Okay yet once again I've failed miserably at breeding mice for our mouse eating ball pythons. One group never bred well, the other group was females I bought preggo. They ate their dang babies on me! I ended up being totally disgusted and feeding them all off so I'm back to the weekly trudge to the pet store to pick through their feeder mice.

I'm determined though to get this right. I've always had an easy time of it with the rats so this is really bugging my hiney. I think part of it is I'm treating mice like rats and that may be causing these problems.

So my new plan is to buy just albino mice. I swear those fancy ones didn't know how to breed, they just sat around, ate and looked pretty! I need about 10 to 12 adult feeder mice per week plus freezing a few litters at the young adult size for Emi the milksnake who only takes f/t. The mice must live in the same room as the rats as there's no where else for them. It can be a fairly high traffic area as I tend the rats daily. I've been using small glass tanks for the mice and do provide them with hides and lots of ripped up telephone book pages to scurry around under.

So I'm thinking to put the mice in those dark heavy plastic cement tubs (will make my own fine mesh lids of course). Bill mentioned that they do well in a less exposed enclosure. Now how do I get water to them. The little mouse water bottle spigot could be fed through a small hole in the side but will the little boogerheads enlarge that hole and get loose? If I do a couple of these tubs (one for the breeders, one for growing out) and just tuck them away in the furthest corner of the room will that be less stressful for mice? Should I be feeding enough food for a whole week so I have less interaction with them? The rats seem to like me checking on them daily, the mice just go..."omg it's the human! quick eat a baby or something!!!!"

I'm thinking to buy 1 adult male mouse and 6 adult female mice and setting them up in one of those cement tubs. Will that be okay or way too many? I figure if they still eat babies I'd get at least some for feeders. I've also heard that 1:6 or 1:8 seems a good ratio for mice.

I cannot believe how difficult mice are compared to rats!