Need to breed large quantities at low cost

[reptilegirl07]

I am looking to produce about 1000-2000 mice per month.

Can someone give me the best way to do that:
size tubs and website to get them from
rack plans for said tubs
how many tubs/racks would I need
How many per tub
Keep males/females together or no?

Thanks

[tomfromtheshade]

I would use the medium Petmate litter pans.

Build your racks 8 levels high for easy management.

Run 1.4 animals per level.

This gives you 32 females per rack.

Count on about 250 animals per rack per month.

This means you would need 4 to 8 racks of breeding animals to produce those numbers.

You will need half again as many racks for growing out replacement breeders.

[reptilegirl07]

Do you just do them 1 stack high or do you make the racks where you have about 10 across and then 8 down? I was looking at those and it looks like you'll need a router to make the supports that the litter pans sit on, is that right?

Do you know the cheapest place to get these litterpans? At one point last year I was seeing some at .99 each but of course now that I'm needing them, they're like 3.00+ each!

[chromeitout]

I build mine 8 high and 3 wide... $3 is what i pay for them

[RichsBallPythons]

With a production that much per month will not be cheap starting up.

I go through 5-6 50lbs bags of Rodent food each month for only 500 production.

At this rate it costs me about .15-.20 cents per mouse.

[tomfromtheshade]

It's structurally more sound to make them only one tub wide.

[suzuki4life]

It's structurally more sound to make them only one tub wide.

I would agree, but the mouse setups don't weigh nearly as much as the rats ones do...the multi units seem to hold up just fine.

[tomfromtheshade]

I would agree, but the mouse setups don't weigh nearly as much as the rats ones do...the multi units seem to hold up just fine.

I will agree with you there.

I have a bit of OCD or whatever you want to call it. I build all my racks single file now. I also replace my animals one rack at a time. It just makes things simple for me.

Suzuki, I know you know what I am talking about when I say that the same stuff that you used to do when you had one or two racks just doesn't cut it anymore when you have more than a dozen racks.

I have a system in place now that accounts for the timing between holding animals back, growing animals out, and replacing animals before they start to decline in production.

[reptilegirl07]

I build mine 8 high and 3 wide... $3 is what i pay for them

Where did you get your litter tubs, what are the dimensions and what do you run in each?

[slitheryz]

This set up, really works. It can be done in very many ways to fit your needs. And it works. Thank you for posting the pictures