# How 'bout mice?



## Pilsnah (Mar 19, 2005)

Hi,

I'm new to to this, but I was wondering if mice dead or alive are a good feeder?
I think they are cheap, easily procreate and a good source of nutrition.

Beg to differ or agree!


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## RRice (Feb 16, 2005)

mess to clean up, i would rather eat shrimp then a mouse, so i feed my piranhas shrimp and other types of fish, its best IMO


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## piranhasrule (May 31, 2004)

i fed pinkies (baby mice) to my baby p and it grew really quick and had great colours


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## Buff Canuk (Nov 29, 2004)

how big were your p's when you fed them the pinkie


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## piranhasrule (May 31, 2004)

well it was a while ago so im not that sure, and im rubish at estimating size. I got it at about 1 inch size and fed it bloodworms untill it got to a size where it had developed a light shade of red on the belly and throught area, thats when i started feeding pinkies


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## taylorhedrich (Mar 2, 2005)

You can get just a 10 gallon tank for like $10 or less, then get a male and female mouse that are mature to put in there, which will only cost you about another $5 or less, then they breed extremely fast. I think that they give birth every 9 days to pinkies or pre-mature mice. The pinkies just after being born can then be fed to the fish. I'm not exactly sure what their nutritious value is, but I'd only feed them as a treat. If you are going to feed them as a treat, you'd have to have a lot of predatory fish that would consume them fast, otherwise of you only had a few predatory fish, you'd end up feeding them nothing but pinkies because mice breed so fast. Those are my thoughts. I hope you can make use of them, and again I'm not sure about the nutrition value, so hopefully someone will come along and share their thoughts on that. Good luck!!!








~Taylor~


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## piranhasrule (May 31, 2004)

i think tayler is correct in saying 9 days, although i heard somewhere its 14? anyway, the average birth results in 8 babis, now thisnk about that for a secand, if the 8 babies were split equally girl/boy and then when they were mature they had 8 babies split 4 boy 4 girl and so on at the end of 1 year you would have around 1 million mice!, nothing 2 do with feeding piranhas, just an intresting fact for ya that i heard a while ago!


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## Pilsnah (Mar 19, 2005)

thanks for the feedback!


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## tweekie (Nov 3, 2004)

dont know if pinkies are healthy for an everyday diet, would have thought they would have been a bit fatty.


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## Tinkerbelle (Oct 14, 2004)

okay.... 9 days is REDICULOUS. here are the facts

the average gestation of a mouse or rat is 21 days. they give birth (when kept in pairs) every 21 days, and the female is fertile for breeding within 24 hours of giving birth. litters can range on average from 5-20. young mice are usually fertile by week 5. females reach their most prolific by 12-16 weeks (usually).

IF you are going to keep mice in a 10 gallon tank, you CANNOT KEEP THEM ON PINE OR CEDAR. hell, you shouldn't do it even if they're in a wire cage. not only are pine and cedar toxic and will shorten the lifespan of your breeders, its bad for the babies. aspen is a good option, as is carefresh bedding. you MUST MUST MUST clean the tank ONCE A WEEK. otherwise, its like keeping fish in a tank without water changes or siphoning off the crap on the bottom. mice's urine is very high in ammonia and will choak them to death in a matter of weeks.

because mice are so VERY prolific, you may want to invest in a divider for the tank of some sort so that you can put mommy on one side, and daddy on the other. they may outproduce your needs for food!

if you find they are not producing ENOUGH food, consider investing in another female. males will 'stud out' you don't need a 1:1 ratio. in fact, putting 2 males in a tank with a fertile female will result in catastrophic fights.

hope that helps

btw: ive been breeding my own mice for food for my snakes since i was 7 ^_^ and then i bred fancies for retail and show. as well as rats.


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## taylorhedrich (Mar 2, 2005)

Tinkerbelle said:


> okay.... 9 days is REDICULOUS. here are the facts
> 
> *the average gestation of a mouse or rat is 21 days. they give birth (when kept in pairs) every 21 days,* and the female is fertile for breeding within 24 hours of giving birth. litters can range on average from 5-20. young mice are usually fertile by week 5. females reach their most prolific by 12-16 weeks (usually).
> 
> ...


Thanks for clearing that up. My mistake...







