I need advise

[Pruitt]

ok well I went friday to get some mice for my 2.5 year old ball python. I got 6 because i thought it would be picky at first about eating. well I was wrong it took its first meal at my home like a champ. now I have 5 cute little white mice that i need to keep alive for more feeding days. my questions are.

A. Is there any way to tell boy mice from girl mice so maybe I could breed them and not have to pay for snake food?


b. How do you house your mice? I have them in a small wall-mart storage tub with pine shavings.? is that good? also what do you feed them?


Thanks in advance
Pruitt

[lars5277]

I would not start breeding for one snake. You might look at making a CO2 chamber to freeze the properly. You will have a lot more mice than you need.

[Pruitt]

I would not start breeding for one snake. You might look at making a CO2 chamber to freeze the properly. You will have a lot more mice than you need.

thanks.

do you think i can keep these fella's alive untill i need them all or will they grow to much in 5 weeks?

[gncz73]

keeping mice or any rodentalive is very easy. but a 2.5 year old ballcould eat more then one mouse. what was the old owner feeding it i would think rats at the least small rats.

i would not breed for one snake either too many babies.

and a tub with pine shavings is fine as long as they have food and water

[JLC]

Hey Pruitt ....I moved this thread to the Feeder forum for ya.


You could do a quick scan of this forum and find all sorts of threads about how to keep mice.

You'll want to separate the boys and girls because you really don't want to have to mess with baby mice until you're VERY ready to do so...and those little puppies come fast and furious if you're not careful! (And has already been noted, breeding for a single snake is not an economical or effecient way to feed him )

Make sure the meeces are in enclosures with lots of ventilation, and something that they can't chew their way out of. A bottle of water with a little drip despensor they have to lick to get water is the best way to go. A bowl of water will just get nasty as soon as you turn around 'cause they're not real particular about where they poop.

EDIT: And if your snake is 2.5 years old, you will not have to worry about these mice growing too big for it to eat. It should probably be eating multiple mice or much larger rats at this point.

[Bdadawg]

Ive always found it real easy to tell the difference between males and females (on rodents) ... Males have a couple things hanging by their tails that look like tires.


Mice are EXTREMELY smelly. Youll want to make sure that their enclosure is very well ventilated. They also like to climb and chew ... If there is a hole in a plastic enclosure you will soon have mice running all around the house. In addition to them breeding like crazy they also find any excuse to kill each other or their litters.

Bryan

[JimiSnakes]

6 mice for an adult Bp should only be two or three weeks of feeding. Feed em off, they stink horribly.