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Post by fuzzymom on Feb 11, 2009 13:23:41 GMT -5
Current Breeding Males: 0 Current Breeding Females: 1 Current Litters Produced: 1 Current Offspring Produced: 0 (Have not counted)
We have started our colony over. With all the stress of life and things going on, we found homes for or fed off all of our breeding animals except the gerbils, which are being fed off this week (might keep the breeding pair and one female though). At first I had no intention of starting up another colony, but when I went to feed my snakes last week, we ended up with a pregnant mouse from the store. I have a thing about feeding off pregnant females, so I set her up in a 5g tank with water, food, and bedding and she had her babies last night. I haven't counted them yet. I mentioned to my husband that it would be better to breed our own. If feeding only mice (which we would probably feed rats and gerbils as well) we would go through 112 mice per week. That is two mice per ferret, per meal.
If I also feed other types of feeders or add in raw meat, that number goes down.
With this female's litter, I'm going to keep 1-2 females and feed off the rest. I will then get a male and start my first breeding group of the colony. Wish me luck this time. I'm starting out with mice right now since I'm waiting for my rat to reach breeding size. She's about half way there.
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Post by fuzzymom on Feb 13, 2009 8:59:37 GMT -5
Current Breeding Males: 0 Current Breeding Females: 1 Current Litters Produced: 1 Current Offspring Produced: 11
I counted the female's litter and she gave birth to 11 babies. They are 3 days old now. The mother is albino so I expect the babies to be as well since all the males she was housed with at the petstore were albino. I'll be getting a colored male once I'm ready to start breeding her. She has 3 weeks left with these babies, 3 weeks vacation (at that time, I'll get the male and put him in quarantine) and then she'll be introduced to the male along with 1-2 of her daughters. While I used to do harem style breeding, this go around I've decided to try rotation style.
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Post by fuzzymom on Feb 13, 2009 16:44:10 GMT -5
Current Breeding Males: 0 Current Breeding Females: 1 Current Litters Produced: 1 Current Offspring Produced: 11 I have cleaned up and readied a 10 gallon tank and will be fixing up another as well. I've gotten the ok from my husband to start up my colony in attempts to reduce our ferret and snake feeding bill. So I told him I'm going to get two groups of females an two males. I will post pictures if I can get my camera to work. I will be getting 3 females for one tank, plus one male, and 2 females for the other tank, plus one male. The one with two females will be joined by the current mom once she is done raising her babies. With 6 producing females, I should start getting a decent number of babies every month.
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Post by harrisi on Feb 14, 2009 10:27:48 GMT -5
Thats great you got the OK from your hubby!! Good luck with the feeders, keep use posted.
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Post by fuzzymom on Feb 14, 2009 11:32:40 GMT -5
We will be getting the new mice on Tuesday. I cant wait. I will eventually build rat tubs with mesh sides so they are stackable. In a setup like that I can fit 9-12 enclosures in the same amount of space I would normally have 3-4 tanks. I will post pictures when I get them.
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Post by AnimalFarm2006 on Feb 17, 2009 10:49:06 GMT -5
Howdy!
Good luck on your mice. I started my own colony, and now i am just waiting for the kids to get preggie and pop. I've noticed that one of my females has been building a nest, so i'm thinking she most likely got pregnant at the store.
Also, You are near me. I live in Colonial Beach, about 1-45 hours from you.
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Post by fuzzymom on Feb 17, 2009 12:14:47 GMT -5
Wow you are not far at all! I'm getting my mice today. In about an hour actually when the store opens. I'll make sure to get pictures! We had a talk with my mother in law and she's not to happy about me breeding feeders, but I told her I'd at least like to have 2-3 breeding groups going. She is worried that the smell will get into the house. I use a really good wood pellet bedding that absorbs odor really well, so hopefully that won't be a problem.
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Post by fuzzymom on Feb 18, 2009 12:33:32 GMT -5
Current Breeding Males: 1 Current Breeding Females: 3 Current Litters Produced: 0 Current Offspring Produced: 0
All the babies from that first litter died. Not sure why, but it might have been because the mother was so young (5-6 weeks old). I culled the mother and went out and got my first breeding group. It is a 1.3 group living in a 10g tank. I'm just hoping the cats (mostly my two boys) do not find the mice. Liam and Ramman have already proved themselves to be mousers, so I'm really hoping they don't try and get to my breeders.
