Any one else have domestic mice?

[TeaTimeBunnies]

So I got my first baby mouse yesterday. I will be getting him a girlfriend at the end of April when I also get my baby snake. I already love him to pieces. I was wondering what his colors would be called? He has what look like harlequin stripes in his spots. I really know nothing about mouse genetics or color terms. Anyway this is Basil. Named after the great mouse detective

 

[shazza]

i've had mice on and off since i was a teenager. recently about 6 months ago i got a trio to start trying to breed snake food, but for some reason i have only gotten one litter, and then the dam got a massive tumour and died :T so far my new doe has not gotten pregnant from my buck, but she's still kinda young so idk. i kinda gave up on trying to breed and they all just live together and if babies happen, cool. it'd be great if i could raise my own snake food, cos i do enjoy having pet mice, but buying mice online is less annoying

 

[TeaTimeBunnies]

I've read that there day/night cycle and temperature can cause them to want or not want to breed. It was a while ago when I read it so I don't remember specifics, but it's a thought as to what could be going on. I'm still rebrushing up on what I learned about mouse care. I had planned to get some sooner, but it kept having to be put off so I forgot some specific care things for breeding

 

[shazza]

it's more that my mice keep dying :') my original trio, one doe had a URI that never cleared up so i culled her. my buck was sterile(?) or at least never like, did his job for like 3 months. bought a new buck and put him in with the not-sick doe and got one litter. then the doe got a massive mammary tumour after weaning her kits and died. i kept one of her daughters and bought a new doe, now they're with the buck that did produce a litter, but both of the does are still pretty young so i'm not expecting much yet. the buck is also a year old now and he's starting to look his age...i've just had bad luck lol

i had back luck with rabbits my first year too, so maybe this year will go better and i'll be able to get away with not having to buy mice at a store for the most part.

wait actually this is exactly what happened with my first rabbits... my two does died, my buck is old, my backup buck didn't produce a litter for 9 months so i culled him... i may have a curse

 

[TeaTimeBunnies]

I hope this year goes better for you. Badluck happens to everyone, and there is nothing quite like a crash coarse to teach you things about the animals you'd probably never have learned otherwise

 

[akane]

I tried mice but it turns out to be the most allergy inducing things out there for me and one of my females cannibalized the other 2 in the trio. The rats did fine and now I have 5 african soft fur rodents instead.

 

[ladysown]

We raise domestic mice. We have mostly short coated but have a few long haired. We find a mix of four to six females per single male works well. If you want them to breed they need to be exposed to male urine.

My son has a favourite few in the house. Friendly his old male is almost two and a half years old.

 

[GBov]

I did it once with long-haired mice and OMG did it go horribly wrong! Did they breed, I hear you ask?

In their hundreds! And I only started with four! :shock:

They all lived together in a fish tank, and then in a large tote, and then in a much larger cage I built and then in a HUGE cage I built and then I gave up and got rid of the lot. By that time I had to feed them all catfood to stop them eating each other. And even then I would find empty mouse skins in the water bowl a few times a week. No idea if that was normal or not but it was useful.

One of my boxes still has one of the mouse hides I tanned for my mum's dolls house. Thirty years on and it is still in great condition. :lol:

I started it all to feed ONE snake. Poor thing, he just couldn't keep up. :lol:

 

[TeaTimeBunnies]

Wow GBov. That sounds intense. Since I started this post I got the first move a girlfriend, and got a litter from them (got my snake after the litter was born and I had pinkies on hand) and then one of the two I believed were girls was actually a boy, so I separated and got him a girlfriend. I knew that would make too many mice so I talked to my college professor (he is in charge of the campus snakes) about donating overflow mice to them, and after a few questions of if they are captive bred and such we agreed apon the donations

 

[GBov]

Wow GBov. That sounds intense. Since I started this post I got the first move a girlfriend, and got a litter from them (got my snake after the litter was born and I had pinkies on hand) and then one of the two I believed were girls was actually a boy, so I separated and got him a girlfriend. I knew that would make too many mice so I talked to my college professor (he is in charge of the campus snakes) about donating overflow mice to them, and after a few questions of if they are captive bred and such we agreed apon the donations

It really was! :x Well done you for sorting out your overflow BEFORE you have an overflow! :cheer1:

 

[akane]

Raptor centers and other wildlife rehab will take donations as well as lots of both official and unofficial reptile rescues and breeders. Many also trade large and small rodents for each other on reptile groups. 1 breeder size rat can get me 100s of pinky-hopper mice for young snakes so only being able to breed rats instead of mice was not really an issue provided I wanted to deal with people. The person 4hrs in the middle of nowhere wants my remaining large rats but I'm not driving there again. The adults of most of my species eat adult mice/weanling rats to large rats. Since I recently started snakes though I only have a corn and 2 bulls that are pretty much grown.

One of my husband's coworkers with some big boas and pythons (borderline illegal in this area due to size) is quite interested in our reptilink experiment. I'd definitely use those if I had only one snake. Even with 10 snakes putting most on reptilinks has been so much easier and if you don't have a source for someone with excessive numbers of rodents it's actually cheaper than purchasing them. It's a far more complete diet, twice the calories per gram as a whole rodent so requires less food, does not rot and smell if uneaten, and stays good as long as raw meat at the same conditions so I can attempt to feed put it in the fridge if not eaten and try again for 3-7 days depending how often and how hot I bring the temp back up while trying to feed. On top of that it's local sourced guinea fowl, small meat rabbit operations, other poultry, and oddly bullfrogs, which you'd have to ask the guy where he gets those from in Ohio, instead of bulk raised rodents from sometimes questionable sources. My species aren't picky about what they eat but I was having issues with them demanding fresh. My snakes that would only take fresh kill or very short term frozen were the easiest to convert. Snakes discerning about the type of prey would be the hardest but reptilinks also allows for specialty diets instead of forcing other reptile eaters or frog and toad eating species onto rodents.

 

[ipoGSD]

I used to be big into mice when I was in high school. Your mouse looks like shes a brindle.

I've had long haired, satins and even Egyptian spiny mice. Satins are really pretty.

 

[LunarFantom]

Ahh I had mice when I was in middle school and then again when I was a high school. In high school I overheard a classmate talking about releasing their mouse into the wild and I went "Oh God don't!" and adopted it from her.

He was lovely and his name was bananas. And I loved him so much, I too got him a girlfriend. Then I realized this was a horrible idea. I couldn't keep him with the lady mouse because then I'd have an infinite mouse factory, and now I had to take care of a dozen baby mice and had no time to play with him anymore. ):