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Post by fuzzymom on Nov 10, 2008 1:20:31 GMT -5
Congrats on the mice. If you lift them gently by their tails, you'll be able to see if they are male or female. The sex organs of the female are closer to the anus than that of the male. At 4-5 weeks, males can start breeding females, so I'd be careful keeping them together.
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Post by charmantpapillon on Nov 10, 2008 2:02:52 GMT -5
cute =) get your soil from walmart they have plain soil for about a dollar a bag. its what i'm using for my mice and wahts in beasts dig box.
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Nov 10, 2008 4:55:50 GMT -5
Fuzzymom: We have already taken a look... the variations between the mice are really little when it comes to the distance. I know that sounds silly, but even the woman I bought them from couldn't tell. I will have to look at more pictures!
Charmantpapillion: Thanks for she suggestion! There is no Walmart within 30 minutes of our house. We tried fred meyers but everything they had contained fertilizer or white flakes of some sort! There is a home depot down the street so I'll run there when I'm out of carefresh.
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Post by fuzzymom on Nov 10, 2008 10:50:06 GMT -5
If you don't feel wierd taking pictures of mice butts, you could post the pictures up and I can try and sex them for you. I am getting better at sexing rodents. I can sometimes sex baby rats as early as day one.
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Nov 10, 2008 11:20:55 GMT -5
I'm not sure if I will be able to take pics with my camera mixed with the wiggling bodies! No... I don't feel weird about it at all! Haha. After reading your reply last night I looked up more sexing pics and then looked at the mice. I could see nipples on a few, and a one seemed to be obviously male. Overall 3 were identified and 3 were not... I don't know if I should put the "maybes" in with the males or females?
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Nov 10, 2008 14:06:39 GMT -5
I mixed this up for a food mix, how does it look? I based it off of other members' homemade foods. I have a lot of unused pet kibble that I tried to thrown in, a little of each, but it is definately less than 1/2 of the total mix 2 cups quick oats 3 1/2 cups organic multigrain cereal 1/2 cup evo dog small bites 1/2 cup science diet dog food 1/4 cup ferret kibble (brand unknown) 1/4 cup Pretty Pets Natural Gold 1/2 cup castor and pollux natural kitten food 1 pound spaghetti broken up 1 cup white beans 3/4 cup sunflower seed (no shells) 5 pounds of rat/mouse lab blocks
I will also be feeding a fresh fruit or veggie every day, along with leftover bones from the ferrets and the occassional healthy human food scrap.
suggestions?
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Nov 11, 2008 20:46:51 GMT -5
Those dang mice are so cute!!! Whenever I stick my hand in their tank they make such cute little ticking/chirping sounds.
I tried sorting them out by sex today. Two are definitely female (nipples can be seen) but the other four are too hard to tell. I put the two females and the two "maybes" in the 10 gallon tank and the two males in a smaller cage. I should be picking up a 20 gallon tank tonight or tomorrow for $20! I will be putting the females in there and the males in the 10 gallon as soon as I get the new tank.
They all seem very happy... They don't know what to do with the lettuce and cucumber I offered them, but they munched up the bread crust I cut off from my sandwich. I saw one chewing on a stripped bone left over from the ferrets. I think they are eating everything from the mix I made from them too.
I am very excited to see how things turn out. I initially planned on letting them get to 10 weeks before breeding them, but since I can't tell them apart very well yet, I might have babies in less than three weeks! After I find out if they are or aren't pregnant along with their definite sexes, I will get them on a regular breeding schedule. Each female will be bred as soon as her previous litter has been weaned.
Do you guys know if it will be an issue if I have litters of different ages in the same tank?
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Post by tss on Nov 11, 2008 21:02:14 GMT -5
They shouldn't start breeding for about another week.. No guarantee though but I'm almost positve.
Since you are getting another tank I'd put the "maybe's" in one then seperate the males and females... That way if worse comes to worse you'll only end up with 2 pregnant does.
Having different age litters in one tank is fine, but be warned it's not uncommon for first litter to fail. If that happens just wait a couple weeks and try again.
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Nov 11, 2008 23:37:22 GMT -5
Great idea with the tanks, I haven't heard back again from the woman who is selling the 20 gallon on craigslist, but I have met with her before so expect to hear back from her by tomorrow.
Thanks for the warning about the 1st litter. I have read that many times before, so I don't expect much from the first litter. I will probably feed as many of the babies as I can to the ferrets as early as possible... Maybe with less babies the moms will be less likely to eat them. Also, my ferrets all need to practice killing young babies since they have very little experience with live prey.
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Nov 13, 2008 14:54:01 GMT -5
I picked up the 20 gallon today and put the female mice in it. It's MUCH roomier... they look teeny in there! One of the males, the smallest, didn't look too good today. I'm pretty sure he wasn't fully weaned when I got him... I fed him to the ferrets; it was the largest LIVE prey they have had so far. The baby (now named Pepina) killed it for the most part, then Didj finished him off and ate him. We said a prayer of thanks for the poor little guy. I was proud of the ferrets.
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Nov 13, 2008 16:00:39 GMT -5
I bought a few more things to add to my mouse food mix, here is the original mix:
2 cups quick oats 3 1/2 cups organic multigrain cereal 1/2 cup evo dog small bites 1/2 cup science diet dog food 1/4 cup ferret kibble (brand unknown) 1/4 cup Pretty Pets Natural Gold 1/2 cup castor and pollux natural kitten food 1 pound spaghetti broken up 1 cup white beans 3/4 cup sunflower seed (no shells) 5 pounds of rat/mouse lab blocks
And I added: + 1 cup red lentils + 1 cup halved yellow peas + 16 ounces organic whole wheat penne noodles + 6 ounces organic puffed kamut (wheat grain) + 2 ADDITIONAL cups Castor and Pollux kitten food
Does this look okay? As I said, they will get veggie, fruit, or bread scraps daily, along with bones from the ferrets.
Does anyone have information about mice's nutritional needs? I looked all over online and found nothing. I want percentages and such to get an idea of what they need. So far I have had no luck.
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Nov 15, 2008 11:05:53 GMT -5
Just a side note....
I found a woman who had been breeding pet rats that needed to get rid of all of them to avoid eviction. She had about 50 rats total and we ended up bringing home 14 females and 9 males, all about 2 months old. In addition to that, they gave us a 35 or so gallon tank, two bags of food, a wheel, and a water bottle.... ALL FREE! FFFFFFRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Even after they knew they would become food for my ferrets!
So far I have let Didj kill 6 males, I froze two of them for another meal.
I'm going to try to work on convincing Tony to let me keep 1 or 2 females and a male for breeding... Maybe.
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Post by Forum Administrator on Nov 15, 2008 23:13:11 GMT -5
I am SO jealous!!!!! Good luck and be sure to post pics!!!!
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Nov 16, 2008 22:21:15 GMT -5
Thanks Giuli!
I went back to the breeder's house today and picked up more females since I had less than expected.
I now have what SHOULD be 3 males and 5 females... as the develop a little more I will know for sure and feed all but 2 males to the ferrets. There are two black, one brown, one pink eyed white, and four adorable dalmations.
I will get more photos when I can find some batteries. They like their bigger tank and wheels. I wish I had more to say... More to come soon!
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Nov 21, 2008 2:58:13 GMT -5
With the addition of 23 rats to our house, so came a nice respiratory infection! My mice (8) and rats (13) are all on antibiotics that I got from a feed store. They have been on medication since Monday and I am seeing slight improvements. I won't be able to feed any of the mice or rats to my ferrets for a week after they are off antibiotics, but they should be on them for about two weeks.
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