is Raising feeder mice for you?

[infernalis]

After seeing some discussion of folks wanting to breed feeder mice, I thought I should share my experience, it affects the whole family.

This forum has a lot of people with really big hearts, thats very good, unless your raising feeder mice. Compassion and love will work against you.

The first litter of pinks, oh so adorable not like those frozen ones, these move, they make squeaky noises. Oh look at that Mom is protecting her babies. The hoppers are helping out, mom can I keep the brown one??

After a while, the habbitrail tunnels wind up in the cages, your "cheap" feed is eating pop tarts, Ritz crackers and the kids yogurt bites.

Then one day one of your "top moms" will suddenly decide to murder and eat her own babies, will she kill again? should I execute her now?? The answer is yes, once they start eating babies, feed them off then and there. Can you bring yourself to do that?

The costs of substrate for the mice, caging, feed, exercise wheels, etc.. adds up quickly.

Buying some frozen mice seems really attractive, unless your needs warrant raising mice, it will eventually make you wonder why you did it.

My son even painted all the mice's toenails with fingernail polish, so daddy could not let those mean snakes eat them.

So weigh out all the angles before diving in. the six bucks up front for your harem is only the beginning.

Wayne

[Stefan-A]

I agree, the initial cost is nothing. It's the same as with snakes.

You search forever for mice, because you don't know any breeders in your area and the pet store doesn't sell them. You end up driving 100km altogether to get those mice.

Add 12€ each for 3 "pet quality" mice
Add the fuel costs (you should actually add the loss of value, wear and tear and insurance costs).
Add 3€ for a food bowl and 3€ for a water bottle.
Add 1€ for a bag of substrate once a week.
Add 2€ for a bag of food every two weeks.
Add 40€ for the CO2 and the death chamber.

Add smell.

Two litters come three weeks later. Your only male gets a respiratory infection and you isolate him from the others. Being a good pet owner, you get him to the vet, because you think that it's cheaper and easier than driving another 100km to get a new male. Besides, there's always a slim chance that it's nothing serious. Add 30€ for the vet visit and the antibiotics. The treatment is eventually unsuccessful and you decide to make it a feeder.

Then you move to a drafty student apartment and after a few weeks, some of your mice start getting the same respiratory problem and you finally decide to wrap it up, declaring it an interesting experiment that you might give another shot at some point in the distant future. Provided that mice will then be genetically engineered not to smell.

What would I do differently? I would keep another species of rodent and I would start with more than one group. And I would be quicker to kill off the sick ones. Next time, all I need to get started is the animals, a bag of food and bedding.

Now I've probably edited this 31 times.

[infernalis]

"Now I've probably edited this 31 times."

Your not alone there either

I forgot to mention smell, and all the activity at night, AND the little buggers escape as frequently as the snakes do.

Rats are not much more fun either..... Ours had the female reject the males, and the kids already named them, so I have been taking care of rats that will never do anything but cost this household money.

My python would eat those rats just fine, then my kids would hate me forever. Once they have a name they are pets.

Regards,
Wayne

[Stefan-A]

It would have been 32, but I ran out of time. You only have half an hour to edit your post.

Natal rats (soft-furred rats/mice) are supposed to be real experts on escaping.

Never had a mouse, snake or anything else escape, either. Oh, except fish (the kind that lays its eggs on leaves hanging above the water). And a fire bellied newt. And one dwarf clawed frog, although that was technically my sister's. All of them escaped in the 80's, so it doesn't count.

[CrazyHedgehog]

Yes we told our son he was just not allowed to name them...now we have too many to name so its ok.
I now sell surplus mice and rats privately to 4 regular people and two pet shops. its not quite self funded but nearly.
The euthanising really upset me at first, but it does get easier, sadly do it without really thinking about it now (oh no)

We have around 50 snakes at anyone time, 1 pinkie costs around 50p in the shops(thats about 1 dollar for just a pinkie) and the bigger mice and rats are even more , you can imagine how much it was costing me to feed the snakes! Cheaper from the internet, but you have to buy hundreds to make the postage worth while)

It works well for me, we had initial outlay of fitting shed with insulation, but saved money by buying large plastic boxes and using soldering iron to add hundreds of air holes.

Food is bought in bulk from farm stores, and as mentioned we nearly sell enough mice topay for this (not quite there yet) but then all of my snakes are being fed well!!
substrate is bought from the same place in a HUGE bale, loads cheaper... same price to buy ten times as much!! and we use all of our junk mail and bank letters etc shredded as bedding!

have to agree, it has to be in the shed else they smell too much! if you don't needto, don't do it! however, if you haven't got young kids and you need to, I have found it really has saved us thousands of pounds!

[CrazyHedgehog]

Our mouse house..
(Rats are on other side, but we will need to expand shed for them eventually.)

[infernalis]

We have so many mouths to feed, I could never stop producing my mice.

We keep the breeding farm away from the kids now, it helps.

if the numbers get out of control, we have a Savannah monitor, he's always glad to help out in that department.

Regards,
Wayne

[jitami]

Great topic Wayne. Thanks to all for sharing your first hand experiences!

Having young kids would make it sooooo much harder! Poor Daddy! For what it's worth, I'm a preschool teacher, a fairly well educated one at that, and I don't see any long term harm in your kids learning about feeder animals. Think back to when we all lived on farms, slaughtering animals was simply part of life. A somewhat ugly part, but something that all kids had to learn about at some point. I think teaching the kids that even feeder animals need to be raised with respect and compassion, while still having them serve their purpose, is a valuable lesson that really can't be taught any other way. Still feel for you though!

Stefan, like you, I think it might be an interesting experiment at some point. I was thinking along the lines of pets(mice or rats) that make food for the other pets(snakes). Maybe two groups of 1.2 or 1.3? I've never raised any sort of feeder animal, but I think I could handle it. I have spent quite a bit of time researching, but I have a feeling that it's one of those things where you don't really see the full picture until you're right in the middle of it. The smell is really the only thing that puts me off... and that's for hubby's sake.

Hedgehog, love your set up... love even more that it's out in the shed I think it's pretty cool that it's almost self sufficient. How much time would you say you put into upkeep? Cleaning cages, feeding, euthanizing, etc?

[KITKAT]

In the past, with two children, I found that having all one color was helpful. Now that I am a grandma, and I don't often let the grandkids down in the basement where the mice and the adult snakes are kept, it doesn't matter, and I have all different colors and patterns. Then I am the only one that gets attached to certain ones.

[CrazyHedgehog]

Hedgehog, love your set up... love even more that it's out in the shed I think it's pretty cool that it's almost self sufficient. How much time would you say you put into upkeep? Cleaning cages, feeding, euthanizing, etc?

Thanks, we spend about 20 - 30 mins every day spot cleaning and feeding changing water, collecting babies etc. Then a couple of hours at the weekend with a more thorough clean and sort out. we take it in turns so its not so bad.