Thinking about breeding mice

[tweets_4611]

So I've been thinking about breeding mice. I'm tired of paying an arm and a leg at PetCo for mice and rats, and the only other place that sells rodents in town (or within and hours drive) is a woman who I'm pretty sure probably caught her breeder rats in her attic.... it's gross over there.

Anyways, I'm looking at starting a small colony. I have been reading what I can about it, and the biggest debate I've seen is leaving the male in or separating him when the females get pregnant.

If you do separate the male, could you put him in with the weaned males? Basically I would like to do this with 3 tubs, one for the breeding group, and tubs for the grow-ups, one for the males and one for the females. Would that be do-able, or am I looking at the death of many mice?

For those that separate the males, do you give the females a different diet while they are pregnant or nursing? Do you feed the just weened the same thing as the adults?

I've read that 3 months is a good age for the females to start breeding, but what is a good age to retire them? I've seen a year old in at least one place. Do you limit how many litters your females have in their lifespan? Or just let them keep going until numbers decrease?

I'm just kinda looking for personal experiences here. I've read many threads on here, and also several mouse breeders websites (which are much more stringent, and a nice source for comparison) to try and find good boundaries on ages and housing. Any input will be helpful... I'm still gathering ideas for now to see if this is feasible or not.

Thanks!