Actually, I only have a few BPs and since I'm not allowed to touch a freezer I have to keep them live at home (also cos I can't drive to the pet store every week). Anyway they happened to start multiplying and I got a whole cycle going on here now. I only have 2 breeding tubs, placed at the back of my house, they don't smell all that horrible after I got rid of all the males. I change bedding maybe once a week? Of course if you would be keeping them in an enclosed area it might be a little worse, but I don't smell much until i stick my face into their tubs. Oh and I find carefresh odorfree MUCH better than any wood substrate.
Basically I have 5 females in 2 tubs. The rest of the tubs are for growing up. Each time I bring a male back I leave them with the females about a couple of weeks. Then they get fed off once all my females are pregnant. Once I can spot the male babies with their balls dangling out they are fed to my smaller guy. The rest of the females are allowed to grow a month or two to nearly 30g and then fed off. Then once I'm half way through them I get another male and the cycle begins again. This way I have minimal stench (males are the really smelly ones I think) and I run to the pet store once every couple of months only? You could do this with more females if you need more mice. But this way I get less smell, and dont have to take note of which mice are related to which to prevent inbreeding. With the new male every few months theres very little chance of it. And one male can do all the females there.
Well I really used to hate my mice, they kept getting out making a mess and were such a hassle, but now I treat my breeding females like second pets. I guess the trick is to find a way to ensure the noise and any possible smell does not affect you, by putting it somewhere else. And get a schedule or routine going for their care. They really are quite cute and smart, and females don't create a mess so I don't mind them. Especially after I watched this video of trained mice, I just put up a thread on it a couple of days back, so I'm gonna start trying to do that too. Of course there are a couple which end up being real problems, male OR female, but if I hate them they're fed off:p
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