I've never bred mice before so I wasn't sure...
Tinkerbelle to the rescue..........


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## Dawgnutz (Mar 2, 2005)

Tinkerbelle said:


> okay.... 9 days is REDICULOUS. here are the facts
> 
> the average gestation of a mouse or rat is 21 days. they give birth (when kept in pairs) every 21 days, and the female is fertile for breeding within 24 hours of giving birth. litters can range on average from 5-20. young mice are usually fertile by week 5. females reach their most prolific by 12-16 weeks (usually).
> 
> ...


Ok this might sound stupid cause I know mice are born without hair. But which ones take the lost to grow hair, if you understand what I'm saying. I would like to try this, but I don't wanna have to constantly clean hair out of my tank. Which mice has anyone else used to breed for fish consumption? I'm sure snakes could care less about hair, but whats best for fish.


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## alan (Mar 11, 2004)

i think its great fun to watch but when everyone has gone and your left to clear the mess up its not so much fun.but still fun!


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## dva (Mar 20, 2005)

about whether or not pinkies are a good source of everydai food for baby ps...i think its good for them,,,lots of blood...gets ur ps more vicious...and more tender than beef heart...since meat is meat...but pinkie meat is more tasty for da ps...


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## btbudd (Apr 5, 2005)

I have fed my red bellies pinkies for a while but do not feed them to the piranhas all the time. It is my understanding that the mice are a good diet for the fish but are not a great everyday diet. Piranhas like a little variety sometimes, and also enjoy very lean meat the best.

About feeding larger mice to the piranhas possibly with hair; it is also my understanding that if you do choose to feed larger mice to the Ps it would be best to shave or remove their hair in some other way. The hair is hard on the digestive system of the piranhas.

But, like I said, that's just how I understand things to be and could be wrong on one or both.


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## Tinkerbelle (Oct 14, 2004)

Dawgnutz said:


> Tinkerbelle said:
> 
> 
> > okay.... 9 days is REDICULOUS. here are the facts
> ...


this is a bit of a tradeoff.... if you feed pinkies they are hairless. they then begin to fuzz up by 4 days old when they gain their coloration (if any) and become 'fuzzies' with a velveteen like fuzz all over their bodies. the mice then gain tangible hair right around the time their eyes prepare to open and they reach the 'hopper' stage... right around 10-14 days old (yikes i hope i'm right... its been a long time since i've kept my own feeders)

an option is to invest in HAIRLESS MICE. these mice don't grow hair, much like hairless rats. they are also relatively rare and therefore usually start at around $10 each. you'd have to invest in a breeding pair... problem here is that females tend to not lactate properly. also, being hairless is a result usually from line breeding so much like super delta bettas, they have a reduced immune system and are prone to illness if not properly cared for (cleaning cage up to 2x per week, carefresh bedding ONLY, keeping tank out of drafts and safe from heat spells).

personally i love the hairless mice and rats.... AS PETS. they just don't really have the turnaround rate that the furries do. and by furries i mean your regular, short haired straight furred mice & rats.... there are also curly coated varieties of each, and silky and long coated mice. usually these varieties fall under the same category as the hairless and have lowered immune systems (thought not quite as much), and will run a bit higher in cost. curly (also known as rex or asterix), silky, and longhaired mice lactate normally. you can also have combinations of curly, silky, and longhaired all in one mouse. i've had mice like this and they're gorgeous... but not worth the trouble as feeders. they tend to have VERY small litter sizes (7 being not the average, but a relatively large litter).

hope that helps!


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## Scrap5000 (Mar 4, 2005)

Tinkerbelle said:


> Dawgnutz said:
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> > Tinkerbelle said:
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Damn it's sexy when you talk shop...


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## Tinkerbelle (Oct 14, 2004)

Scrap5000 said:


> Damn it's sexy when you talk shop...
> [snapback]968251[/snapback]​










awww.... its nothing really.....


