how to breed mice and rats?

i was thinking of breeding mice and rats as it is expensive for me to feed all my snakes

i was looking for help from anyone on how to breed mice and rats

thanks

just get some males and females put them in tubs and you have an endless supply

so its thats easy great also what should i feed them??

thanks alex

The most important thing is to give them lots of space to exersize so they are lean and healthy food. I also think there are animal welfare issues with keeping them in small tubs.

i hput in a male and female together in a nice sized home and they had babys 6 weeks later and had more and more,they breed pretty good

thanks chris

if i keep them in tubs about 800mm W x 400mm D x 400mm H will that be good

also where should i purchase the mice from so that i know they are healthy

thanks jordan

I feed mine a mix of mostly seed with some dry dog food(apparently some are too high in salt so go for ones with less salt) and various scraps and left overs including bones. They will eat virtually anything and thrive, but IMO its important to give them a good varied diet so they make good reptile food.

Mice may also need to be seperated when they give birth as the males may eat the babies, not always a problem i just kill them if they do that until i have a friendly non baby eating male. Mice also stink heaps more than rats. basically rats are the way to go unless you need food the size of mouse pinkies.

We just started doing this

We have 4 cages

1 male and 3 females...

When we want the females to get pregnant we put them in with the male for about all of 5 minutes lol.

Then when the babies are weaned off their mums we are planning on moving them to another enclosure till they grow to what ever size we want.

Then after a while you keep a 'new' female and get rid of the other one.

Mrs I

xxx

petshop mice and rats are fine thats what i currently have anyway but if you want higher production mice go for super or crackenbush mice

thanks chris and mrs l so its not a good idea to keep them is the same cage all the time and it only takes them not long at all to fall pregnant

is it fine to keep them outside on a covered area away from direct sunlight

where could i get super or crackenbush mice from

vittozzi said:

thanks chris

if i keep them in tubs about 800mm W x 400mm D x 400mm H will that be good

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That would be great for mice, not really too sure with rats as i have never kept them in tubs. If i was using such tubs i would join them one on top of the other to create a 2 story house climibing up and down will give them lots of exercise.

Oh yeah welcome to the site

yeh when the mother mousey or raty has there babys take the dadda out or u wont have anythink left

also i get my mice and rats from the pet shop and there fine
the food i get from coles and woolies and just add stuff into it,its a mix thingo it says rat food and mice

thanks cris for th help and thanks for the welcome its a great help this site

Vittozzi, I have 3 rats in a cage the same size as yours and they are fine. I have 2 female and 1 male. They breed like crazy, and i dont have to remove my male at all, even when the females have babies. When i first started i was losing babies, ( they were eating them) but i was told its because there was a lack of protein in the food i was giving them, so i now put extra dog food pellets in the mixture and i havent had a problem for over 6 months now.
Bill.

biomare cubes from a produce shop is pretty cheap. if you are in sydney you can get supermice from me.

Bonustokin said:

Vittozzi, I have 3 rats in a cage the same size as yours and they are fine. I have 2 female and 1 male. They breed like crazy, and i dont have to remove my male at all, even when the females have babies. When i first started i was losing babies, ( they were eating them) but i was told its because there was a lack of protein in the food i was giving them, so i now put extra dog food pellets in the mixture and i havent had a problem for over 6 months now.
Bill.

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the baby eating thing is also psychological they get stressed if their is another older litter in the tub and then think theres something wrong with theirs. well thats what ive heard with mice anyway.

babies are a good source of protein....

What about nesting box and substrate?