I just had a thought about breeding mice

[Peter Williams]

K, I have a bp and soon, probably in less than a month I will also have a brazilian rainbow boa. I know thats not really enough snakes to be breeding feeders myself, but my bp is on adult mice right now, and I'm hoping to get a brb that will be about the size to take adult mice as well. Now I think most people would say I'd be over run with mice because I'd only have 2 snakes to feed to, but I'd be waiting for them to get to adult size anyways, and its not like theyre gonna get any bigger than what I need (this is why I'm thinking mice, not rats, because if I didn't feed off the rats soon enough, they'd get too big).

I know that all sounds a little complicated so basically, heres my plan: I would just have 1 breeding pair to start, and once they had one litter, I would remove the male. Once the babies were weened, I would separate them according to sex. I would then take care of them until they are all adults. (throughout this time I will continue to purchase feeders from the pet store). Once I am down to a certain number of mice I will allow one more litter to be born, and start the process over again. Hows that sound?

ps. I know someone will just say, "If you have access to live feeders from the pet store anyways, why not keep buying from there" the answer is, it is a long ways away and is annoying to go out there every week. Also I don't drive yet so its a hassle on my parents and its sometimes hard to get them to take me.

If someone says its a good idea, I'm not gonna get it all set up tomorrow or something like that, I'm just looking for input and I'm exploring all my options here. Thanks! Sorry for the huge post.

[TekWarren]

Even when I only had a couple snakes I was raising my own food...and I really don't have all that many compared to some here now. Raising your own rodents can be a very fun aspect to the reptile hobby. Many people will tell you its not worth it and often have some sort of rule of thumb however everyone's situation is different. You are on the right track in your mention of controlled breeding. With just two snakes controlled breeding will be important unless you have a way to freeze or sell off the extra mice. I word of caution mice can get stinky! Raising rats is another option and you can feed when the offspring is of appropriate size but if your snakes are pretty small yet stick with what you know they are feeding on.

[jglass38]

Rats are definitely a better choice although you do have the problem of them growing too big. Mice smell much worse. Do whatever works for you. I enjoy breeding rats...

[frankykeno]

Do your research on ways to keep down the stink. Mice are a lot stinkier than rats so you'll want to find any and all ways to address that. So far the things that seem to help are a bit of vanilla extract in their water, frequent bedding changes, using things like stall dry or woody pet under their bedding, not overcrowding the mice and making sure their enclosure is well ventilated. I've never had any luck breeding mice but from what I've read here they do seem to do better in darker enclosures in quiet rooms. They are far more nervous than rats and tend to eat their own young or kill each other off if they aren't kept correctly.

[Ginevive]

Yeah; why not breed rats? You'll get food faster, since your size need would be for smaller rats, not larger mice. Rats smell less usually..
I am reading up on the dangers of megacolon.. if you do breed rats, I would stay away from high-white ones.. solids (selfs) and mostly solids (berks) are great choices.

[Peter Williams]

I don't want to breed rats because I'm worried they would get too big before I could feed them off

[MarkS]

Well then just kill them and freeze them when they get to be the right size. Rats can grow pretty fast when they are young and can go by that 'small rat' zone pretty quickly.

[frankykeno]

Sounds like you've thought this out quite well Peter as far as removing/seperating the sexes to control overbreeding. Mice are a bit more challenging to breed due to their tendency to eat their young but lots of folks here do a bang up job with mouse breeding.

As far as I'm concerned the very best part of rodent feeder breeding is that satisfaction one gets from knowing the prey being offered is the best possible quality you can produce. Unfortunately with a lot of pet store feeders things like quality, size and overall health of the feeders available each week can be really erratic. I've also rarely seen any store that didn't overcrowd those feeder bins so it's very hard to be assured that the feeder animal had proper access to food and water. For me, a crappy feeder is no feeder at all so I love raising our own.

[atachamp]

Hi there. I too only have only BP but I raise my own mice. Did not raise rats for the same reason that you have. My BP eats live and I was afraid the rats would get too big before I fed them off.

I have one male and 1 female. Bought them at small pet store close to my house. They gave me pinkies 1 1/2 months after I had them together. First litter was 9, second 19 and 3rd (she just had it and I have not been able to count, but at least 15). Momma mouse is a great mom!!!!

I keep them in a 10 gallon tank. When babies are big enough I separate them by males and females and put them in 10 gallon tanks. I also take dad out of the enclosure and house him with the boys.

It has worked great for me and I hope it works for you.

One idea if you end up with more than you can handle is if you have a good relationship with your pet store is to trade excess mice for something in the store. I have not had to do this, but I already talked to my pet store and they will take the mice.

Good luck. It is so much fun raising these buggers. Just don't get attached.

Oh, in order to keep the smell down and not have to clean so often I use Woody Pellets for bedding. It is great but hard to find.

Paula

[MarkS]

I know that all sounds a little complicated so basically, heres my plan: I would just have 1 breeding pair to start, and once they had one litter, I would remove the male. Once the babies were weened, I would separate them according to sex. I would then take care of them until they are all adults. (throughout this time I will continue to purchase feeders from the pet store). Once I am down to a certain number of mice I will allow one more litter to be born, and start the process over again. Hows that sound?

Really the only thing I'd be concerned with is this, you say you would remove the male? Would you be feeding him off then? I would recommend that you do, because if you were planning on holding him seperate from the females and then adding him back for breeding later, you may run into problems. He may not be re-accepted by the females if he's been gone too long. If it were me, I'd start my next breeding group with the babies you are raising up.