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Post by bigsis7 on Oct 23, 2008 11:02:48 GMT -5
Ok, so I want to start Oliver and possibly Chewie on whole prey I have a few questions though (sorry if I've asked these before). If they are on a totally whole prey diet is that enough nutrition? How many kind of prey should be offered? I don't think I would go totally whole prey, but it may be an option some time. Also if I were to breed mice how much stink do they cause? My mom probably won't be up for me breeding mice anytime soon especially if they stink. Does it save a lot of money? For those of you who breed mice do you sell some of yours too? Also how much mice to ferrets usually eat a day? I'll have enough money to buy the mice, housing, food, bedding, etc. soon, but it's just a matter of my parents allowing it.
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Post by fuzzymom on Oct 23, 2008 11:40:49 GMT -5
I'm not sure about your first few questions but I can give you some information on raising your own feeders. Mice can be a bit stinky. I have only four right now, but I use a combination of two beddings and it keeps the smell down. I use wood pellet bedding on the bottom. I get a 20lb bag for about $6, and I use Aspen shavings on top. You can also add a drop or two of vanilla to their water bottles to lessen the smell of their urine. (The vanilla tends to gunk up the bottles from time to time though).
Mice are heavy breeders. When I first started breeding mice, I went from 4 to 20 mice in no time. You can get a decent colony going in a few months time. Mice should not be bred before they are 12 weeks old. From my experience, mice sold in pet stores tend to be anywhere from 5-10 weeks old, but sometimes you'll get older ones. Mice do well in a harem style breeding arrangement. Basically put several females in with a single male and just leave them be. Don't remove the male. Yes, he will re-breed the females after they give birth, but I've seen no adverse effects from back to back litters. I feed them Mazuri Rodent Lab Block 6F. I get this online for about $55 for 50lbs. It lasts me about 2 months with rodents. I also make a homemade mix of cornflakes, puffed grains, bran flakes, oatmeal, dried lentils/peas, cherrios, tri-colored pasta, and I give them left over fruits and veggies - uncooked.
If you want something that smells less, you can go with rats or african soft furred rats (illegal in some states).
I will be posting a breeding journal in the whole prey section for rats, gerbils, and mice soon. (I have 2 pregnant rats and 1 pregnant gerbil).
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Post by tss on Oct 23, 2008 12:48:09 GMT -5
If you used microwaved top soil as bedding the cages will NOT stink. You can buy a bag for $1 or $2, if you put about 3 or 4 inches in the cage all you've really got to do is scoop out the top layer in the corners of the tanks every few days. Scoop the whole top layer out every 2 weeks and replace the whole thing every few months.
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Post by fuzzymom on Oct 23, 2008 12:57:50 GMT -5
Never thought of soil, but pellet bedding and aspen work on keeping the smell down for me. My tanks only smell when it gets close to cleaning day.
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Post by Forum Administrator on Oct 23, 2008 15:37:14 GMT -5
I'll answer your first few questions, since others have already answered your other ones. Yes, you can feed him a completely whole prey diet. A whole prey diet is EXACTLY what they are built to eat, in fact that is what we are trying to replicate when we feed them a raw diet . To feed a balanced whole prey diet is easy. Just like raw, you need to provide variety of prey. I advise feeding atlest three types of prey: mice (or course), rats, chicks, rabbit, quail, lizards, guinea pig, etc. Ideally you'd be feeding 7 or so different types of prey, but they can get by on only 3-4 types. The other thing you'll need to do is provide a variety of AGES of prey. That means feeding them mostly adult animals, and then supplementing the diet with baby animals here and there. A raw/whole prey diet is going to provide the most variety, BUT you can certainly do JUST whole prey. With my guys we go through cycles. For a few months they'll eat JUST raw, then after that for a few months they'll eat raw/whole prey, and then its on to JUST whole prey, then back to JUST raw. I do this because i dont always have the $$$ to feed whole prey. The easiest way to obtain a nice variety of prey (and ages of prey) is to order prey online. I LOVE Rodentpro.com. They are a safe, secure, speedy company that has a ton of great variety. Dont let the price of shipping scare you off, even when you incorporate the shipping into your order, the prey STILL winds up being cheaper then if you bought from a petstore AND you can't get variety like that from a pet store, they cary mice, rats, chicks, quail, rabbit, and guinea pig (all in different ages). www.rodentpro.com
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Post by bigsis7 on Oct 23, 2008 16:19:49 GMT -5
Thanks everyone!! Ok another of my question is I might convince my mom better if the mice are not kept in the house, so I was thinking would it be ok to keep them in the garage? They would have secure housing and attention during the day, but the smell(if they did smell) would be outside. If I did this what are some ideas to keep them warm? I was thinking sleepy sacks like we give our ferrets but maybe a thicker material? And in the summer to keep them cool a frozen water bottle wrapped in something. I don't want to be cruel to them though, so would that be a bad idea? I don't think their minds work quite like ferrets, where they like to be somewhere with some human traffic, but I'd like your opinions.
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Post by Heather on Oct 23, 2008 22:35:27 GMT -5
I don't know about keeping them warm but according to my rat supplier, and I will guess that mice are the same, if it gets below a certain temp. your mice won't reproduce. I gather from her that it doesn't have to be particularly cold, but only cool to get them to slow down and stop reproducing. I don't know if this is indeed true but it would make sense. Just a thought. ciao
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