Mouse breeding questions...

[CntrlF8]

Ok, so I'm going to start breeding my feeder mice because buying them is just too darn expensive. I'm going to use a modified version of lord jackel's rat breeding schedule as discussed in this thread: http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=52894

Basically, a 9 week cycle per female, 3 weeks for gestation, 3-ish weeks for weaning, and the remainder of the time off recovering. My questions are as follows:

Using GA_Ball_Pythons' Mouse Breeding Rack design (discussed HERE ), how many mice per tub?

Can I move females in/out of the tubs freely, or will there be consequences for that? For example, can I put the male in with a single female in the tub for week 1, then week 2 put another female in, then week 3 move the male to a new tub with a single new female, week 4 add another female, etc... If that's possible then I'd have two litters per tub spaced right at a week or so apart.

What male/female ratio should I use?

These are just the most pressing of my questions at the moment, I think I've got most of the rest of the details figured out. I'm sure I'll have more, though, and I'll add them to the thread as they come up if it stays active...

[Flagg]

A rat breeding schedule, in most people's experience, doesn;t usually work with mice. Mice are too territorial and re-introducing males to established females will either slow production to a halt as they get re-acquainted or will end up with a dead male. With mice it's better to set up the colony and leave them together.

[CntrlF8]

A rat breeding schedule, in most people's experience, doesn;t usually work with mice. Mice are too territorial and re-introducing males to established females will either slow production to a halt as they get re-acquainted or will end up with a dead male. With mice it's better to set up the colony and leave them together.

So harem breeding is what you're suggesting? no down-time between breedings? I thought that was detrimental to the female's health?

I suppose I could do that, if I were to simply add one female per week to the colony they would ultimately remain on the same schedule...

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Using GA_Ball_Pythons' Mouse Breeding Rack design (discussed

HERE ), how many mice per tub?

I house 2 females per tubs and have 2 males running through 3 tubs each spending 2-2.5 weeks in each tub at the time.

Can I move females in/out of the tubs freely, or will there be consequences for that?

I check on mine everyday, opening the tubs so they are use to me and I never experienced any cannibalism. With the extra security offered by the tubs, plus being used to me checking at least once a day, my mice are less skittish and a lot more social just like my rats are witch likely reduce cannibalism.

Poor diet and stress are a main factors when it comes to mice cannibalizing their young’s.

I feed them an healthy diet composed of Mazuri Blocks, Dog Food, Tri-Color Pasta, and cheerios, and average between 10 and 16 babies per litters.

[ctrlfreq]

We don't track individual breeders, but we do zone our tubs. Basically there are three types:

General adults: These have all breeding age mice except those 2 weeks or more into gestation, and nursing mothers.

Sub-adult sexed: These are a couple bins of mice not old enough to breed, but past being weaned, divided by sex.

Maternity wards: These are groupings of pregnant and nursing females that are assembled around 2 weeks into gestation. This way, you aren't introducing new females to tubs with babies, and they all get to know each other beforehand (this seems to help with cross-nursing, although that's purely anecdotal).

Our process is to clean and sort the mice once a week. We will clean the tubs, separating the females that are obviously pregnant, putting them into a tub (or tubs depending on how many) together. Next, we sex the sub-adult weaned babies from the maternity wards into the sub-adult tubs, and the adults from the sub-adult tubs into the general adult tubs. Females are given a couple weeks off after weaned babies are removed before being put back into general adult tubs as well.

We generally feed males from the general adult tubs as often as possible, and remove unwanted traits (aggressivity, skin problems, etc) as soon as possible by feeding off the offenders. That and a little selective breeding over time gets you some neat looking feeders who are nice and docile as well.

[CntrlF8]

so give me a basic rundown on a basic rack system consisting of 7-9 breeding females... I'm trying to picture how many tubs I'll actually need, but I'm coming up short mentally at the moment...

[Stewart_Reptiles]

so give me a basic rundown on a basic rack system consisting of 7-9 breeding females... I'm trying to picture how many tubs I'll actually need, but I'm coming up short mentally at the moment...

If you use my rack you can house up to 12 females, at 2 per tubs.

[CntrlF8]

I guess the "how many tubs" question is something I'm going to need to work out on my own.

I understand the need/logic for 2-3 females per tub, but how can I time my litters so I have 1 per week if I'm putting the male in with 2 females at a time? Would moving the females around work? For example, have 2 tubs with a male in each, and move a new female in with each every 2 weeks, putting the previous 2 females in a new tub together?

[SatanicIntention]

Unless you need a certain size each week, mice don't really need to be timed. They aren't like rats, at least in my experience, where you can separate them and reintroduce them. It's not easy. They also aren't like rats in the fact that once they get to a certain size, they really don't get any bigger(they may get fatter though ). After a Ball Python has had a few meals of hoppers, medium adult mice are going to be a good size for quite awhile.

I personally prefer the harem breeding because once I get them set up, the mice do everything themselves and I don't have to worry about anyone cannibalizing someone else.

[CntrlF8]

Well, my only concern with that is having too many live adults for my housing situation. Of course, since I DO have BP's that will take F/T without complaint, I suppose I could kill off most of them as they become adults, only leaving a few live at a time (other than my breeders) for my pickier eaters...

Now, what's a good way to replenish my breeding stock as they age out to prevent excessive inbreeding? I think I can see how to do it in my head, just not quite sure how to put it in words here...