# Some questions on breeding



## We Love Mouse (Jan 5, 2011)

I currently have 2 bucks live together happily without any fight. Now I plan to buy some does and breed with one of my bucks. If I seperate one of the bucks and put him with a doe (in another cage that doesn't belongs to any mouse) for breeding for less than 10-15 minutes and then return the mice back to their own group. Will this going to work? Will the bucks start fighting? My two bucks stay together since I bought them and I just don't want to seperate them.
Another question, my bucks are now 8 months old and if I buy some does, I have to wait another 3 months to let them grow. At that time, will they be too old to breed?(both of them never breed before)


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## SarahC (Oct 3, 2008)

the bucks will not be to old to breed.Using one for breeding is a very high risk strategy.You will need to have a separate cage prepared incase it leads to serious if not fatal fighting.If fighting does break out you will have to part them for ever.


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## racingmouse (Jan 12, 2011)

Sarah is right. If you take one male out to mate with a female/females, chances are you will be fating them to live alone and is that fair on them? It`s up to you but be warned. Personally, I would only breed if I had a single breeding male already.


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## Cait (Oct 3, 2008)

Having a male mouse live alone is an inconvenience for the owner, not the mouse. Bucks are naturally solitary animals when not mating (and less dominant bucks may never get this chance) and would not co-habit in the wild. The fact that they can fight to the death even as far removed from their wild cousins as they are demonstrates this instinct.


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## PPVallhunds (Jul 26, 2010)

i had two males who had lived tougher for a year happly untill i bred one and with out thinking put them back tougher, i ended up having to put the other male down as the one i bred attacked him, they seemed ok at first but after a while left to feed the other aniamls and went back to find him collapsed. Now i allways keep breeding males seperate. My stud buck lives with a female who so far wont breed (which works out nicley).


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## racingmouse (Jan 12, 2011)

Good advice PPVallhunds. Male mice who seem `bonded` are best kept that way. I know sometimes people don`t realise how fragile that balance can be with males, but better safe than sorry. I`m sorry you lost one of your boys like that.


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## geordiesmice (Oct 26, 2010)

It must be nasty when they really fight ive seen pictures of nasty injuries , they have never got that far with me first squibbles there seperated.


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## racingmouse (Jan 12, 2011)

I had to seperate two of the four males I once kept together (all brothers). Two happily co-habited fine but sadly, one took very ill and died and his brother soon passed aswell.  The other two just decided they did`nt like one another and had a stand-off all through the night! I even put them in a bare cage with nothing to argue over, but I could see from their body language that an eruption was about to take place, so I had to cave in and seperate them. Funnily enough, they both turned into the most wonderful characters. One was called Chalky and the other Oddy! I miss them so much....


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