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Post by fuzzymom on Feb 20, 2009 13:22:01 GMT -5
The breeders have survived the kitties....for now. I have them secluded in a corner and for the moment, the cats are ignoring them. I have a gray and white female, black and white female, black female, and an albino male. It will be interesting to see what babies they will have. As soon as I can get another 10g tank cleaned and sanitized, I'm going to get another group of breeders. I have seen some really neat colors before, so hopefully I can get some nice colors when I go.
I have seen no breeding behavior with Group A, but we shall see. The females might already be pregnant since they were in a bin with males. I treated them this morning to a wonderful breakfast. Since I was treating the rats, I figured the mice should have some too.
Radishes Romaine Lettuce Peas Kiwi Strawberries Egg - scrambled Shrimp - cooked (we had like 4 individual shrimp and my husband didn't want them)
The rodents were very excited! Their cage is rather bare right now but I hope to make them some toys to keep them busy. Toilet tissue rolls for tunnels, maybe make some little houses out of wood or cardboard. I have lots of chewing sticks. Any other ideas to keep them entertained? I have a running wheel somewhere. It is one of those safe (no bars) silent ones.
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Post by harrisi on Feb 20, 2009 16:47:28 GMT -5
To keep them entertained bird toys are great, ladders, chew ropes etc.
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Post by fuzzymom on Mar 3, 2009 14:47:27 GMT -5
Current Breeding Males: 1 Current Breeding Females: 4 Current Litters Produced: 0 Current Offspring Produced: 0
My bird tends to break his toys but I guess they'd still be useful to the mice. Well, we had a snow storm over the weekend, and our apartment lost power. Our first priority was the snakes as they can't stand temperatures below 70. We got them over to my mother in laws house. (we are moving here anyway) and got them settled in. We left the rest of the animals at the apartment for the night. (We had gotten the call at 11:30pm that our apartment didn't have power, so it was on short notice to get any animals out.) The next morning we went to get the rest of the animals. When we got there we had lost two rats and the mice were near death. It was probably in the mid to upper 30s. We quickly got the remaining rodents out to the heated car and got everyone else over to the house. The mice and rats heated up nicely and are now eating and drinking normally.
I did notice that one of the females looked a little plump. She might be pregnant but I'm not sure. How will the cold temperatures she endured affect her pregnancy?
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Post by harrisi on Mar 3, 2009 17:27:13 GMT -5
She might re-absorb the litter or try induce the pregnancy and eat the litter, but dont worry too much.
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Post by fuzzymom on Mar 3, 2009 17:42:50 GMT -5
She's still looking plump today, so hopefully she will carry the pregnancy to full term if she is indeed pregnant. All are eating like piggies and drinking fine. I'm trying to spiff up their cage a little. They have a cardboard house, toilet paper roll and a half chewed up wooden ladder that I have attached to the cardboard house (it belonged to my bird and he had started to chew one end).
I also ripped up some newspaper for the female to make a nest with in the next week or so.
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Post by fuzzymom on Mar 11, 2009 21:05:59 GMT -5
Current Breeding Males: 1 Current Breeding Females: 4 Current Litters Produced: 0 Current Offspring Produced: 0 The mice do well. I think the female did reabsorb her litter, since she is no longer plump. I see no signs of pregnancy from any of the females but I think the snow storm and being cold might have put their mind off that sort of thing for a few days. They are more active now and I'm crossing my fingers that the girls get some action soon.
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Post by fuzzymom on Mar 16, 2009 8:39:56 GMT -5
Current Breeding Males: 1 Current Breeding Females: 4 Current Litters Produced: 0 Current Offspring Produced: 0
All the females are of good weight and I'm crossing my fingers that some or all could be pregnant. Two of them look plump. I did discover something strange. One of my females, the orange and white, has huge patches of fur missing. Almost like it was pulled out. None of the other mice have it, only this one. What could it be? Should I cull her?
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