy with me, she'd get too stressed out. i would put her on my shoulder and then rub my hands with shavings... and then hold the pups... when i was done, i'd put them back, give mama a treat and put her back with her babies. i tried to keep two females together so they could help each other out. often a non-pregnant mouse is best as a nurse-maid because if a mouse delivers and then another delivers more than 48 hours later... the last to deliver mama would eat the other mom's babies. (to remove competition) - so if you have two pregnant mom's together... in my experience, it's fine as long as they birth together.

    now... that said... i was very successful breeding mice for around a year... donated all the babies once they were weaned to an owl sanctuary. but last year when i attempted to breed mice again... no success at all. the mice kept dieing... no births or very low births (like 2 pups) - so i gave up. i don't know what was causing the deaths. i tried getting the mice from different locations... having them live together... having them live apart and nothing worked.

    the only real difference between the two experiences was... in the first one i used 10 gallon tanks... in the second one i used bins. don't know (or believe) that the housing had anything to do with it... but it was the only difference for me.

    oh and mice... LOVVVVVVVE their wheel so make sure each bin has one.
    in light, Aleesha




    You have 1440 minutes a day... how are you going to spend yours?

  8. #8
    BPnet Veteran frankykeno's Avatar
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    Re: Mouse Breeding Questions

    I'm looking for a little mouse wheel but I want one of the solid types and so far have only found the really big ones so hopefully they'll get a wheel soon. So far Licorice and Taffy seem to get along beautifully. They are snuggling together and I haven't noticed even one bit of roughing each other up at all. I'm hoping by next week to find another cute female so I can get them set up 1:2 as soon as possible.
    ~~Joanna~~

  9. #9
    BPnet Veteran recycling goddess's Avatar
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    Re: Mouse Breeding Questions

    are there pics that i'm missing???
    in light, Aleesha




    You have 1440 minutes a day... how are you going to spend yours?

  10. #10
    BPnet Veteran Rapture's Avatar
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    Re: Mouse Breeding Questions

    I keep my male and females together all the time with no problems...

    Also, the mice have no problems eating the Mazuri lab diet that I feed to both the mice and the rats.
    -Diana

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