Sunday, February 7, 2010

I want to breed mice or rats?

well I have a boa constrictor, and want to breed some mice or rats both for the experience and hopefully savng on trips to the pet shop.





I just have a few questions about it


1. Where could I keep the cages, and if I have them too near my room will my snake freakout because there's food nearby he can't reach?


2.Is there anything special you need to do with rat/mouse babies to keep them fed and everything?


and


3.Is there a cheaper way than the already bagged rat food to give them a balanced diet? like are there certain combinations of grocery store bought veggies that would work?





thanks, any help is appreciated, but if you're one of those psycho ';oh no your hurting a poor little mouse, you're so mean'; people, could you just hold it to yourself for once?I want to breed mice or rats?
While I am fond of mice, I do realize they serve a role as snake food, so I will do my best to answer your questions.





1. Keep the cages away from your snake especially when you are feeding your snake. Mice can sense the predator and it will make them stressed. They are also quite adept at smelling the phermones released by the ';scared'; mouse dinner of your snake. This is especially true if there is blood involved (never really watched a snake eat, I don't know). Keeping the mice in a stressed environment would be inhumane and counterproductive to your goal of breeding them.





2. There is nothing super special you need to do about the babies themselves. I don't recommend just throwing a whole bunch of mice in a cage and waiting for baby-city. Your best bet would be to pair one male with two females and to separate them from her close to birth. Females can show aggression to another's litter and males have a nasty habit of eating the babies. However, if you leave the male in with her the night she delivers, she will likely get pregnant again immediately because mice go through a postpartum estreous. After a day or two, it is ok to remove any dead pups from the cage; there are almost always dead ones, especially with new mothers and old breeders. Make sure to wean them at 3 weeks so the mother can care for the next litter.





3. The ';lab-style'; rat/mouse blocks they sell at the pet stores are really the best/easiest/cheapest way to feed the critters. They look like little beige bricks. Rats only eat few blocks a day, so you can imagine mice eat way less than that. If you buy just veggies and such, you run the risk of giving them all diarrhea. Stick with the blocks, but feel free to supplement that diet with small amounts of veggies that you probably already have around the house.





Most of what I have said is true for rats too, but from my experience, its easier to keep rats paired as one male, one female. Rats have larger litters, but they take up a lot more space.





Hope this helps.





ADD-ON: Don't get the cheapy blocks that they sell at like Wal-mart (they come in a box). They are not properly nutritionally balanced.


Edit for Mrs Phas: Also, make sure you are only breeding feeder type rats/mice, not fancy ones. Besides, from my own experience, feeder animals have a better temperament than the fancy ones. Feeder rats are most generally albino rats that are bred for the sole purpose of feeding predators; fancy rats are strictly bred for pet purposes. I just suggest ';Feeder'; /boring, un-biasedly bred for color and coat preference rats because they are easier to handle in my experience.I want to breed mice or rats?
i find it laughable that you say


';learning experience';


yet you dont want to learn


just be told your right





thats not education its ignorance

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Read this and if you are any kind of a humane human being, reconsider what you want to do.


http://spazrats.tripod.com/sna鈥?/a>





No use yelling at him over the internet Mrs. RattusNorvegicus (aka mrs phas).





spazrats

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Some snakes just won't convert to F/T or pre-killed mice or rats. Thats just the way it is. So what if someone wants to raise their own feeders. The snake has to eat too. It is the circle of life.

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you are a total *****,


never mind that snake freaking howabout the mice/rats living their lives in fear of a major predator nearby





if your planning on live feeding


';for the experience';


i certainly hope you realise the danger your putting your snake in


live feeding to snakes is avoided by good herpetologists for a very good reason, snakes get bitten and scratched and are hard to heal





yes reptiles have to eat to live and i have no problem with that whatsoever


but stop being such a tightwad and get food ethically and humanely euthanised





http://www.reptilesweb.com/reptile-artic鈥?/a>





http://www.wikihow.com/Feed-a-Snake-Froz鈥?/a>





http://www.animalhospitals-usa.com/repti鈥?/a>





http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node鈥?/a>





http://www.herpcenter.com/herp-awareness鈥?/a>





edit for sispumbaa


';Also, make sure you are only breeding feeder type rats/mice, not fancy ones. Besides, from my own experience, feeder animals have a better temperament than the fancy ones. ';





feeder rats are just non pretty fancy rats. the pretty ones go for pets, the pews/blacks/agoutis etc etc go in the bins for feeders cos uninformed people think theyre different =o
You mean you are going to breed mice?

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