So… this evening when I came to check on my rodents I saw that one of my mouse breeder bins completely flooded from a leaking water nozzle. I just lost my main mouse breeder colony that feeds all of my kingsnakes…
I’m super upset right now but I need to figure out where I can get some better water nozzles that won’t have as high of a risk leaking. The ones I was using were amazon bought nozzles, not spring loaded but the other kind with the rubber washer that releases water when the little metal rod is pushed around.
Anyone know a reliable source of good quality water nozzles? I just feel at a loss right now because I’m going to have to find out where I can get a new breeding group of mice in an area where they are not readily available. Any help on where I can buy better watering equipment would grealty be appreciated.
Unfortunately I can’t really tell you where to find better nozzles. I use the spring ones from reptile basics and have still lost some rats to flooded tubs.
What I can tell you is if you have hard water the type of nozzle probably won’t matter.
I have to do a full CLR soak of my water tub and nozzles every 4-6 months because the calcium buildup will affect the quick release and the nozzles themselves. I even let it sit in the lines and do a full flush on them after a bit.
I got lazy the last time and thought it was just one nozzle. My bottom tub rats were not happy to once again be wet the next morning. Thankfully it’s been really warm here so they didn’t get overly chilled.
I don’t have a whole lot of buildup on my nozzles but I do notice that some of them are quite loose no matter how much I tighten them. I’ve had minor floods in the past but none that have taken any of my rodents out with it, these guys all unfortunately drowned.
I feel awful though, I just upgraded the water container I use for the system so idk if maybe the pressure of more water was too much. It flooded really bad and none of the mice could get out of it
I guess I could give reptile basics a look and try their nozzles.
The pressure could be part of it.
When the scale gets built up on my quick release it leaks and causes more pressure in the line. That’s usually when my last nozzle starts to drip.
That still really sucks though. I hope you can get it sorted.
Sorry for the problems u r having i cant help much but it does sound like the pressure is the problem if it was on this scale since the upgrade of container size and was only minor before
I got my water nozzles replaced! Haven’t had any leaks or floods since then thankfully
I also have a few female mice that were in another bin that are massively preggo now so I’ll be keeping a bunch of females from their litters to recover from the colony loss, I just need to get an unrelated male now and I believe I will be able to get back into a mouse colony very soon
I ended up having a bin cannibalize the whole litter. I don’t know if it was a dystocia issue or not, but I culled the 1:2 just in case. I’ve never had luck with any mouse that has done that unless it was a still born or runt. The one time I did try again she cannibalized her own babies before stressing the other mom out by stealing/raising her babies.
Thats why I got the 2.6 group to replace the ones committing infanticide, haven’t had it happen since. It still sucks because the group I lost were really great breeders super friendly too.
Hopefully the little ones I raise up can meet or excel in those qualities.
The 2 pregnant females are offspring from the lost group, I’m really glad I decided on keeping them.
Just wanted to bring up one more thing thats a bit off topic.
I’ve been looking into the “Shunamite Diet” for my rodents because I dislike feeding them dog food, despite the efforts to find kibble that is higher in grain than protein. Edit: I forgot to add in that I do already supplement them with fresh food scraps, but the kibble has been their staple since I’ve begun breeding them and I just want to offer them a beneficial change in diet.
I haven’t dug too deep into it but I have a few grains, oats, dried fruits and veggies, seeds, as well as dried Hibiscus flowers on my shopping list to try for them and I wanted input on what else might be a good addition, or a bad addition.
Also what differences would be needed between Mice, Rats, and ASFs because if the diet can’t provide for all of the species I would want to be able to compensate for them.
That’s a neat looking diet mix.
The downside is just how to keep that from becoming a mess in my tubs. That’s sadly the part about rodent chow that makes it easy and ‘cleaner’.
I say that cause the poop waste may be a bit less with that diet, but the scattered and spoiled/peed on food is not what I want.
I haven’t tried it to really say but Teklad does have variable protein in the lab blocks.
I’ve been using a high fat rat block for a bit that seems to have really helped with my mouse colony production… But I feel like it hasn’t helped my rat production. Which is kinda sad cause that was recommended by another rat breeder for better production.
I might try a Tek diet for my rats and see how that does since my local feed store sells both.
Here’s a screenshot of the Teklad breakdowns:
Same here, I was thinking to maybe design and 3D print some foraging boxes so they can’t dig out the food and just scatter it all over the place. I haven’t had any issues with my rodents soiling their food containers though, so idk if it would change if I gave them a different type of container. Maybe if I designed it to hang off of some wire from the side of the bin it would discourage the soiling behavior, thats at least what I do for their current food bowls.
I for now just use spare plastic deli cups, the ones used typically for shipping small reptiles and miraculously they haven’t destroyed them yet.
From what I’ve heard from other rodent breeders that produce pet quality rodents is that Rats do better with a more protein rich diet, and Mice do better with a more whole grain and fat rich diet so it kinda makes sense.
Thats why I was concerned with the Shunamite Diet not equally meeting the standards of both mice, rats, and ASFs since although they are similar in ways, they are different in some of their needs. I’m still learning with the ASFs but they seem to do well on a diet similar to the domestic Rats at least.
Yeah. The requirements being similar and also wildly different is frustrating. The breeder I was speaking with raises rats exclusively so I went with it to see.
I also might just need to look at expanding out the bloodline in my colony. I had two different moms drop litters of 7 when I used to never have any under 10.
I have raised rats and mice but in small quantities. IMO breeding your own mice is pretty much essential for raising up some species of colubrids due to insisting on live. When I used to purchase WC animals, having rat pups and crawlers was also a huge stress reliever because I could leave them in with the animals and the movement would get feeding responses while they settled in. I didn’t find rats much different to mice other than they were easier to breed and no infanticide issues. I never found an ideal line of mice. I tried several and all of them had infanticide issues if kept in large groups. I eventually went to 1.2. Issues were extremely rare at those numbers. With rats, I did keep them in bigger groups. I greatly prefer rodent food over dog food and think you’ll notice a difference in the rodents coats. I am using mazuri. I used to live near a store that would order another brand, I think it was called Kent.
What kind of Mazuri do you use? Looking on their website they have “6F”, “9F”, and “11F” Rodent breeder diet. I’m not entirely sure what those categories specify? Is it a nutrient percentage?
Thankfully I actually have a feed store supplier in town that sells Mazuri so I’ll be stopping by there soon to grab a bag, so I was just curious about what those categories meant.
super friendly too.
