Anyone raise their own pinky mice?

[MeTree]

Hey guys. Please don't write me nastly PMs for this. My frog has to eat.

Here is the reason I am asking. I went to Petsmart the other day to run in so I could feed Malcolm (my Pacman Frog) his first live pinky. Turns out, Petsmart (the guy said that Petsmart doesn't carry them, but I don't know if he meant Nation-wide) doesn't carry pinky mice live, only frozen.

Is my Pacman Frog supposed to eat frozen pinky mice?? Apart from being frozen they had another disadvantage...for 6 frozen pinky mice, I'd have to pay $10.99 (+tx.)! My father completely, outright said,"No!" to that, and I do not blame him one bit!

I have been thinking about responsibly raising mice, not only for breeding, but the breeding does and buck would be my pets, just like my Pacman Frog and my numerous fish. I have found that a responsible mouse setup would be somewhere between $70-$120 based on the materials I have now. Plus, I just happen to have a Birthday coming up in June, so I will not have a problem paying for it.

Does anyone here breed their own pinkies/fuzzies/weanlings/young adult/adult mice? I would end up with approximately 96 - 144 if my mice have average amount of pups. I may or may not give some to my LFS, because I don't know how sound the genetics would be.

Just wondering if anyone else here did that.

[berksmike]

I think that they should only really be given as a treat at most being very fatty (I personally dont give them at all). And given you only have the one pacman I would say breedin them not necessarily that cost effective.

How about other alternatives like roaches? easy and cheap to breed and I would say nutritionally better for your pacman.

[MeTree]

As for feedings, I would only feed Malcolm once monthly.

Malcolm may be my only pet that can eat pinkies, but certainly not the only pinky eater in the family, plus I have a friend who raises snakes.

Cost effective? Just feeding my Pacman Frog frozen mice would end up costing me $60 a year (assuming Malcolm ate 2 a month for his life). With $60 I could setup a mouse tank.

The main reason I am breeding is because I want to keep mice anyways. They are like cute little hamsters, and they love to be held and played with. I want to look over every once and awhile and see an energetic ball of energy running with unknown endurence on a wheel. My friend has a hamster, and it is SO cute!

Breeding, yes, but it is mainly just an excuse and a profit on top of keeping my first personal warm-blooded pocket pets.

(btw, I am aware that overfeeding mice has a possibility to build up too many lipids in the cornea of a Pacman Frog's eyes, causing them to go blind. I am not going to feed mice more than once monthly to Malcolm)

[berksmike]

Thats fair enough then - im just not a fan of feeding rodents to phibs thats all

[JSG]

MeTree just keep your breeding mice away from any and all other rodents and specifically rats. Rats gives off hormones that will prevent your mice from breeding. I have also heard from several sources that should the mice not breed you have to increase their intake of sunflower seed. That's about all the advice I can give you - my son has three Gerbils families and they are almost the same as mice - just cuter and not as smelly as they do not drip urine 24/7! Gerbils are actually desert animals thus they don't need to loose their moisture, they tend to keep it! LOL
My son has them as pets and feeds some of their pinkies (very seldom) to his snakes!

[MeTree]

Thank you for the advice! Rats are probably abit further down the road for me LOL, but I do want to get some some day. I will not be keeping them next to the mice, though.

[Kevin1]

I used to breed mice, but were just a big hassle compared to rats. I've been breeding rats for a couple years now as pets and as food. There's really not much to it. I can say mice smell(the males have a musk) and seem more sensitive than the rats. I can honestly say as far as pets go you'll enjoy a rat 100X more than a mouse. They're very intelligent and almost dog-like. Breeding rats or mice, it'd be a good idea to give your females a break from babies every once in awhile. Too many nonstop litters can really take a toll on the female, death could even result. Generally speaking the better they're fed the better they'll breed. Lastly I just want to say breeding rodents especially on a small scale is not as cost effective as they seem, learned this from experience. lol

[sflyingcow]

If your looking to save money breeding cockroaches is super easy to do and great feeders. I have started doing this so i dont have to buy crickets all the time. Although i still feed the occasional pinky. Only found one pet store out of 4 around me that sells live pinkies. Pets mart doesn't sell them here either. If you have an Ace hardware that has a pet side sometimes employees can get you live pinkies otherwise find i have to drive 30 min. to get live pinkies.

[MeTree]

Yeah, I have thought about dubias, but I can't find them anywhere, and my parents certainly would not approve me breeding cochroaches lol. I have heard that they are much cleaner and more effecient than crickets, but right now, crickets is what I have lol.

Thanks for the suggestion, though.

[sflyingcow]

well if you can talk them into it id do it!
i ordered mine from ROACH PAGE
i ordered the 125 mix kit and used plastic bin. super easy set up, dont smell at all i keep them in my bed room. Also they can only flutter not fly and cant climb smooth things like the plastic tub walls. Ive read some people say they wouldnt survive if escaped the tub although i find that hard to beleive. i use a small heating pad on my been and they have been breeding well. no regrets 2 months in

[frogmike]

It really doesn't cost that much. I started of with 2 males and two females. You will need to buy 3 set ups. First you will put them all in together and let them have at it. you will hear a lot of squeaking. after a bout 15 days, you will need to place the females in two separate setups. Approx 21 day after the first time they were together you should have two litters. The males will fight always so you might want to buy only one. Don't give them a wheel while you are trying to get them to breed, they are more likely to run than procreate. If you only want one litter at a time then only put one female in at a time. I would add the second one within 10 days so you don't have a big gap in litters though. your biggest expense will be mouse food, so I don't recommend top price mouse food unless you love them.