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Post by goingpostal on May 12, 2009 21:04:32 GMT -5
Got a count and have 10 from litter #2, 6 white and 4 grey. I'm hoping a couple of the greys are female, easier to tell them apart from the other females if they are a different color. I'm still terrible at sexing until you can see nipples so it'll be a few days before I can check though.
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Post by goingpostal on May 17, 2009 8:57:12 GMT -5
So I sexed the babies, 3 days in a row because I couldn't believe what I was seeing. 10 babies and only 2 females! Both white of course, none of the greys. So I guess I'll only be holding back those from this litter, makes my breeding program a little slower on the take off since I won't have another litter for 1.5 months at least. Oh well, ferrets will be happy to eat the boys anyways.
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Post by goingpostal on Jun 29, 2009 16:22:25 GMT -5
Finally getting this off the ground a bit, bred my 3 females from my very first litter, one didn't take and had to be rebred but I got 21 so far anyways, plus my boss had bought mice who had babies so she gave me a bunch of feeders, kept 4 of her females and 1 male so I can keep everybody non-related. I'll have another litter in two weeks and by August/Sept will have all mine breeding age. Mouse breeding really does take a while to get any real production out of it.
I took in another rehomed male who turned out to love mice, now he follows me around like crazy thinking I will drop more. One of my non-raw eaters passed away so I only have one holdout, my oldest female, the first one I ever got. 6 out of 7 isn't bad though, unfortunately my lack of space means I can't breed enough to keep them in mice but getting some whole prey is better than none.
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Post by goingpostal on Jul 28, 2009 14:11:26 GMT -5
Well my boss that gave me her babies from the litter her mice had called and told me to come take the rest of her mice. She had one male by himself who I fed off, the original "mom" and two "females" they had kept. Except that one of the females was a male and both mom and his sister are knocked up.
Inbred mice, just what I needed. These will be 100% feeders. I was amazed, the mom had 15 last time, got rebred right after weaning and just popped out another 14-15, not sure on count yet but there's a lot. The other female hasn't given birth yet. I fed off the bro/father.
Besides that I had to cull one of my females that was ready to breed, she was circling pretty bad, I put a male in with her littermate sister though and have two more females that will get bred after that. So it's off the ground. In a month I'll have 8 females to breed so ferrets will eat good then. Running out of space, my b/f offered to build shelves in the closet which would mean I could add a few more.
Currently 2 litters on the ground 2 pregnant 2 ready to breed 8 females still growing up 1 male
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Post by goingpostal on Aug 31, 2009 0:22:14 GMT -5
Well to update, 2 had litters but one killed most of the babies, only 6 alive. Other two females didn't take so I have re-bred them, plus bred 2 more females that are old enough. Have three more groups of two, each ready to be bred in the next 3 weeks.
Got my b/f to build me shelves and got some rubbermaid tubs to make more room. So now I have 5 x 10 gallon tanks with 2 females in each, two rubbermaids with 2 females each , 2 males and a 33 long to put feeder babies in once they are weaned. Ferrets won't get any to eat for about a month as I have very few feeders at the moment and need to save them for my snake. Figured it's only costing me about $10 a month to maintain the colony which is awesome. The time cleaning and feeding is the only hassle.
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Post by goingpostal on Oct 11, 2009 19:22:54 GMT -5
Haven't updated in a while, still have a few lone females breeding, I'd like to be only breeding in pairs but had a couple that were killing babies and got fed off and others that didn't get pregnant. I have 7 litters on the ground right now, one female that didn't take and 2 females with a male in there trying to rebreed. I've been holding back females for my snake and feeding all the males off to the ferrets. I still need to at least double my numbers though, I have 10 breeding females right now and two males. I may be getting a pair of boas soon so really need to step up production.
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Post by goingpostal on Feb 15, 2010 17:19:20 GMT -5
Hard to believe it's already been almost a year since I started breeding mice. Pretty much starting over with all new females right now, have 6 that will be ready to breed March 1st and 6 more that will be March 20th. Currently I am only producing 80-100 feeders monthly but should increase now due to lowered costs in food and bedding.
Finally found a cheap supply place for lab block, not in my town but where we go to buy cat and dog food anyways so I had them order a couple bags of Mazuri 6f in, should last me till summer. Also got some gerbils today so may try pairing up the babies for a different prey item. Still no luck talking the b/f into letting me breed rats. Switched bedding to aspen pellets with a little aspen and shredded paper on top. Much cheaper.
