[RikkiTikki]

Dear all exprerienced breeders, i need your advice and suggestions please:

I have 2 female mice - recessive yellow and dove with markings. I would like to try breeding one of them. I have a couple of questions regarding fitting pair and the keeping before and after:

1. to get interesting colors of the babies what color male mouse should i get?
2. after the female get pregnant should i remove it from the buck in a separate cage?
3. can the second female mouse be together with the pregnant mouse and the babies in the same cage?
4. if some of the babies will be male gender, can i keep them together (boys only) once they grow?
5. can male babies once they grow live together in the same cage with the buck-father?

I would greatly appreciate all the comments and suggestions. I just want to prepare before i start breeding. Thank you!

 

[minibears]

'interesting' colours is a matter of opinion but you might try looking at this site http://www.hiiret.fi/eng/breeding/varieties/index.html
there is also general advice on care and breeding,

 

[MouseHeaven]

1. If you want a small variety of colors in the litter, get a buck of a different color than the female. Also, you never know what colors the buck will have in his previous lines, so sometimes you can get a whole rainbow of colors.
2. It depends on how long you are leaving the buck in the tank, if it gets to the point where you can see that she is pregnant, it might be better to remove the buck instead. That will also create less havoc for the female because she won't have to rebuild a nest in a new tank. The buck should be removed because the female will be able to get pregnant again immediately after birth, and occassionally the buck can cause the female some distress which can result in her eating babies.
3. Yes, placing another female in the tank with the mother can sometimes be quite helpful to her. The non-pregnant female will act like a "nanny" towards the babies. But, sometimes the "nanny" can do more harm than good.
4. Actually, yes. When you keep the males together since birth you will rarely have fighting issues between them. But, it takes very little to through the balance off and if a fight does occur you should immediately remove the male causing the fight. Also, to decrease the amount of fighting, take out all the toys, houses, etc; have available two spots for drinking, and at least two spots for eating. When giving out treats, make sure there is enough for each male to have one; no less, no more.
5. I'm not completely sure.. If the male was previously housed with other males, he should be able to be housed with the younger males. If not, he may become aggressive towards them, just as he would with an adult male. Make sure you introduce them on neutral ground and before placing the younger males in the tank, it might be best to take some of the smelly bedding from the dad's tank and rub it on them. You can also take some of the younger males bedding and place it in the dad's tank a day before so he is comfortable with their smell. On the other hand, I have only done this once before - but it worked out very nicely.

Hope this helped!

 

[RikkiTikki]

minibears, thank you for the link, the genetics part is great there!

MouseHeaven, i appreciate a lot your detailed reply, it was definitely of great help for me

 

[moustress]

Putting unrelated young adult males together rarely works in my experience. Once bucks are about a year old the hormones ease up a bit, and they are less likely to fight unless one of them has been bred. Bucks that have been bred are usually much more aggressive and territorial.

 

[RikkiTikki]

Putting unrelated young adult males together rarely works in my experience. Once bucks are about a year old the hormones ease up a bit, and they are less likely to fight unless one of them has been bred. Bucks that have been bred are usually much more aggressive and territorial.

Thank you, moustress! Good that I have asked before starting to breed the mice. Kind of scared now to end up with many many little bucks :lol: I will not be able to cull them so maybe better then for me not to breed them at all

 

[MouseHeaven]

How come you won't be able to cull them?

 

[SarahC]

To have any chance of the father living with his sons you would have to leave him in with the doe while she gave birth and reared them and then remove him and sons to a new cage when they were 5 weeks old.This alas will mean the mother will have been re mated so is not really a solution .Most males with the exception of a few exhibition varieties that are docile will end up fighting,often fatally.

 

[minibears]

i put my boys with their housemate at weaning (4 weeks) and never keep more than 3 together permanently, 2 is best. always watch really closely for the first hour or so when they're introduced. at 4 weeks a baby boy is too small to be a real threat but plucky enough to learn some social skills, also i always introduce groups of baby boys(litter mates) to just 1 or 2 adult males in a clean cage so the territory is neutral. really this is 1 of those situations where you just gotta do whats right for the mice and yourself

 

[RikkiTikki]

How come you won't be able to cull them?

yeah... i am a wuss in that ...

To have any chance of the father living with his sons you would have to leave him in with the doe while she gave birth and reared them and then remove him and sons to a new cage when they were 5 weeks old.This alas will mean the mother will have been re mated so is not really a solution .Most males with the exception of a few exhibition varieties that are docile will end up fighting,often fatally.

that might be good option but it would mean i will get 2 litters of babies,

i put my boys with their housemate at weaning (4 weeks) and never keep more than 3 together permanently, 2 is best. always watch really closely for the first hour or so when they're introduced. at 4 weeks a baby boy is too small to be a real threat but plucky enough to learn some social skills, also i always introduce groups of baby boys(litter mates) to just 1 or 2 adult males in a clean cage so the territory is neutral. really this is 1 of those situations where you just gotta do whats right for the mice and yourself

i was thinking that the males from the litter i might be able to rehome to my friends and will just leave 1-2 to muself, then it looks easier.

By the way, are bucks generally more bity then females? or they are as friendly and tame?

Thank you all for the posts! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

[minibears]

males are usually people mice, females are mice mice