I Hate Mice!

[ctrlfreq]

Well I checked her just now and the other five are now gone.

What are you feeding them, and how are they housed (size of tub, substrate, other items, and m/f ratios)?

And one of my male breeders just died and my other pair of breeders isn't producing squat.

Are you keeping them in pairs to breed? This works well for rats, but not so much for mice. On average (using cement mixing tubs) we keep tubs somewhere in the 2/15-20 m/f ratios. This kind of harem setup works well, as the mothers cross-nurse, which helps keep the baby eating to a minimum.

[rabernet]

And then the only other animal that eats mice is our ferret but she'll eat anything and should have no issue switching to rats.

Wait...ferrets eat mice and rats?

[Jay_Bunny]

They eat Mazuri Rodent Block and Becky's mix. I do not house that many breeder mice because I do not require that many feeders at one time. I go through somewhere around 25 feeders a week so keeping that many breeders would have me overrun in no time.

I did this specific pair in a 1.2 group but either the male or female killed the other female. The litter was not too terribly large. 10 in all and we fed one off. Another female I had in a 1.1 had a litter of 12 (fed one off) and she raised them all up to weaning age, no problem. This was this female's second litter. Her first litter was 5 and she had been house alone with no male (I bought her as a feeder and she was pregnant when I bought her).

Tank size is a 10g. The other female I had (the one with 12 babies) was housed in a 5g and they were moved to a 20L when the babies hit hopper stage. They were then moved back into a 5g after the babies were seperated and fed off.

[littleindiangirl]

Wait...ferrets eat mice and rats?

LOL, thats what I said!

[Jay_Bunny]

Wait...ferrets eat mice and rats?

Yes they do. Its actually quite a good diet for them. Ferrets are strictly carnivorous and many commercial ferret foods have plant material in them like corn and such so the best diet to feed them is either a raw meat and bones diet or a whole prey diet. I feed our little girl a combination of whole prey and raw meat. She gets mostly mice but about 2-3 times a week she also gets raw meat like chicken, turkey, beef, or fish. A full grown ferret can put away anywhere from 14-21 mice a week. Mine goes through about 10 a week right now since she's also eating raw meat.

Rats shouldn't be that much of a change to her. I was actually asking some people on line about ferrets and full grown rats. The full grown rats would be f/t of course but they said a full grown rat would be a good meal for 2-3 ferrets.

Ferrets also enjoy eating quail, chicks, rabbit, fish, other small rodents, ect as whole prey items. A ferret keeper I was talking to said she also tried frogs and lizards but the ferrets were not as interested in them as the birds and rodents.

[dracovolans]

Probably your female ate her babys because you take one.

When you picked out the pinkie did you use gloves?

I breed mices, a lot of mices, and they don't like strange scents, if you pick one of the pinkies with your bare hands and touch others the chances that the mother eat them is very high.

I have 1.5 in a sweater box, and then transfer the pregos to a shoe box. The boxes are cleaned every week and when working with the litters I always use Latex Gloves, I pick the mother first out and then the pinkies to a separate shoe box, add new shaving to the tub and then make a nest with my knuckels and put the pinkies in, then the mother.

I have 0 problems using that method.

Hopes that help!

Draco

[ctrlfreq]

I did this specific pair in a 1.2 group but either the male or female killed the other female.

I would probably just feed off the pair and start over. If either one is aggressive enough to kill off another adult, it's got unfavorable genes as far as I'm concerned.

[Beardedragon]

I would also separate the females from the males before they lay( Erm... In the mammal way) I have heard more bad story's than good when keeping the male in with the female, sometimes it works out good, and in your case, badly. I'd defiantly feed these off and get another group, your best luck to find breeder sizes is to go find a good mom and pop pet store that has mice( pecto or petsmart mice did not seem to want to breed for me...)or look at your local craigslist. This worked out great for me and now i have alot of pregnant moms, and the ones that had baby's, still have their babys... who need to be weaned soon...

[amon]

Yes they do. Its actually quite a good diet for them. Ferrets are strictly carnivorous and many commercial ferret foods have plant material in them like corn and such so the best diet to feed them is either a raw meat and bones diet or a whole prey diet. I feed our little girl a combination of whole prey and raw meat. She gets mostly mice but about 2-3 times a week she also gets raw meat like chicken, turkey, beef, or fish. A full grown ferret can put away anywhere from 14-21 mice a week. Mine goes through about 10 a week right now since she's also eating raw meat.

Rats shouldn't be that much of a change to her. I was actually asking some people on line about ferrets and full grown rats. The full grown rats would be f/t of course but they said a full grown rat would be a good meal for 2-3 ferrets.

Ferrets also enjoy eating quail, chicks, rabbit, fish, other small rodents, ect as whole prey items. A ferret keeper I was talking to said she also tried frogs and lizards but the ferrets were not as interested in them as the birds and rodents.

Would eating raw meat make the Ferret more aggresive?

[frankykeno]

I never had any luck with mice. I had a lot of litters eaten too. I used to blame those "rotten" mice but I've come to figure out by talking to a lot of successful mouse feeder breeders that I tried to treat them like my rats and that just never seems to work.

They seem to not do as well in glass tanks or clear tubs and much better is dark bin type racks. They don't like to be bugged and a lot of busy movement around them which doesn't bother the rats at all. I think to be successful breeding mice you just have to understand how very different they are from rats and adjust your care of them.

I know people like Deb (GA) have great success with their mouse colonies.