With frozen thawed pinky mice creeping into my budget & two other animals coming my way, I’ve decided to breed mice instead of buying frozen mice to lower expenditures. Per the usual, most aspects of their care such as heating, ventilation, & their feeding schedule will be automated using a microcontroller I will program. Being a beginner, what will I need to start this mice breeding project?
1. Goals
The goal is to have a self sustaining supply of mice to feed to my animals to ensure my wallet stays healthy and my animals’ bellies stay full. This will be done by culling the babies via asphyxiation by dry ice as it emits carbon dioxide. A specially made cull box will house the babies if they’re numbers are too high and require freezer storage while the status quo will be to live feed my animals to simulate what they would encounter in the wild. I know live feeding is a touchy subject with animal feeding, but it will be done when feeding my animals. When my animals are big enough for adult mice I’ll hold their tail via forceps and present their head to the animal to ensure the first strike negates biting.
There will be two breeding generations. Gen 1 will consist of about five females and one male purchased from different stores to ensure they aren’t related. Their first five female offspring will be be maintained until adulthood where they will be separated from their parents and put in another bin with their own stud to become breeding stock themselves. Any males detected before this second generation establishment phase will be culled, and all babies birthed after the second generation is established will be culled upon reaching optimal size. If any breeding female dies, one female pup will be allowed to grow to replace her while dead males simply require a quick visit to the pet store and a week of quarantine to ensure health.
2. Housing/ Feeding
Rubbermaid totes serve as housing with holes cut in them for fans, a heat bulb, an observation screen, a light bulb, and temperature sensor. Toys, hides, water, nest making material and bedding is present to ensure the population has proper mental stimulation while growing the herd. Feeding them requires soldering a metal mesh together and placing food inside it to ensure food cleanliness. Bedding change is every week or when the waste accumulation warrants a change. The brood will be put in a temporary container while the bedding is thrown in the trash and the totes are sprayed with a bleach solution and scrubbed, soaked, and vented to ensure cleanliness. At least once a week for an hour there will be recognition training to get the mice used to interacting with me and playing. Like all my pets, I handle them on occasion so they’re used to me opening up their enclosure and holdling them. While I’m sure the mice will have biting issues in the beginning, the hope is to tame them and keep them happy as they breed. Once enough babies are born to feed my animals for the month, a rotation will be set up so each mother has a break from breeding to focus on rest and relaxation before making more babies.
3. Cull The Herd
If too many babies are born for my animals to eat, I plan on removing the male from the harem & culling all remaining babies once they reach a decent size and freezing them. Once the freezer stock gets low enough I’ll resume breeding and start the process again as necessary. The cull will be done by placing the babies inside a gas chamber filled with dry ice which emits carbon dioxide. This suffocates all babies and allows them to be killed without blunt force trauma or decapitation.