Mouse Schedule

[Jay_Bunny]

My fiance and I are trying to put together a mouse breeding schedule for when we start breeding mice for our snakes. We've been trying but it always end up wrong. We will start breeding mice when we reach 5 snakes, which is when we get our next one.

At the moment, we spend about $30 a month on feeders. We want to have a small scale breeding colony of mice but we want to make sure the females have a nice vacation from time to time. Anyone have any input? I know there is a schedule for rats in the sticky above, but I think that rats and mice are a little different in schedules. So if anyone has one on exel or something, please let me know.

Oh and how long does a mouse stay in each stage? Pinky, fuzzy, hopper, weanling, small mouse, adult mouse?

[lord jackel]

Here is a sticky on rat timing...on the second page it tells you how to do it with mice. Should have what you are looking for and give you a roadmap on how to.


http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=52894

[WingedWolfPsion]

Keep in mind, the good breeding window for mice is only up to 9 months old. Their gestation is only 18 to 20 days, they are weaned by 3 or 4 weeks, and can breed at 5 or 6 weeks.
Recommendation is that they not be bred until they are about 12 weeks old. They should also not be bred any LATER than 15 weeks. That gives a female 6 months of high production, and then her litter sizes will drop off dramatically.
If you want to give her a rest, my suggestion would be to remove her from contact with the male and house her seperaely when she is visibly pregnant every couple of litters, and then give her a week off after that litter is weaned. Mice will rebreed as soon as a litter is born, so that when one litter is weaned, the next is ready to be born soon after. (Delayed implantation means they won't be born while the previous litter is still nursing).

Stages of development would be...end of week 1, fuzzies, end of week 2, crawlers, end of week 3, hoppers--end of week 4 to week 5, weanling, small adult up to probably a month old, medium adult for another month or so, then they should be fully grown. This is mostly guessing, because different individual mice will grow at slightly different rates, and reach different adult sizes.

[SatanicIntention]

There's no reason why they can't be bred after 15 weeks of age. It is a myth that their pelvis fuses together(yes, ligaments may become less stretchy). They can still reproduce and they are fine to breed after that. You just won't get as much use out of them.

[Jay_Bunny]

Ok, with 9 females and 3 males in the colony, something is still not figuring out right.

This is what I have....

MT - Maturnity Tub
V - Vacation

Week 1 - F1 with M1
Week 2 - F1 in MT, F2 with M2
Week 3 - F1 in MT, F2 in MT, F3 with M3
Week 4 - F1 in MT, F2 in MT, F3 in MT, F4 with M1
Week 5 - F1 in MT, F2 in MT, F3 in MT, F4 in MT, F5 with M2
Week 6 - F1 in MT, F2 in MT, F3 in MT, F4 in MT, F5 in MT, F6 with M3
Week 7 - F1 in MT, F2 in MT, F3 in MT, F4 in MT, F5 in MT, F6 in MT, F7 with M1
Week 8 - F1 on V, F2 in MT, F3 in MT, F4 in MT, F5 in MT, F6 in MT, F7 in MT, F8 with M2
Week 9 - F1 on V, F2 on V, F3 in MT, F4 in MT, F5 in MT, F6 in MT, F7 in MT, F8 in MT, F9 with M3
Week 10 - F1 on V, F2 on V, F3 on V, F4 in MT, F5 in MT, F6 in MT, F7 in MT, F8 in MT, F9 in MT

....The problem comes up on Week 10. No female is breeding this week and so later on in the cycle, we won't have that litter available as feeders.

Females get 1 week with the male, 6 weeks in the maturnity tub (3 gestation, 3 weaning) and 3 weeks vacation.

Males get 1 week with female, 2 weeks vacation.

[CntrlF8]

When I inquired about doing this with mice I was told by reputable people here to just do harem breeding, leaving the males in with a group of females full time. This reduces the tendency of groups of mice killing any new "outsiders" coming in, and lessens cannibalizing the babies.

Anyways, 9 females should work. you're adding a week at the beginning for the male to be with the female, and assuming they're not breeding. Truth is, she'll probably be bred within 48 hours or so of putting them together.

[cassandra]

My limited experience with mice breeding is sometimes the female is bred instantly and sometimes, it just doesn't happen. I've had a female in with my breeder male now for a month and she has yet to look pregnant...who knows. =P

Good luck!

[WingedWolfPsion]

I'd say 'not getting as much use out of her' is a pretty solid barrier to breeding after 15 weeks, if your intention is to produce snake food, lol...
A female not producing well becomes a meal. I know I wouldn't bother keeping such a one in production.
Same with mice older than 9 months...no point keeping them in production, they become food at that point.

I harem breed my mice and rats. "Retirement" may seem somewhat harsh, but that is what they're there for, after all--to make a maximum number of baby mice and rats for food.

[Jay_Bunny]

I'm afraid of doing harem breeding because I don't want to be overrun with feeders and I want to be able to make sure the females get a break between litters so she is recovered enough for her next.

Would it be best to move the male in with the females? or move the female in with the male? I think what we were going to do is have 3 male tubs and rotate the females in. As soon as they have mated, move them into the maturnity tubs, and once they've weaned the babies, move them into a vacation tub. I dunno, I've never bred mice. We also wanted to do a trial breeding before getting all our breeders, so we have an idea of how things should go when we have the other breeders.