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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Oct 25, 2008 11:16:07 GMT -5
You should be able to find them at any pet store... Some pet stores will only carry one gender of a rodent to prevent people from breeding there own. I would say, just call around in your area and you should be able to find one. Check craigslist.com too.
FUZZYMOM- Another question! So if I leave the male in with the females, won't there be babies of all different ages in the cage? Even if I have one male and one female, the female will have a litter, and three weeks later, before the first litter is even weaned, she will have another, right? The mom can't nurse two litters at once. Gestation is about 19-21 days and weaning is 3.5 weeks right? How do you solve this problem?
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Post by fuzzymom on Oct 25, 2008 21:55:59 GMT -5
Weaning age is somewhere between 3-4 weeks. Anytime during that time period, if you see the babies eating solid food and drinking from the water bottle, you can pull them from the mother. I believe the females can delay the implantation of the embryos for a few days to give their current litter time to wean before she has another. I know gerbils can do it and I've never had an issue with mine having litters at the same time. Even if she did give birth when she still has her other litter, you could probably be pulling the first litter around that time.
If you have multiple females in with one male, they will have their babies normally within a week of each other if all are healthy, but this isn't always the case. I normally used up all the offspring before they were weaned so I never had a room issue. I would make sure if you will be using these mice as adult feeders, then make sure you put the group in a larger tank. A 10g will only hold but so many babies.
I will be doing a journal on mouse breeding as soon as my group is old enough for breeding. They are almost there. I might actually breed them a week early if they are up to weight. That's in about 3 weeks. I'm doing a rat one soon as well. As soon as my two females give birth.
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Post by animalsgetrevenge on Oct 26, 2008 0:05:03 GMT -5
Awesome Fuzzymom! My plan is to have two containers (clear rubbermaid style with ventilation). I will have one container with the breeding male and about four breeding females. After they breed, I will feed the males to my ferrets when it is time for them to be weaned (instead of weaning) and the females will be placed into another large container, where I will let them mature into adults, then feed them to my fuzzies. Does that sound like a good plan?
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Post by fuzzymom on Oct 26, 2008 21:36:48 GMT -5
Sounds like a good plan. You could even hold back a group of four girls from one of the litters and raise them up to be your replacement breeder group once your other group is starting to burn out. Mouse females are good for about a year's worth of breeding. After that, they start to produce bad litters or very small litters. With my rats, I let them give me 6 litters, and then they retire. Some will be fed off, some will be kept as pets to live out the remaining year or two of their life.  |
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Post by bigsis7 on Nov 3, 2008 9:08:01 GMT -5
Hi! Ok so if I do breed mice I would keep one male to two females. All kept in one cage. Then when the females get pregnant I would put them in a separate container to raise the babies and feed the male to the ferrets, so they don't breed right after giving birth. I'll feed the male mice from the litter at different ages. Some of the females will be fed to the ferrets also. I was also wondering if I breed rats (probably not for food) once they male babies were weaned could they go live with the male adults? And the baby females with the adult females? Thanks!
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Post by luxuriousferret on Nov 3, 2008 11:30:46 GMT -5
yes, but you "may" have to interduce them.
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Post by bigsis7 on Nov 3, 2008 12:21:44 GMT -5
Ok...I just wanted to make sure the males wouldn't hurt them....
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Post by luxuriousferret on Nov 3, 2008 12:43:01 GMT -5
yeah, they could, but not always, my local petstore just ploos them in there, and they are fine... but it is not reccamended to do that,
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Post by luxuriousferret on Nov 3, 2008 12:43:20 GMT -5
I mean plops
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Post by fuzzymom on Nov 3, 2008 13:08:32 GMT -5
You can house baby rats with adults but I'd be more worried about food issues. The bigger rats could hog the food and push the little ones around. When I introduce a "baby" rat to a group of adults, I make sure the younger is big enough to fend off the larger ones. I aim for the young rat to be at least 6-7 weeks old. I also try and keep females that I'm holding back with their mothers. Rats do form bonds with each other.
Breeding rats is so much more rewarding than mice, and I have much more experience in that area.
