I only wish mice sold for $2.50 here. I’m paying $4.99 each. Most all of my snakes are taking f/t but occasionally one of my stubborn males will refuse. So after a couple of missed feedings, I’ll pick up a live mouse and toss it in. That seems to get him back feeding for a while.
I’ve tried breeding mice , 1.3 ratio . I’ll get a litter from each female and then nothing. It’s not worth it to me. I spend more taking care of the mice than having to buy an occasional live one.
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I hear you, I’m luck enough to have back-ups
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I agree! That was the exact ratio I used as well. I think the only reason I got multiple babies from 2 out of the three females is I know the employees at a reptile specific pet store and got some young actual breeders that they were using themselves. I believe stock and getting from the same colony is a big factor in mice breeding. Still though 1 female kept eating hers, but not the others and I gave up on mice, I buy them know, trying really hard to switch to rats or at least frozen.
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Yeah, sadly the only thing you can really do when a female mouse is eating her babies is removing her from the colony. They don’t seem to really ever stop.
The other downside is mice are also more prone to issues with birthing than rats, so more stillborns tend to happen. On the rare side, you might even loose a mother from time to time from complecations
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@ballornothing, I was pursuing this old conversation looking if anyone has good success with large harem type mouse breeding setups (along the lines of 2.10 or larger), and I saw your note about “1.3 or in huge colonies”. What size do you mean when you say huge?
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I’d be careful about doubling up on males. I haven’t looked into size requirements for it, but male mice will fight. They also tend to abscess, so what starts out as a simple bite can end up becoming a large area of raised bumpy skin with the thick pus underneath.
It may also be harder to discern which female is the problem in a group that large. I feel like any time I’ve bred mice, I always have a female that needs to be removed for an issue. The last one was eating her own offspring and then stealing all the other pinkies and driving the moms off.
Also in larger groups, it may be harder to raise healthy babies as the piles may get too large and the smaller/weaker babies will get pushed out when feedings.
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