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Post by goingpostal on Mar 5, 2010 11:45:34 GMT -5
Breeding is going well, I retired 3 pairs of females so far, have one more pair that will be retired after the current litter is weaned, after the end of this month all my up and coming females will be breed ready and I should have 14 mommas going. Of the gerbils I was given I kept back 3 females (only need two though) and bought two males, they are only about 5-6 weeks old though so that will be awhile before any babies there. A friend might be taking the other female as a pet.
Some of the females I held back are out of a pair that seem to drop 15+ babies a litter so I am hoping the high production continues, normally I get 10-12 from the rest. I like to vary the ages I feed off so the more babies the better. I haven't had any litters eaten or killed in months which is great.
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Post by fuzzymom on Mar 5, 2010 13:17:56 GMT -5
Congrats on the breeding success! I can't wait to get a nice production going.
A few questions about the gerbils since I am considering beginning to breed them and I don't want to make any mistakes since they cost so much ($9 each here)
#1: Do they do better in pairs or groups? #2: Do you feed them the Mazuri 6F or something else? Do you supplement with any other foods? #3: What is the minimum age to begin breeding them? #4: What is gestation time and weaning age? #5: Any other advice on breeding gerbils?
Sorry for all the questions but I figured I'd ask someone who is currently breeding them. If you lived close, I'd ask you to hold back a few girls for me. There are very few places in the area that sell both sexes.
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Post by goingpostal on Mar 5, 2010 17:59:51 GMT -5
Gerbils, it's recommended male/female pair, they won't breed in groups or will kill/harm each other otherwise apparently, I am feeding them the 6f currently, along with some gerbil mix and I feed fresh veggies a couple times a week too, they seem to love those. All the gerbil foods I've found look pretty crappy and they took right to the blocks. They are much cleaner and better smelling than the mice, if only they produced as well.
Mine haven't bred yet, from what I've read they will just start anywhere from 7 weeks to as late as 5 months, small litters too 3-5 pups. Most wean about 3 weeks as another litter will be on the ground by then but some wean at 5 weeks. The litter I was given I guessed to be about 4 weeks at most and I didn't see any nursing.
My other advice is introduce them young, gerbils are way more territorial than mice, everything I read says it's best to just add two under 8 weeks or a lone adult male with young female. I did both and it went fine, no fighting. Then you just wait for them to start producing.
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Post by fuzzymom on Mar 5, 2010 18:42:21 GMT -5
I bred gerbils once (pair) and got one litter from them before I fed them all off (ran out of space). There were 6 to the litter. I might go and get a pair soon and try them out.
Thanks!
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Post by goingpostal on Mar 25, 2010 10:45:21 GMT -5
Well production is slow again, waiting for all the new first time moms to drop litters, one of my female pairs had a litter a few days again finally, her cagemate looks pregnant but probably a week behind so we will see how that goes with pups of varying age, I know one or two got eaten but the rest seem fine so far. Have 3 other tanks with 2 females apiece in varying stages of pregnancy. Once they all get started we will be back in business.
Still waiting on my gerbils, the tank that had two females I had to split up, they started mating about a week before that and got to squabbling. I've been weighing the loner female and she's putting on a couple grams daily so hopefully that is babies growing, they all should be dropping litters end of this month if they are going to.
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Post by fuzzymom on Mar 25, 2010 14:51:58 GMT -5
Congrats on all the preggo mice! Having litters of varying ages should not matter much. Usually they will put them in a big pile and take turns nursing.
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Post by goingpostal on Apr 3, 2010 15:52:34 GMT -5
Finally! My loner gerbil dropped 7 babies today! My one pair of mice did drop another litter, much larger and 9 days behind the others already born, I fed off all the week old ones to give this litter a better chance and because my cat/ferrets probably don't get as much of an age variance as they should. One other mouse litter was born yesterday as well with another 3 expecting within the week or so. Glad to be back producing! I'm hoping to start feeding more to my cat to offset the high costs of canned cat food.
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Post by goingpostal on Apr 5, 2010 11:38:08 GMT -5
One of my gerbil pairs dropped one lone baby today, apparently I left the wrong female in the tank! Hopefully she produces better the next litter but either way I will have 8-9 to feed off in a month. Still can't tell if the other gerbil pair is doing anything.
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