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Post by bluedove on Mar 28, 2009 15:25:09 GMT -5
Current Males: 2 (acquired March 25) Current Females: 3 (acquired March 26) Current Litters Produced: 0 Current Offspring Produced: 0 Current Expense to Date: $15 for mice, $11 for housing, currently using bedding and food originally purchased for pet Hamster... Ok, so I've gotten my mice and weighed my females. Only one of them is above 25 grams and I suspect she may already be pregnant... So for the moment, I am watching and waiting for the females get big enough to safely breed. Unsure as to whether it is safe to go ahead and put my 26g female in with a male... if she is already pregnant, will he be more likely to kill the offspring since they are not his?
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Post by Jaycee on Mar 28, 2009 15:49:54 GMT -5
I don't have a mouse colony, but I did at one time own hamsters. The male killed the offspring (actually ate some of them). I would probably keep the males away from the babies....unless mice are more socially acceptable than hamsters.
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Post by harrisi on Mar 28, 2009 16:31:30 GMT -5
The male should be fine, and you will know if the female is pregnant anyway as she will ballon up and look like she swallowed a golf ball. Size of breeding mice isnt really anything to do with weight - as long as they are at a healthy weight and over 16 weeks (I prefer to wait until they are 20 weeks old) they are fine for breeding. Male mice sometimes kill and eat their kits, but female mice will sometimes kill their own kits anyway aswell.
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Post by bluedove on Mar 28, 2009 17:59:11 GMT -5
I haven't a clue how old they are... so I guess I'll wait until they weigh 25g... Or am I mistaken about that? I want to use the "harem" breeding colony... at least at first. (Which means I leave the females in with the male full time.) So I guess I will go ahead and place the one female who is up to weight in with one of the males and just take my chances. I see what people mean about the males stinking now! Any good ways to reduce that scent? Phew!
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Post by fuzzymom on Mar 29, 2009 8:15:28 GMT -5
Wood pellet bedding (like the kind they use in horse stalls) works great for keeping the smell down.
As for the weights and ages. If the mouse is 26g, that doesn't mean she's pregnant. I had a mouse that weighed 27g normally. When she gained her pregnancy weight, she went above 30g. Make sure the mice are above 25g before breeding them. All the mice that I've ever had were around 12-16 weeks when they hit the 25g mark. I begin breeding mice at around 12 weeks of age.
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Post by harrisi on Mar 29, 2009 9:10:26 GMT -5
It depends on the strain really. I dont agree with using the 25g thing as you could just have a fat/heavy boned/muscular mouse. I dont care what weight the mice are when I breed them - just that they are old enough and at a healthy weight.
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Post by bluedove on Mar 29, 2009 12:36:28 GMT -5
Well... since I don't know how old they are and don't have anyway to find out, I'll have to use the weight method on these girls... I'll keep track of both with the females I breed in the future.
I imagine they are a pretty common strain. Regular old albino feeder mice. Speaking of strain... I was wondering about "fancy" mice. Are they still regular mice and will interbreed with my feeders? They look bigger than regular feeder mice.
Wood pellets? Do you mean compressed pine?
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Post by harrisi on Mar 29, 2009 13:45:43 GMT -5
"Fancy mice" are show mice - so are bigger then both feeder and pet mice, but they are the same species. Yup, wood pellets is compressed pine pellets. Its like Yesterdays News litter pellets just....wood lol.
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Post by bluedove on Mar 29, 2009 13:57:45 GMT -5
From what I understood, you should never use aromatic wood products like pine and cedar with rodents due to the high incidence of respiratory illness...
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Post by harrisi on Mar 29, 2009 14:01:17 GMT -5
Cedar is toxic as it carries toxic oil throughout the wood, pine carries toxic sap however once it is kiln dried (Which all wood pellets are) the sap is inactivated.
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Post by bluedove on Apr 3, 2009 22:30:07 GMT -5
Current Males: 2 (acquired March 25) Current Females: 3 (acquired March 26) Current Litters Produced: 0 Current Offspring Produced: 0 Current Expense to Date: $15 for mice, $34 for housing, currently using bedding and food originally purchased for pet Hamster...
Bought additional bins for a total of 6 now, also acquired 3 water bottles so I can do away with the icky bowls. (stinking bucks keep urinating in the water and the females seem determined to tunnel under theirs!) Still keeping males and females separated until I know for sure if the does are pregnant... If I see no signs of pregnancy in one week, I will set up a colony of one doe and one buck.
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Post by bluedove on Apr 4, 2009 2:37:04 GMT -5
Current Males: 1 (acquired March 25) Current Females: 3 (acquired March 26) Current Litters Produced: 0 Current Offspring Produced: 0 Current Expense to Date: $15 for mice, $34 for housing, currently using bedding and food originally purchased for pet Hamster... Well, I transferred my bucks to a new, clean bin today... and they began fighting! I observed several squabbles and decided to cull the one who was the consistent aggressor. Offered him live to one of the cats, but she just wanted to grab him up and run off with him. So I brought Liddle in and she took care of him quite handily. Unfortunately, she still hasn't quite figured out how to eat one that big, but I think she wants to! More motivation for breeding smaller mice for her.
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Post by goingpostal on Apr 4, 2009 11:28:53 GMT -5
Yeah males will always fight. You only need one anyways. My cat has started to show an interest in the mice but I offered one and she didn't do anything. Maybe someday. For now she just terrorizes them.
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Post by bluedove on Apr 10, 2009 18:29:40 GMT -5
Current Breeding Males: 1 (acquired March 25) Current Breeding Females: 2 (acquired March 26) (1 underweight female in reserve) Current Litters Produced: 0 Current Offspring Produced: 0 Current Expense to Date: $15 for mice, $34 for housing, currently using bedding and food originally purchased for pet Hamster... Weighed my females today. The biggest one maintained 32g from last week, one of the smaller ones maintained at 26g... but one of my females dropped back to 20g, which is what she weighed when I brought them home. Based on that info, I suspect that only the smallest might have been pregnant, and might have reabsorbed her litter. None are showing any signs of pregnancy now. I've housed the two larger does with my buck... who seems quite pleased at the company! That smallest doe is still not healthy/old enough to breed, so she's on her own for a bit. I will put her next door to the breeding colony, so hopefully she will stay familiar with the smells of the others for if/when she'll be reunited with them...
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Post by bluedove on Apr 17, 2009 22:22:07 GMT -5
Current Breeding Males: 1 (acquired March 25) Current Breeding Females: 2 (acquired March 26) Current Litters Produced: 0 Current Offspring Produced: 0 Current Expense to Date: $15 for mice, $40 for housing, $9 for exersaucer, and currently using bedding and food originally purchased for pet Hamster...
Had to cull my underweight female earlier this week. Having trouble telling the male from the females now for some reason... so I'm unsure of weights. I think my largest female is pregnant and has gained about 3-4g already. The others appear to be maintaining weight.
I'm really having issues with how to handle and sex these mice. They are all pretty skittish and will run and struggle when I try to pick them up. I've read that you have to be very gentle when handling a pregnant mouse as the pups inside are pretty fragile. What can I do to insure the safety of the litters and still be able to weigh and move them?
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