Mouse Breeding Q

[Argentra]

Ok, I'm planning on starting a small mouse breeding operation for my two snakes . I've searched through the threads here and gotten some good info, but still have a Q or two.

I've read that keeping the male and female together is best, because separation can lead to rejection later. However, I will have to control the breeding. Would having the mice in the same 10gal tank (covered on three sides for darkness) with a secure divider in the middle that still allowed them to see and smell each other work?
My plan so far is to keep one male and one, maybe two, females in a covered 10gal. Once the female is obviously pregnant, set in the divider so the male can't mate with her again right away. Reason being, both my snakes are currently on hoppers and the only one who would benefit from pinks is my leo who can only get one once a month at most. So I would need most of the litter to reach hopper size before they're of much use to me.

Anyone have any suggestions on how I might handle this? I can and will still be getting hoppers from the reptile store once a week until the breeding takes off, but the trip is a bit inconvenient and will be more so once school starts up again. I can't go to FT because my partner refuses to have dead rodents in the freezer with our food or thawing on the counters or in the fridge.

[adizziedoll]

I think you may find yourself overrun with mice if you're breeding for only 2 snakes. If you can't freeze them, will you have a place for them when they are a bigger size then what your snakes can eat?


I know a few people here actually remove the male and cycle him throughout female colonies with no trouble.
I would be interested in seeing any sort of divider you come up with that a lil' curious mousey wouldnt love to chew through, though

[SarahMB]

I agree, you will soon have more than you can handle with one tank with only 2 snakes.

The way I would do it would be to have 3 tanks. One for weaned males, one for weaned females, and one for a maternity ward. You could keep your breeder male in with the weaned males while mom is on a break.

[TekWarren]

Good suggestions on seperating the sexes...is it worth it? That is up to the person doing it and how much work they are willing to put into it. If you are planing to raise mice for 2 ball pythons I think you will find that in a short time you will be stuck with mice...and snakes that are to big to eat them and should be fed larger rodents...again no reason you can't try your hand at mice but also look at the long term picture. You could get a pair of rats and get a head start on breeding those while still using your current supplier of mice and when ready move up to the rats you have raised.

good luck!

[SarahMB]

There's nothing wrong with feeding multiple mice to adult balls. All of mine are on mice and growing just fine. I'll never feed rats, just as a personal preference.

[Argentra]

Thanks for the replies. The divider would be hardware cloth set in tracks on the sides and bottom and siliconed in. I was thinking that controlled breeding would help keep the populations down and manageable. And with the divider, that tank would be for males/females and I have a second 'maternity' tank.

Also, just a friendly correction: I have one 3 month old BP and one 13 month old Corn (who will probably never outgrow mice). I don't want to have them on rats because I own three as pets and mostly because my partner doesn't mind feeding off mice but is very attached to rats (that's why I have two snakes that can potentially eat mice their whole lives ) Since I only have my darling reptiles because he doesn't mind their eating habits and supports the mouse breeding as it's cheaper than buying all the time, that's the way I must go. (No, he doesn't control me, but if I want to keep having enough money to live I have to do what he agrees with.)

Anymore suggestions? Keep em coming!

[TekWarren]

There's nothing wrong with feeding multiple mice to adult balls. All of mine are on mice and growing just fine. I'll never feed rats, just as a personal preference.

Never implied there was Trust me most people still scoff at the idea of me raising african rats to feed my reptiles. As long as the snakes are getting an appropriately sized meals and eating regularly do what works for you.

[Flagg]

A hardware cloth divider wouldn't do any good, they'll mate through the bars.

Separating the male is never good for production. They will reject him later on. Just keep them together and freeze the excess. When you get too many, stop breeding.