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 #2038242


Zookid239
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 Breeding ?s

what i need to know is the safest way to raise a litter, what to feed the mother and babies, when to feed her supplements, what supplements they need, how to sex the babies, when to separate them, what you can do if the mother is lost and the babies are not weaned yet, what a peanut is and what it means. sorry for all the ?
07/12/09  08:05pm

 #2038427


Greatballzofire
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   Message To: Zookid239   In reference to Message Id: 2038242


 Breeding ?s

Link
Mice have very large testicles relative to their body size - an adult male’s testicles are each about the size of a small peanut (minus the shell).
To raise litters successfully, give the mother a secure environment; a nest box shared with compatible females. You can leave the father in with the mother, he will help raise the young.

Feed the mother rodent block. They like oat groats and other seeds as a supplement. Always have fresh water in a clean water bottle. About once a week take the water bottle and wash it in bleach water, as the bottles tend to get scummy inside. The babies are able to eat on their own at three weeks. Put some rodent block within their reach to get them started. Take them out of the nest at four weeks.

If you lose the mama you can foster the babies with another mama who has young close to the same age. First wipe the orphans with some soiled bedding from the foster mama’s nest, then insert the new babies. I have done this several times with success every time. I recently lost a few mamas due to a major heat wave and had to parcel out the litters to other mamas; everybody did fine. Speaking of heat, the mice are cool weather animals and do not do well in temperatures higher than the mid 80’s Fahrenheit. I put my colony outdoors in a big screen tent in the shade with the tubs directly on the ground on a tarp, and since then have not lost anybody. An air conditioned room would be a good solution if you have the means.

If you have to raise the young yourself, Evil_Trail_Mix’s idea about the paint brush dipped in milk replacer is a good solution.
07/13/09  08:37am

 #2038433


Zookid239
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   Message To: Greatballzofire   In reference to Message Id: 2038427


 Breeding ?s

also can I keep a male with my females without them mating



07/13/09  08:51am

 #2038608


Bearded_dragon_0
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   Message To: Zookid239   In reference to Message Id: 2038433


 Breeding ?s

Not unless one of them is spayed or neutered or you know when the female will go into heat and take her out during that time.
07/13/09  01:44pm

 #2039129


Greatballzofire
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   Message To: Zookid239   In reference to Message Id: 2038433


 Breeding ?s

Quote:

also can I keep a male with my females without them mating


You could ask them to just say no; I’ve heard that works great with high school kids! LOL! (Sorry, could not resist!)
07/14/09  01:03pm

 #2039431


Zookid239
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   Message To: Greatballzofire   In reference to Message Id: 2039129


 Breeding ?s

One of the female mice just died



07/14/09  09:44pm

 #2039613


Greatballzofire
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   Message To: Zookid239   In reference to Message Id: 2039431


 Breeding ?s

I’m sorry to hear that.
Do you know why?
07/15/09  09:24am

 #2052339


Zookid239
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   Message To: Greatballzofire   In reference to Message Id: 2039613


 Breeding ?s

i think she fell off the top of the cage



08/06/09  08:48pm

 #2052702


Bearded_dragon_0
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   Message To: Zookid239   In reference to Message Id: 2052339


 Breeding ?s

I don’t think that is enough to kill her. They are pretty tough.
08/07/09  02:03pm

 #2052825


Greatballzofire
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   Message To: Bearded_dragon_0   In reference to Message Id: 2052702


 Breeding ?s

I had an odd thing happen with my mice this morning. In one of my 105 quart tubs containing young adult females I found one that appeared to have died over night. She was laying in the middle of the tub floor, not in the big nest box where she could have stayed warm with the others. I removed her and put her aside to bury later, then took a break to wash my hands in case there was some sort of contagion in that tub. Then I finished topping off the food dispensers and water bottles. When I picked her up again she was moving, just her feet twitching, and she was very cold. I thought, well, since she is still alive maybe she will recover if I warm her up. So after warming her up by setting her in the sun for awhile, until she could assume an upright posture, and giving her a drink of pedeolyte, she then ate some oat groats, groomed herself, drank more water, and appears to be on the mend. I’ve got her quarantined just in case.

She is not sneezing or wheezing and has no apparent injuries, so what happened to make her get hypothermic and almost die is a mystery. I plan to feed out that whole tub to my snakes, anyway. But I am always on the lookout for ailments that could spread. So far the rest of the tub looks healthy.

My theory is that she was playing on the exercise wheel which is attached to the wire ceiling of the tub, and somehow fell off and bonked her head; they play rough on that wheel. It was exceptionally cold last night, and if she was too stunned to get into the nest box that might be why she got hypothermic. In some ways mice are quite tough, but they are easily injured.



08/07/09  06:46pm


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