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Post by bigsis7 on Nov 3, 2008 15:35:38 GMT -5
I loved my pet rats so I wouldn't be able to feed my ferrets rats. That's another thing I was worried about was the bonds formed. If I bred rats I would try to find homes for the more strongly bonded pairs of rats together.
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Post by fuzzymom on Nov 5, 2008 10:21:30 GMT -5
Rats will actually become depressed if they live by themselves. Other than nursing mothers I don't leave any rat alone in a cage.
Rats make good feeders and are easier to breed but I can see why you would have problems with that since you have pets. (Many of my breeders are my pets. I could never feed them off) You could breed hamsters, mice, gerbils, african soft furred rats.
I plan on breeding all of those and when I have a house I plan on expanding and breeding rabbits, button quail, and chickens.
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trippyferret
Gnawing on bones
The Weasels of Warcraft be goin' natural!
Posts: 78
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Post by trippyferret on Nov 7, 2008 1:48:54 GMT -5
Rats will actually become depressed if they live by themselves. Other than nursing mothers I don't leave any rat alone in a cage. So true. My very first pet rat Alfredo had severe depression because he had been kept singly in a 10g aquarium. I decided I might like to start breeding pet rats, which turned out to be a bad idea. I bought Alfredo a female named Squeakers, who seemed pretty sweet and on occasion would give kisses, but when I bred her.... she was a nightmare!!! Extremely aggressive! She bit THROUGH my fingernail. I still have a scar on my middle finger. Even before she had her pups and was just pregnant, she was just.... EVIL. God she's bit me so hard that I've nearly fainted. And I don't cry normally from pain, but rat bites are some of the worst bites I've ever experienced, and I cried so many painful tears from her. Don't know if anyone knows this, but when rats bite aggressively, they separate their bottom teeth to make a more jagged, painful bite. I kept some of the rats from her first litter, who were absolutely wonderful(still have one of them with me and he is the sweetest thing!), but her second litter didn't make it as she didn't produce enough milk. Even after I stopped breeding her because of how poorly she did with her last litter, she was extremely aggressive. I could only handle her with a towel. I just couldn't handle her at all, and ended up having to give her away. Now don't get me wrong, rats are wonderful, affectionate, sweet pets. I have two and they love to give me kissies and groom my hair! But I will NEVER breed rats again. Just my 2 cents. |
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Post by fuzzymom on Nov 7, 2008 13:01:08 GMT -5
Rat mommas are naturally aggressive and will often lash out when they suspect their babies of being in danger. Don't let a single mother rat ruin your breeding experience. I have personally never been bitten by ANY of my female rats, even those that we were not able to handle. Something you could do if you plan on breeding with tanks as the enclosures is to get a piece of cardboard and cut it do the width of the tank. That way you can use it as a wall. Seperate the mother from the litter by scooting her away from the pups (if you keep scooting her she will leave the nest) and then use the cardboard wall to seperate her from the litter. This will give you access to the litter without having to worry about momma rat coming to attack. Don't worry about her rejecting the litter. Most female rats do not reject litters simply because a human touched them. (I have 2 female rats about to drop babies any day now.  ) |
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Post by bullet on Nov 7, 2008 22:57:46 GMT -5
I see something very wrong here....(I've been breeding and raising rats and mice for 6 years) What I see wrong is that you are saying to leave the males in with the females at all times. This is actually quite dangerous not only to the male but to the babies as well. I learned this early in breeding when my male was left in the cage with the momma and babies and he killed a baby and momma killed him.
ALSO, if you are going to breed rats DO NOT keep them in an aquarium tank. This is not healthy for them, which may be why your female was aggressive trippy, depending on the size of the rats they should be in a cage that would be suitable...well for a ferret. I'm sorry if I'm stepping on toes but I don't want to see the mice and rats who aren't being fed to the ferrets or whatnot suffer unnecessarily....I have a few other concerns but I think I will simply shut up so as not to start a fight. I have had that happen all to many times before when I step in on other forums but dangit, I may breed feeders but a couple are pets as well and feeder or not I love my little rodent buddies....I hate it when I see misinformation...
Malissa
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