» Site Navigation
2 members and 2,796 guests
Most users ever online was 6,337, 01-24-2020 at 04:30 AM.
» Today's Birthdays
» Stats
Members: 75,014
Threads: 248,474
Posts: 2,568,391
Top Poster: JLC (31,651)
|
-
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?
-
-
Re: Mouse Breeding Questions
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.
-
-
Re: Mouse Breeding Questions
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).
-
-
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.
-
-
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.
-
-
BPnet Veteran
Re: Mouse Breeding Questions
Late to the show but I leave my breeding groups together also.
-
-
-
-
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.
-
-
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?
-
-
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.
-
Posting Permissions
- You may not post new threads
- You may not post replies
- You may not post attachments
- You may not edit your posts
-
Forum Rules
|