|
Post by harrisi on Jul 29, 2009 15:16:30 GMT -5
If I were you I would get 8 males and rotate them around females, I find once the males have mated a few times they won't go back with other males, but rotating constantly means you dont have to have 8-16 male mouse tubs! I prefer to pull male mice whilst the females give birth/raise litters.
|
|
|
Post by fuzzymom on Aug 2, 2009 15:04:30 GMT -5
Well I'm hoping at least one of the females is pregnant. I've been keeping an eye on her. Not only is she looking a little pudgy, but she's gained 4 grams in the past week. The other two are not showing signs of being pregnant, but I have my fingers crossed.
|
|
|
Post by fuzzymom on Aug 6, 2009 14:38:05 GMT -5
Success! One of the black and white females (the one I originally suspected) is definitely pregnant. She is starting to show big time. Her sides are beginning to bulge and she walks with a little waddle. Very cute. The father is an albino, so I'm curious as to the colors. If the litter does well I'm going to set aside 3 females to use for another breeding colony. I'm going to hopefully get a few breeding colonies out of this group. This will be their first litter. I will take a few females from each litter to make another breeding group and the females I take from their 2nd to last litter (I'm only allowing them to produce 6 litters per female) will replace the females in that breeding group. I hope I'm making sense. I will purchase males to keep new blood in the colony but it would be a lot cheaper to breed for my own breeding females rather than going out and spending money on that many girls. I have finally found a place to get good sized, healthy mice for breeding but each mouse is more than $2. Since I am going to need over 60 females to have a good sized colony, buying that many would be well over $120 worth of females. Since I can't have that many now, I'm going to breed for my own and save me some money. By the time I move, I should have 3-4 breeding groups together. I'll take pictures and post them soon. I like keeping a visual diary of my animals so doing so with my mouse colony could be fun too.
|
|
|
Post by fuzzymom on Aug 6, 2009 16:02:55 GMT -5
And I've decided to give them all names so I can keep track of bloodlines and such. I love breeding for colors! I only got pictures of the two pregnant female. The other female looks just like Cupcake. Don't have a name for her yet, but the male is named Frosting. Cookie Cupcake You can see the obvious bulge in Cupcake. How far along do you think she is? Just a guess from a very short previous experience breeding mice, I'd say she is entering her 3rd week and will probably deliver next week.
|
|
|
Post by fuzzymom on Aug 8, 2009 21:47:30 GMT -5
The third female is pregnant! So I have one female due to pop within the week, another going to pop either next week or the week after, and the third female is finally starting to show. Pictures will be posted as soon as I get the first litter!
|
|
|
Post by fuzzymom on Aug 9, 2009 20:13:42 GMT -5
Well surprises popping up all over the place today. Cookie is giving birth right now. Pics to come as soon as she's done and settled in with her babies.
|
|
|
Post by fuzzymom on Aug 10, 2009 11:53:03 GMT -5
Cookie only had 2 babies. I'm sure she didn't have more and eat them. I've used one baby already as a feeder for my ball python hatchling that won't eat on her own. I'm not sure if I want to let her raise the other baby to wean age or if I just want to go ahead and feed that baby off, let her rest a few days and put her back with the male.
|
|
|
Post by fuzzymom on Aug 11, 2009 8:59:30 GMT -5
With all the noise from yesterday (sister and her friend were over to see the snakes and they were LOUD) Cookie ate her remaining baby. I put her back in with the male. The other two are looking ever more plump. I swear Cupcake is going to explode if she gets any bigger! She has to waddle like a duck to get around. I can't wait to see babies from these two. The father is albino so who knows what he carries. I think Cupcake will deliver sometime in the next 2-3 days so I will update on how many babies there are!
|
|
|
Post by fuzzymom on Aug 28, 2009 20:32:47 GMT -5
Number of Breeding Males: 1 Number of Breeding Females: 3 Number of Litters Produced: 2 Number of Offspring Produced: 15 Well those two mommies are working hard. Cupcake had 7 babies but I had to feed some off. I need to go count everyone to make sure everyone is accounted for but I believe she has 5 left. They opened their eyes recently. Cupcake carries the albino gene and has at least 3 albinos and 2 agouti. The agouti are both boys, so they will be fed off, but I think at least two of the albinos are girls. I don't really care for albinos but I need breeder females, so those two girls will be raised up to be breeders. Oreo, the other black and white female might not carry albino since all her babies were agouti. I will be keeping some females from her litter as breeders as well, but all of them carry albino. I can't really remember how many she had in the beginning. I think it was 8, and I think she has at least 6 left since I had to feed off some (we are trying to get a baby ball python to eat). They have not opened their eyes yet and are 3 days behind their older half siblings. Cookie is in with Frosting but is not showing she is pregnant yet, so the wait continues. I'm going to let Cupcake stay with Oreo until all the babies are weaned, and then both of them will go on vacation for 2 weeks and then I'm putting them back in with Frosting. I might go out and pick out some new adult mice as a new breeder group soon. Not sure yet. This breeding group I have now is A1. I will set up A2 (girls from these litters) in November when they are old enough to breed, and I might be setting up B1 in the next week or two.
|
|
|
Post by fuzzymom on Sept 11, 2009 10:32:57 GMT -5
Current Breeding Males: 1 Current Breeding Females: 3 Current Litters Produced: 2 Current Offspring Produced: 15 Current Holdbacks: 4F
Well Cupcake and Oreo gave me a litter each, one 7, one 8. I have fed a few off and one died last night (runt) but the remaining offspring are weaned and growing fast. I have two female albinos and two agouti females remaining from the two litters as I fed all the males off. These four females are being raised to become breeders. One albino female will be five weeks old tomorrow. She is weighing in at 19g! When I used to breed mice, six week old mice were just starting to approach 20g, but she's a week ahead of schedule and the biggest wean by far!
I'm currently putting together tub enclosures so they can be stacked and have ventilation to the side. That way I can house more mice in less space. Pictures to come when I'm done with them.
|
|
|
Post by goingpostal on Sept 14, 2009 18:29:49 GMT -5
I would, could just be stress but could be something she will pass on as well. Not acting weird otherwise?
|
|