plz help. looking for info on a easy, efficient mouse breeding setup

[First_Phantom]

can someone post a easy and efficient mouse breeding setup? or direct me to a post that already shows one? i have a place where i can get mice that is a 20-25 minute drive but i dont really like to buy them there because the way they treat the snakes they sell and how way overpriced the snakes are there. also i feel like they dont keep their mouse setup as clean as i would be able to.

anyway i just need enough mice to feed my 1 lil girl snake. shes like 1 and a half feet long so i would need enough mice for to feed her once a week. can someone plz show me how i can do that? thank you guys!!

[Argentra]

For just one snake, it is certainly not worth it to breed mice. The costs of the tubs, bedding, food, and the time to maintain would overpower whatever you spend on one mouse a week...even with a long trip.

It would be MUCH more economical to see if your snake will take frozen/thawed prey. Then you could order the frozen mice from good online dealers.

[ThyTempest]

For just one snake, it is certainly not worth it to breed mice. The costs of the tubs, bedding, food, and the time to maintain would overpower whatever you spend on one mouse a week...even with a long trip.

It would be MUCH more economical to see if your snake will take frozen/thawed prey. Then you could order the frozen mice from good online dealers.

x2

However, I will say we started breeding mice, then rats, then ASF's very soon. Mice with only 1 snake, then rats just before we got 4 more, then ASF's as the first snake became a picky eater/winter faster.

It is worth it for us only because of the convenience of having them at home. We dont own a car and it literally takes several hours out of our day to go run an errand, get groceries, etc. We have really enjoyed having the rats around, but we stopped mice breeding as soon as possible. They smell way too much. ASF's are the way to go for pure feeder breeding, and rats are great for bigger snakes or pet/feeder combo. Our rats our some of our favorite pets. I think the best thing about them is that they are almost like a dog or cat if you socialize with them, take the time to get them out etc...but you can leave them alone for a few days without really worrying about it doing any harm to them, so long as they have a rat buddy with them.

All in all, in 99% of cases, switching to bulk f/t is the cheapest method, unless you have a sizeable collection.

[JamieLynn]

I will agree with the other 2 posters here.
When I got my first BP I started breeding mice, the 50 mile drive got to me. I tried to get her to take F/T, but she would have none of that. So off breeding I went
I had 3 - 10gal aquariums that very quickly became over populated. After a few months I was spending $50+ a month in care for the mice, I also had rats, not as feeders but because rats are fun pets.
It was a lot of care, and a lot of smell...for something so small you would not think it could stink so badly, even if you are cleaning often.

If you have your mind made up...
I would agree try first to get him/her on f/t, if that does not work you will need to know how to sex mice as soon as they are weaned, and know if you pick up a little boy by the tail he will suck in his parts, this sometimes makes it hard to sex properly.
So you would need at least 3 mouse homes
1-breeding pair...only breed one girl, or you will have so many mice you will go nuts.
1-for males
1-for females

Breed only one litter at a time....
Put male and female together for about 2 weeks, then remove male (you may want a spare home for only your breeding male)
This is to prevent back to back litters. Allow babies to wean, the separate to the boy girl homes...mom can stay in her home. Feed off males first, as you do not want to end up with males still in the cage when the next litter comes.
If you want give the mom a week to rest before putting the breeding male back in. this would depend on how much your snake eats...


say your snake eats one full sized mouse a week, your litter size was only 4, you get lucky and leave the male with the female and litter to allow a new litter as soon as the first one was weaned.

Say same snake eats one mouse a week, but you just had a litter of 10.
That will be 10 weeks of food, allow 5-7 weeks for mice to grow to size from birth, and 3 weeks for mom to have another litter.

I'm sure my math is not the best, but you should get some of the idea.

My first 2 mice had 4 liters of 12-15 back to back. So in 4 months that was over 52 babies.
My snake was only eating one a week. In that 4 month time, only ate 16 mice.
After I got them all separated into several tanks I miss sexed one little boy....He sucked up his parts.
So I had more babies.
I got better at learning to sex them after that stopped breeding for a few months, and luckily my snake got bigger and went to 2 mice a week.
Then I only bred them when they started to get too old to breed, so I kept a young litter around.
I was also lucky to find someone close by that had a BP who only ate mice, and they came and got 4 mice every other week.

I learned the hard way, it would have been better to work harder on getting my BP to take frozen, than to breed my own.

Sorry this is so long, just my experiance.

[Mice"R"US]

We started breedind mice for our one bp snake and we have a 5 tank system. We have a tank for the male's, a tank for the female's to give birth in, a tank for the feeders, a breeding tank, and a excess tank. we found it challenging at first but than our mice are healthier than what is at the pet store and than also for the extra's we have we have been able to sell them to other snake lovers. so for what we have spent on the whole set up we have made our money back and now have full profit from it if we decide to sell any. and plus we know what the mice eat and how clean they are so we know that our bp won't get snock from eatting some strange mice from the pet store.

[bamf64]

yes i have 3 snakes. (2bps and 1 corn). i just started breeding mice. and i do think even if you hav 1 snake it will save money over time. but its good to do it if you have 2+