is Raising feeder mice for you?

[Stefan-A]

I'll take your word on that....I haven't tasted one.....

Everybody's had cute.

[infernalis]

Yes, Cute is VERY tasty....

[crzy_kevo]

ok so i am trying one last thing before i right off these mice i have seperated them
the female is in a metal enclosure on the other side of the room i am going to try reintroducing them in a week because and if that doesnt work then they will become feeders and i will have to get a new pair for breeding feeders for the rat snake

[infernalis]

After much thinking, We decided to sell ALL the rats off to the pet store.

I am done, no more..

Just found a female who escaped while pregnant, she nested behind a rack of snake enclosures.. Thankfully we caught her while nursing pinks, so the litter has not had a chance to disperse through our house.

However she destroyed the wiring leading up to several cage lights..

All of my animals are eating frozen / thawed food, and the pet shop does not pay me enough to warrant the damages to my home from escaped rats.

So we decided the best thing to do is just call it a day and cease the breeding operation.

The money we will save not buying all the food and bedding can be channeled into frozen feeders for the herps.
it will also free up 3 very large aquariums for my snakes.

[brain]

After much thinking, We decided to sell ALL the rats off to the pet store.

I am done, no more..

Yea I was thinking the same thing untill I got my radix's now have to adjust my monies between pinkies and worms.
Go figure.

[ConcinusMan]

Yes, Cute is VERY tasty....

Perhaps it is. I've accidentally slow-roasted pinkies before. They really don't smell all that different than a darker meat pork roast. I fed them to my snakes anyway! They didn't seem to mind one bit.

I'm soo glad mice and rats don't appeal to me

Yeah, cute they're not. At least not to me. The only rodent I find remotely cute are our local squirrels, and even then, I'm not like "awwwww, it's so cute!" Their cuteness factor, what little there is, only keeps me from wanting to eradicate them. In fact, I feed them a bit too, just for kicks when I'm bored. But if they were a good food source for my snakes, I wouldn't hesitate to use them. (the squirrels that visit my yard are non-native and not protected by any laws)

Raising feeder mice is definitely not for me. First off, you don't save as much money as you think you would. Secondly, they stink beyond belief and aren't as easy to breed as you might think. It's work, and there is expense. It's just not worth it. I'd rather pay $1 per pinky than to keep breeding adult mice anywhere near my house.

Still, I do not hate them for what they are and I do have feelings about feeding live rodents or any other animal, to any other animals. Unlike some sadists out there, I do not enjoy watching them struggle or suffer as they are being eaten alive and so prefer to feed using f/t dead rodents. I know, i've done it, and even posted video of it. Just saying I didn't enjoy it.

Shoot Brain, those radixes would thrive on fish and worms alone and probably eat as much as you'll give them! Mine will eat anything, any time, and they don't seem to care if they get pinkies at all.

[brain]

Shoot Brain, those radixes would thrive on fish and worms alone and probably eat as much as you'll give them! Mine will eat anything, any time, and they don't seem to care if they get pinkies at all.


You are very right there.

[Steveo]

Breathing life into an old thread here...

Would it be economical to run one tank of mice for ten snakes + ~4 litters of scrubs every year? I'm thinking I could donate any extras to the raptor nonprofit where I volunteer and use that as a tax writeoff. I would probably still need the occasional pack of silversides for the pickeringii, but I've spent about $300 in the last 10 months on snake food and that's only going to increase as they grow and reproduce... the king will be 2 years old in August and already eats two adult mice per week, with the 2 milks not far behind. I can't imagine it would cost that much to raise some mice. I already have a tank and substrate.

How bad is the smell? Would it spread beyond one room? I have a ventilation fan in the spare bathroom that pulls air away from the main living area and out of the building, wich takes care of the cat box smell from said bathroom.

My guppy experiment didn't work out but mammals grow more quickly and I won't have to carry buckets of water all the time

[Invisible Snake]

I think breeding rats is better than breeding mice; less of a smell, larger litters, less of a chance of cannibalism.

[BUSHSNAKE]

i do both rats and mice and it was the best thing ive ever done. With the right equipment its very easy and cheap. I spend probably about a third of what i would spend if i were to buy my own feeders. Plus i know my snakes are getting a quality diet.