how to breed mice and rats?

[cris]

Do any of you realise that constantly breeding your rats and mice is bad for them? If they are left with the male they can get pregnant again once they have given birth to their 1st litter. Then before that 1st litter is even weaned she will have the next litter. This makes them exhausted and they can die before their babies can grow. I know it doesn't matter if you only want pinkies but what if you want older ones? They aren't going to grow up to be very healthy, and then you are going to feed that to your snake.

IMO it isnt as bad as ppl make out it is, if you have a few females they all share the work load and i have had some breed continously over 2years without any trouble(i generally cull them earlier). Although i do always remove some of the babies at various stages. I would be suprised if they didnt breed continously in the wild during good times and in captivity they have unlimited food. I have never had any rats in poor condition and they are fairly low in fat and always have healthy looking organs etc. I have also never had any rat casualties(except when i whack their head on a brick etc.).

Perhaps raising litters of 15 up to adults constantly with only one female to look after them may be a problem, but i doubt it would reduce their food value. If anything it would probably make them leaner.

 

[snakeitup]

heres a few pics of my set-up
Basically how it works- is in the first pic you can see the "breeding box" this is 1.6m long x 60cm wide it houses 30-40 females and 4-5 males. Once the girls are pregnant they are removed to give birth and raise their bubs in their own tub ( see pic 2 ). Once the babies are weaned off the mother they are moved into one of the "growing boxes" ( see in pic 3 ) which are 2m long and 70cm wide, as you can imagine these are fairly large boxes and can hold plenty of rats up untill they reach the size i need. When the babies are removed from their mother she is then placed back into the breeding box.
They are fed on working horse mix, grains, vegies and bio-mare cubes and absolutely thrive in spacious conditions
Cheers, James

 

[bitey]

heres a few pics of my set-up
Basically how it works- is in the first pic you can see the "breeding box" this is 1.6m long x 60cm wide it houses 30-40 females and 4-5 males. Once the girls are pregnant they are removed to give birth and raise their bubs in their own tub ( see pic 2 ). Once the babies are weaned off the mother they are moved into one of the "growing boxes" ( see in pic 3 ) which are 2m long and 70cm wide, as you can imagine these are fairly large boxes and can hold plenty of rats up untill they reach the size i need. When the babies are removed from their mother she is then placed back into the breeding box.
They are fed on working horse mix, grains, vegies and bio-mare cubes and absolutely thrive in spacious conditions
Cheers, James

congrats, nice set up you have going there

 

[vittozzi]

how old do the mice and rats have to be untill i can separate them from their mother so that the will grow up on their own??

thanks so much guys you have been a big help

 

[benson]

3 weeks is fine.

 

[vittozzi]

how long dose it take for mice and pats to be fully grown from the day they are born?

also what are weaner mice and weaner rats??

 

[benson]

Sorry, never bred pats!!

 

[vittozzi]

i mean rats not pats sorry

 

[bitey]

this is a weaner rat http://www.strictlyreptiles.com.au/shop/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=404

 

[vittozzi]

ohh but are they fully grown or a baby??

 

[bitey]

baby, just after they open eyes and start to fend for themselves

 

[vittozzi]

how old do mice and rats have to be untill they can breed

 

[bitey]

on average id wait till they are at least a few months old and of reasonable size, about 3 months.
but i have had them pregnant earlier than this before at about 8 weeks old

 

[Krystal]

Weaner mice and rats are when they have stopped feeding from their mother and are eating only the food you give them. So they are not babies anymore but they're not adults either (like teenagers )
You can separate the babies from their mothers when they are weaned - mice I do at about 3 1/2 weeks and rats at about 4 1/2 to 5 weeks.
Mice are full grown at about 2 months and rats about 5 months.
They can start breeding at about 4 weeks on for mice and 5 weeks on for rats - this can happen earlier which is why you need to separate the males from females once they are weaned.
You could breed your mice at about 1-2 months old and rats at 3-4 months old.