is Raising feeder mice for you?

[GartersRock]

Thanks for the info Wayne!
(Just made the Bruce Wayne, Harvey Dent connection after seeing Batman for the third time yesterday. Rofl!!!)

[CrazyHedgehog]

just thought I would post the chamber....

[infernalis]

Nice chamber.

Looks like the mad rapist got his way before I fed him off.

Momma is getting huge again, and no males have been present since I caught dad killing babies.

Decided to keep one of the non related males she raised from the other colony, She raised him, and he is already accepted in the colony. Set aside a few sisters from the first litter, they are not related to the male, so it works out nicely in establishing another harem..

[infernalis]

Yikes, My best producing harem has finally "burned out"

The moms stopped feeding the babies, then brained several hoppers, When I tore the mess down today I found 4 pinkies (newborn) all starved to death in the shavings!

Then top it off, one of the males critically wounded little Blondie!

She is the one in the picture taking care of a whole pile of babies.

Now we got to sort the whole mess out, and try to get them back to breeding normally....

[Lori P]

Oh no!!! That is just heartbreaking.... what IS it with these mice??

Did you change anything at all?? What set them off on this distructive path?? I've been so relaxed about mine lately, they're all just a-breeding away... now I'm wondering if it's all going to blow up!!

So sorry Wayne!!

[Hornets23]

Wow, sounds like they went a little psycho. I have pet mice....really hope they dont go crazy like that.

[infernalis]

I think they just had enough, after sexing out, I found that there were too many males.

The other day one of the moms expired, and I think that created a shortage of milk, so some babies were left unfed.

It boils down to too many mice in one tank.

To answer before asked, they are kept in a huge hope chest like tote, prolly around 50 gallon size.

Decided to break it down to several smaller groups.

The little pinks, they were not even spoiled yet, so I put them in the freezer for the baby milk snakes to eat later.

Blondie was messed up bad, so I gave her to the Pueblan Milk snake.

The brained hopper mice, my corn snake ate them right up.

[Hornets23]

well, at least the mice were still eatable.

[jitami]

Weird... but I have a feeling it's fairly common. Sorry to hear about Blondie. That is an adorable picture of her feeding all the babies! Good luck getting everything sorted out!

[CrazyHedgehog]

I have made mistakes before with males and sure enough in too close proximity they will fight to the death

They can be fickle and only produce well for about 10 months... after that they are food I am afraid and a fresh tank is created from the teenagers...

I created mine using tubs, made hundreds of air holes using a solder iron, the tubs cost about £2.20 each so a fairly cheap set up...
(and in the shed so they don't stink the house out!)