# Organizing your Mice



## fuzzymom (Nov 28, 2009)

I'm one of those people that like to be really organized. Problem is, I rarely am very organized. So its come time to re-do my animal room and I want to organize the mice better. So far I have been breeding them harem style (male stays in 24/7) because I breed for feeders and I have heard from a lot of people that taking the male out or breaking up the group in any way can cause the mice to reject one another. So I've always kept them harem style. I want to be able to give the females a break after each litter, so I want to organize them in a way that lets them have cage mates, but I am still able to keep track of which litter belongs to which female and make sure the males are not lonely.

Since I'm starting off small, I won't have that many mice. My idea was to have 4 56qt tubs that hold 4 female mice each. This is where they live communally while not breeding (not sure how long of a break to give them, but I've heard 2-3 weeks is good). That would give me 16 breeding females. I will of course always be attempting to breed for color and such so I won't just be dumping a male into a tub of 4 girls and hoping for babies. I want to be able to select which female breeds with each male and sometimes I won't be breeding all four girls at the same time to the same male (like I do now). (each female in the tub will be distinctly different from the others and have a name so I can keep track of everyone).

So how should I set it the other tubs that would allow me to select females to breed with certain males? I would also need tubs the mothers would be housed in to raise their babies. They would also need a non-breeding friend with them so they don't get lonely yes? (I figured I'd use a retired breeder female for this.) The retired breeders would live in the "birthing tubs" all the time and I would place pregnant does in with them when they start to show.

So could I set it up to have the 4 main tubs holding the non-breeding mice, some tubs for the males to live in and the females visit them for breeding. Once bred, they go to live in another set of tubs where nanny mice live and keep them company to raise their young? Then I would also need tubs for growing up the babies once weaned (separate them by sex) and a tub for any females I'd like to hold back for breeding. So how many males should I have if I plan on keeping the females in for 2 weeks with the male? How many nursing tubs should I have?

Any help would be amazing. I plan on making all the tubs soon, so I need to know how many to make. I already have one of the 56qt tubs. I also have a bigger tub. I think its a 72qt or something similar that I was originally going to use for rats. I might use that as a grow out tub for the babies once weaned. I was thinking of using smaller tubs for the nursing tubs. Not sure of size though.


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## SarahY (Nov 6, 2008)

There are lots of ways to do this and you'll need to find what suits you best. There's no right or wrong.

In my stud the males have their own cages that they live in for the duration of their lives. Bucks are very accepting of ladies in their territory, whereas females can get upset with a male's invasion of their space, so the females will move in the bucks' cages for about 17 days and then I move them to their own private nursing cage.

I prefer to have females alone for kindling and nursing and will pair females and litters together when the babies' eyes have opened. In my experience, lone females do just fine and exhibit no signs of loneliness or depression. Having them on their own means all of their attention is given to the young.

When the litter is weaned, the young girls and their mother move in the communal running on cage with all of the other does that are resting or growing up. I have three of these, one for each variety. Then, it's back into the bucks' cages and so on.

That's just how it works best for me though  You might want to draw yourself a big virtual mousery, with boxes for cages and then you can visually see how many cages and what sizes you'll need to produce the amount of mice you want. That's what I did to start with.

Sarah xxx


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## fuzzymom (Nov 28, 2009)

Thank you so much! I wasn't sure about the depression thing since I always thought that mice that were alone got depressed. And the males will be fine by themselves? They won't be alone all the time since they will have regular visits from the ladies, but there might be some time when they are alone. Will this be okay?


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## SarahY (Nov 6, 2008)

Mine are always fine. The only difference I notice is that their cages aren't as tidy when there's no ladies about to tidy up after them :lol:

Sarah xxx


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## fuzzymom (Nov 28, 2009)

I'm being OCD about this and I've actually written up a breeding schedule for 16 does and 4 males. Is 2 weeks a long enough break between litters or should I give them more time? I need 10 adult mice per week and 7 pinkies per week to feed my snakes. I know 16 does isn't enough but it is a start. They would get 2 weeks with the male, 5 weeks in the nursing tub (that gives them 4 weeks to raise their babies), and 2 weeks on vacation. That gives me a 9 week cycle. If I give them any more vacation time then the schedules will begin to overlap and I'll have females needing to be in with the males at the same time. I want to keep track of lineage with the babies in case I hold back any of them as future breeders.

Am I on the right track here? With 16 females I will need 12 nursing tubs I believe. When writing up the schedule, the maximum number of females I will have sitting on a litter is 12 during 1 cycle. So 4 doe tubs, 12 nursing tubs, and 4 male tubs is what I think I'll need to start out with. Roughly I'm getting 6 week old litters every 2 weeks using this breeding schedule (unless I did my math wrong, which is completely possible.) except for every cycle there is 1 3 week gap instead of 2 week.

Does this sound about right or am I way off?


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## SarahY (Nov 6, 2008)

That sounds fine to me, but it's you it's got to work for! 

Sarah xxx


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## fuzzymom (Nov 28, 2009)

Thanks! I know but I'm one of those people that over analyzes everything and has to find the perfect way for things to work.  I think this plan works. Now I just need to get to work making those tubs and getting the mice to fill them.  Is 4 mice too much for a 58qt (thought it was 56, but I guess its a 58) tub?

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sterilite-58- ... 8/10401038

That is the one I have and plan to use as the tubs for the resting females.


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