Looking to Breed Feeder Mice

I'm looking to breed some feeder mice, I have a large garage which should be perfect to house them in(In cages, of course!). The reason being is that paying four to five dollars per small mouse seems a little outrageous compared to the same size mouse that I payed $0.75 for each at a reptile expo.
I'm only going to breed the mice a little bit at a time, because I don't have many snakes.
Tips would be awesome, I'd love to hear some feedback!

Find a different supplier. 4-5 bucks would pricey for rats. If you were closer I could hook you up but I think we are to far apart to be practical. It's hard to breed rodents for a small # of snakes.

I use to have just six females in separate cages and would rotate a male every two weeks. You could probably double up on the females if you needed more, but rotating a male gave me a consistent supply. Are you building a rack? If so, it would probably be good to breed more than you need and euthanize and freeze them. There's always someone looking or needing rodents locally and you could recoup some of your feeding cost.

zues- I was thinking of breeding the mice and feeding them to my snakes but also selling the extras. Do you think this is a good idea? This is if we can't find a local supplier.
Focal- I might look into racks, it seems like a good idea. And freezing them is a great idea too, but how do you euthanize the mouse? Is there a special injection?

I wouldn't do it. Mice stink worse than rats. If you keep them in your garage, you will smell them in your house. I agree to find another source. If you want to feed f/t, there are plenty of places to buy pretty cheap. BigCheeserodents.com vacuum packs theirs so they will last up to a year.

Mice suck. Do rats. So much easier and rats are better for balls anyways. Mice eat their babies and ya have to seperate males from females when the have a litter. Rats are good mommas. They will even nurse other litters. I breed my own rats and my production is through the roof. Now if you dont want to hassle with breeding rodents and want awesome wholesale prices on rodents i know a rodent breeder right in ferry farms that will hook ya up. His prices on rats are 1 buck for weans, 2 bucks for big smalls, 4 bucks for larges. And hes around pretty much every night.

Don- We actually have two garages, and we were planning on using the garage that is not attached to the house. it's actually located about....30 yards perhaps from the house, which isnt very far and atleast the smell isn't in the house! From past experience, I know what you mean about the smell!! I just fed my snake one rodent yesterday and the room STILL smells like the mouse!(the cat's going crazy) I'll have to look into that website, thanks!

Battlefield Reptiles- Thanks for the suggestion! I'll look into rats too. I have a Brazilian Rainbow Boa who needs to upgrade to rats and I have a juvenile Red Blood python who will needing rats before you know it. I'll let you know if I decide not to breed them and if I decide to check out the breeder in Ferry Farms.

TheSnakeSpectrum wrote:

Focal- I might look into racks, it seems like a good idea. And freezing them is a great idea too, but how do you euthanize the mouse? Is there a special injection?

CO2 gassing. You can google 'rat euthanizing with CO2' to get some good how-to's.

Focal wrote:

TheSnakeSpectrum wrote:

Focal- I might look into racks, it seems like a good idea. And freezing them is a great idea too, but how do you euthanize the mouse? Is there a special injection?

CO2 gassing. You can google 'rat euthanizing with CO2' to get some good how-to's.

Thankyou very much!

CO2 is probably the mose humane method of euthanizing rodents. As far as whether to breed mice or rats, there are a few things you should consider.

1) On the subject of rodents eating their young, it all comes down to the quality of breeding stock, the quality of your food, and their environment. This goes for rats or mice. If you breed mice from good genetic stock, feed a high quality diet, do not overcrowd, and keep the environments clean, you should have little problem with the mothers eating their babies. Again, this goes for mice and rats alike. I've had rats from bad stock kill entire litters, and I've had mice which 10+ babies and not a single one die. I've also had the opposite, so it really does depend on those things mentioned above.

2) Rats may be the better option because that blood is going to need rats, and most ball pythons do better on rats. Its easier to feed one 60g rat, than it is to feed 2-3 large mice. It takes a rat 3-4 weeks to get up to 40-60g in weight, where as it takes a mouse 6-8 weeks to get up to 25g.

3) Environment is a big one. Rats may be a better option production wise but they take up more space. You can easily house 2-3 female mice in a 10g tank and that not be overcrowding. However you can fit 1 female rat per 10g (I have tried 2 and the ammonia level just got too high too quick. It is not recommended.) If using a rack system, its best to use the concrete mixing tubs for rats. As far as keeping the cages clean, I found that if not crowded, you can get away with cleaning 1-2x per week. I used a mixture of wood pellets (the kind you get from feed stores for horse stalls) and aspen bedding, though I found the wood pellets to be a bit dusty if not changed frequently.

4) Food is another big one. Mice and rats will eat their young usually under 3 conditions. They are stressed (meaning they can smell a predator, their environment is dirty/too small and not suitable for raising young, etc) they are lacking a vital nutrient/water, or they are inexperienced. First time mothers will often kill a baby or two (sometimes the whole litter) but the 2nd time around will be better. If a mouse/rat is lacking nutrition or water they will kill their young and eat them. I preferred using either Harlan Teklan rodent food (I bought 30lb bags for $20 at reptile shows) or Mazuri Rodent Block 6F (I found it online for about $55 shipped to my door for what was for what I think was a 50lb bag. Its been so long since I used it) I supplemented that with homemade mixes (I can pull up a recipe I used if you want. It works for rats or mice) and small amounts of fruits and veggie scraps.

5) Just want to say this again. Get your breeding stock from GOOD sources. Don't just go to the nearest pet store and buy the first male and female pair you see. I chose my breeders poorly and I got poor results. I had respiratory infections, mites, mothers who killed off entire litters, aggressive males, failure to thrive babies. It was not a good experience.

6) If you decide to order frozen/thawed in bulk instead of breeding your own, RodentPro.com is pretty awesome and has great prices. I get my small rats for less than $1.50 each when you include shipping.