RatPalace.com - Pet Rat Care and Discussion

Sat Jan 21, 2006 7:47 am

i hav just had to seperate 2 of my males from the other 4 due to fighting...my question is that the smallest mouse of mine (Scar) has a lot of...well...Scars!!! and i was wondering wen his scars heal up will it still be safe to breed him, i was planning to breed him this week but due to the fighting...........

Thanks in advance

Snagrit

Sat Jan 21, 2006 8:28 am

Your mice sound like they have an awful lot of problems to be breeding them. Then again, none of us know very much about you or your goals as a breeder. Why don't you tell us a bit about yourself? What varieties of mice do you breed? What are your goals as a breeder? Where did you get the mice you intend to breed, and do they have backgrounds?

While it's normal for male mice to tend to want to be solitary unless raised with another mouse, I still wouldn't breed any who really fought viciously and constantly. What do you mean by Scar being "small?" Is he unusually so, or is he just younger than the others? If he's unusually small or stunted somehow, that could be the reason he's getting picked on, and he probably has something else wrong with him causing the small size- that, or he's small because he's unusually submissive and hasn't gotten his fair share of food. Either way, I'd question the decision to breed him.

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--Brittany

"He who breaks a thing to find out what it is, has left the path of wisdom."

Sat Jan 21, 2006 10:48 am

Every mouse that I have had (male) that have been unusually small have died early deaths. This is probably not always true but I think it usually has something to do with their health

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<3 to my Fats and my Meeces

Sat Jan 21, 2006 11:27 am

He is not tiny but he is smaller than my other mice as in they r older then him, and Scar doesn't fight there is just one mouse called Spike that picks on him cause Scar like to go into a small tunnell toy which Spike has kinda taken over, I have seperated my mice that fight and there has been no fighting recently.

now about meself, I would LOVE to breed Kangaroo Rats but at the moment i am just breeding mice, my goals for breeding are this, L LUV mice and rats....the are my LIFE!!!!!!!! and i want to no more about them, study them,(not like a scientist) and simply i luv getting new mice and i would rather get one as a baby from my mice then buyiing one, i can always house my mice as my local town love mice so i hav a lot oof ypung kids asking for mice, my local pet store also takes them and never sells them for snake food. All of my current mice i have gotten through breeding,, iin other words all the mice i hav rite now i hav gotten from my past mice. I mainly breed Fancy mice which i LOVE!!! but in the end i LUV mice.......

Snagrit

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Rats r my Soul...Mice r my Heart!!! wink

Sat Jan 21, 2006 12:18 pm

Could I suggest that you take a look over this thread? Although it's based on rats rather than mice, many of the principles are the same for both. It might give you some more ideas to consider when it comes to breeding.

I don't know if you're already a member of any clubs or breeder groups, or how much you know about genetics (I have to admit I don't know much about mouse genetics myself) but I've always found that being a part of groups of like-minded people is very helpful - especially when it comes to ensuring that you're doing the best you can.

While I'm sure you do love your mice very much, it might be worth looking at perhaps concentrating on other aspects - if you're going to breed anyway, why not work on ensuring that they're super healthy and good natured as well? The problem with that is - if you give them to pet stores to rehome - you can't do that, as you won't have any way of following up on them to check how they've matured, if they've had any health problems that you might not be aware they're prone to, and so on.

You say that your town loves mice and you can always find homes for them - do you keep records of all the mice you've bred, and do you follow up on them with their new owners? If not, it's definitely worth doing so, so that you can ensure that you're doing the best you can for them. Ultimately, there are many many mice out there already that need homes, and if you're going to breed them, it makes sense to ensure that you're improving mousekind as a whole.

How long have you been breeding, and how many litters have you had now?

Anyway - take a look over that thread I linked here, and read through it.... and just consider the principles that generally are though of as constituting responsible breeding. I'm sure that some of those might prove helpful if you're looking to breed the best mice that you can, even if some of the specific information (such as medical conditions mentioned) may be only valid in the case of rats.

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Andy & The Rats

~ Darwin ~ Maisie ~ Ella ~ Zak ~

~ Finn ~ Malachi ~ Azrael ~ Newton ~ Charlie ~

Sat Jan 21, 2006 6:26 pm

	Quote:
	All of my current mice i have gotten through breeding,, iin other words all the mice i hav rite now i hav gotten from my past mice.

Where did the mice from your original line come from (where did the mice that you started to breed come from)? How many generations back does there pedigree go?

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Rosie

* * *

I miss you Tut, Goldy, and Raoul Angel rat

Sun Jan 22, 2006 3:28 pm

Btw, to Little willow i defineteely feep all records ofmy mice!!!!!!!
i have a thingo on my computer called "The Mouse Files"!!!
Thanks for the thread and with all the mice i give to friends i check up on them every 3 weeks.
I have had 4 litters and been breeding for roughly a year now.
i luv this site and the help here

thanks a lot!!

Snagrit

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Rats r my Soul...Mice r my Heart!!! wink