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## Judazzz (Jan 13, 2003)

dva said:


> about whether or not pinkies are a good source of everydai food for baby ps...i think its good for them,,,lots of blood...gets ur ps more vicious...and more tender than beef heart...since meat is meat...but pinkie meat is more tasty for da ps...
> [snapback]967948[/snapback]​


Mice nor beef heart should be fed with any regularity (once a month at most, as a treat) - it's hardly part of their natural diet, so their digestive system isn't designed to handle large amounts of those food sources.
In the wild, 90% or more of their diet is made out of fish, insects and crustaceans etc., and that's what they should be fed in captivity as well. Everything else should be fed as a rare treat (unless you intentionally want to subject your fish to possible health issues due to a wrong diet...)


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## richiecarw (Apr 6, 2005)

i know this may be an extremly stupid question but if you seperate the mommy and daddy mice/rat after the female is pregnant then she gives her litter of pinkies she cant be preg again unless the two are let together again they're not like guppies are they lol?? just wondering cause it might be a gd idea to control the births. how do u tell between the males and female pinkies?


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## Tinkerbelle (Oct 14, 2004)

richiecarw said:


> i know this may be an extremly stupid question but if you seperate the mommy and daddy mice/rat after the female is pregnant then she gives her litter of pinkies she cant be preg again unless the two are let together again they're not like guppies are they lol?? just wondering cause it might be a gd idea to control the births. how do u tell between the males and female pinkies?
> [snapback]968972[/snapback]​


no, mice and rats cannot retain sperm like fish do. no worries there









it is very difficult to sex pinkies, its better to wait until they are fuzzies. when they just turn into 'hoppers' tends to be the hardest time to sex them. right around 3 weeks its nearly impossible, but by 4 the balls can clearly be seen.

Also, unlike animals where it tends to be both sexes, only females in mice and rats have nipples - or at least ones developed enough to see. they should be very visible by the time they hit the fuzzy stage.

except from the RMCA Q&A page:



> When young, males have a longer space between the anus and uterus/penis, and when older, the bulge of the testicles is clear.


MICE (adults, male with testicles retracted into body):

















RATS (adults, with male clearly displaying testicles):
left - female *** right - male


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## richiecarw (Apr 6, 2005)

Thanks tinkerbell! brilliant info!!! unchallenged knowledge!!!








lv Richie ! x


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## tweekie (Nov 3, 2004)

be warned that if you keep the babies in their for too long then they will try to bang their mom! seriously. friend of mine bred hamsters and rats and the kids were banging their mom after a while so had to be seperated.


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## richiecarw (Apr 6, 2005)

banging!!!!








im not immature or nothing


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## taylorhedrich (Mar 2, 2005)

richiecarw said:


> banging!!!!
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> 
> ...


Yes, we can see that you aren't.


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## Sandi (Apr 7, 2005)

lol I also used to breed mice and hamsters and was laughing at the 9 day gestation period.







hamsters have the shortest gestation period of all. and if i remember correctly their's is around 16-18 days.

but anyway, most of my male mice i had ate the new babies as soon as they were born, so, ya might wanna do the seperation of the parents thing after you know the female is pregnent. I had a female mouse give birth to 15 babies in one litter before. What are ya gonna do with the others if that happens?


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## richiecarw (Apr 6, 2005)

i would kill them (in the quickest way possible







) freeze them, and defrost them when needed.


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## Joga Bonito (Oct 30, 2004)

i use pinkys, less mess


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## Dawgnutz (Mar 2, 2005)

Tinkerbelle said:


> Dawgnutz said:
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> > Tinkerbelle said:
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Thanks for the help there.








I have a new friend


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## john1634 (Mar 22, 2005)

would u all suggest feeding the pinkies live or dead?


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## richiecarw (Apr 6, 2005)

i dont think it matters if they are live or dead being that young i would assume they'd all just sink? itd be fairer on the pinkies if u killed them by giving them a sharp dunt to the head first rather than let them be eaten alive! 
just my thoughts


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## john1634 (Mar 22, 2005)

ok thanx for info . i also need to know should i buy just 1 or more to feed my 5 rbp's they are 2-3 inches and i have never seen how small a pinkie is so that is why i am asking how many i should get just for 1 feeding


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## zrreber (Mar 8, 2005)

mice look awesome to feed but i would guess are a major pain to clean up after your p's are done having there way with it...


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## zrreber (Mar 8, 2005)

but its up to you....


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## b-unit34 (Apr 1, 2005)

He didnt ask how long it takes to breed mice!


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