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Post by nwheather on Dec 11, 2008 15:48:39 GMT -5
Very interesting! There is NO WAY my hubby would go for it though. He said "ABSOLUTELY NOT" on feeding live mice,even occationally for enrichment. ~thinking to myself~ I suppose if I were to try it, to see if they liked live mice, when he wasn't around, I could periodically feed live mice when he's on duty.....hmmmmm..if he didn't know.....good thing he doesn't read this forum...LOL Well, most of you know that he is now my "ex" & I am waiting for him to move out. (He has stayed until some things pan out so I can keep the house.) What he doesn't know is that once he moves out, I am turning the room he is staying in, into a mouse colony room. I have cut & pasted info from here, along with all of the awesome links to breeding feeder mice (I have 142 pages!). I will begin to plan to start my breeder colony within the next few weeks, I hope. =) It will save me a lot of money, & I could even increase the number of mice I feed to my whole prey eaters, which would cut back on their kibble intake. =) I like the idea of the ferrets dispatching the mice, it helps with enrichment & keeps me from having to do it (I think I will do the dry ice option as a backup though). I tell ya, if/when I end up in another relationship, he's going to HAVE TO do more than "just tolerate" the ferrets, & accept the fact that I feed them mice. LOL Kim, I love your bin setup for your mice, I think I will go that route.
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Dec 11, 2008 18:59:19 GMT -5
I bet it feels really good to have the "ferret-hater" on his way out. Your ferrets will thank you twice: once for losing the man and again for the mice colony! Congrats
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Post by nwheather on Dec 11, 2008 21:10:53 GMT -5
I bet it feels really good to have the "ferret-hater" on his way out. Your ferrets will thank you twice: once for losing the man and again for the mice colony! Congrats LOL He didn't hate them, he likes most animals, but he is not as fond of ferrets or cats. He actually helped me pick out my cat when we first started dating, & a couple years down the road was hinting at letting him stay with the condo-jokingly-I asked him why he helped me pick the cat out if he didn't really care for cats, & his response; "I didn't think we'd be staying together"...nice, huh? I think he "allowed" the ferrets out of guilt, because of all the crap he pulled. As he is moving out, I will tell him what his room is going to be used for, & if he hasn't figured it out by then, I will also let him know I have added more ferrets to my crew. =) (He hasn't noticed that I have the two new adopted ferrets plus two fosters.) He knows I have two that I am ferret sitting, but he hasn't noticed that there's four more in the ferret room. =) Hehe
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Post by nwheather on Dec 19, 2008 10:29:19 GMT -5
Well, I have begun my quest to start a feeder mice colony. I bought two 58gallon plastic tote, & two 20 gallon totes, to see which would work best. I started off with two groups of 1 male, 2 females, from different pet stores. I have them each set up in the 58 gallon totes, but after reading Kims post, I think I will switch the groups to the 20 gallon totes, & use the 58 gallon totes for when I separate the juveniles, one for the boys, one for the girls. This will allow me to have room for more breeding totes. I will be going out today to get more totes to set up. =) My organization process is a work in process, but I will label each tote w/ #'s, then keep track of the breeders & their babies, so I can use some for hold back in future breeders. I told my ex to be out by this weekend, & as soon as that room is empty, I am moving a set of shelves into it, to make my complete setup. Once I have the set up finished, I will post pics & keep you updated on my progress. I am excited to be able to save money for my ferrets & hope to increase the amount of whole prey that they eat & decrease the amount of kibble they eat (which will save even more money). =)
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ferretfreke
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Raw and Whole Prey Feeder[/b]
Posts: 235
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Post by ferretfreke on Sept 18, 2009 0:59:24 GMT -5
Kim,
What happened to your set-up pictures? I'm working on setting up to start my own colony and liked your set up. Could you possibly post those pictures again?
Thanks, Nykol
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Post by msktty89 on Jan 29, 2010 18:35:39 GMT -5
LOL He didn't hate them, he likes most animals, but he is not as fond of ferrets or cats. He actually helped me pick out my cat when we first started dating, & a couple years down the road was hinting at letting him stay with the condo-jokingly-I asked him why he helped me pick the cat out if he didn't really care for cats, & his response; "I didn't think we'd be staying together"...nice, huh? I think he "allowed" the ferrets out of guilt, because of all the crap he pulled. As he is moving out, I will tell him what his room is going to be used for, & if he hasn't figured it out by then, I will also let him know I have added more ferrets to my crew. =) (He hasn't noticed that I have the two new adopted ferrets plus two fosters.) He knows I have two that I am ferret sitting, but he hasn't noticed that there's four more in the ferret room. =) Hehe I laughed at this. I think that's a very nice use of the room.
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Post by jccretarolo on Mar 13, 2010 17:44:04 GMT -5
I'm thinking *if* I can get my crew to eat mice I might start breeding them. I'm planning on using 20qt bins with 3 females in it. I will have 7 of these set up and keep any female babies I get until I have all 7 bins with 3 females. I will only have one male at a time and to start he will be in his own bin and he will be fed as soon as his daughters are of breeding age. I will then get a new male (I figure I will get the males from different places so I can hopefully bring in new blood).
When I have all 7 bins set up and all are old enough to breed the male will go from bin to bin (in order of age) and get to spend 1 week in the bin, then move to the next bin in line. I figure that by the time he is ready to go back into bin 1 the girls will have had 7 weeks without him and should be OK to breed again.
Does this sound like it will work? I also figure I will need 2 larger bins to use as grow out bins for the babies so I'm thinking I will use 18gal totes for that.
How many times should I breed the females before I retire them as feeders? I was thinking 4-6 breedings before holding back 3 females to replace them. Of course if one group doesn't produce well I would be replacing them sooner.
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Post by goingpostal on Mar 14, 2010 0:29:16 GMT -5
That sounds about right, babies should be weaning age when your male goes back in. I would consider picking up more than one male though, I always leave mine in until they look pregnant. I retire mine after about 9 months of breeding, I had a couple females start getting tumors about that age but I had held back some babies so it worked out well to switch out the groups. I had a couple that killed their babies that were retired after two tries as well.
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Post by tngmom on Apr 10, 2010 10:54:00 GMT -5
Those are some really good ideas. Thanks everyone for the ideas. I will tyr them soon as possible.
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