Mice Breeding

Mice breeding is a quite easy process and is economical as well. A single mouse should not be kept on its own as they are gregarious. If you feed them cheese or an excess of green food you will end up with smelly mice. Always buy young stock as they only live for a couple of years. Mice are a very fascinating species for someone whose hobby includes breeding them but novices need guidance. If you are an amateur and looking forward to breed mice, you may find the following account helpful.

Basics of Mice Breeding

A female can give birth to about eleven or more babies. They grow up at a very fast rate. Mice have a short gestation period of about 20 days or so. When the female has a pear shaped large abdomen, you can easily say that she is pregnant. The smell of the male makes the female ovulate. This is required for her to conceive.

Breeding Cages for Mice

For breeding cages, you can opt for wire cages or empty aquariums. Wire cages should have very small spacing. The reason is that the babies can quickly escape from them. Aquarium is good for this purpose. If good ventilation is allowed in it and is cleaned properly, mice have a healthy and safe time there. Avoid anything of plastic in the cage as mice chew it perfectly. You can keep two females and a male in a 20 gallon aquarium. As there will be several babies, it will be good to keep each female in a separate aquarium or a larger aquarium may also be used.

Diet of Breeding Pair

A very healthy diet should be given to a breeding pair. Pelleted foods, blocks and seed diets are available in plenty. Breeding time is the time when the mice need a very rich amount of protein rich diet.

Breeding Mice

When the female gets pregnant, take away the male; so that he could not breed her post delivery. Thus, chances of babies being eaten up by any of the parents are lessened. If the mother is restless, keep her in privacy for about seven days. When the offspring open eyes and start running, it will be safe to handle them if you have a composed and friendly mother. But before making her handle the babies give her time of minimum three days. Separate the babies before they are five weeks old. For determining sex, look at the bellies of the babies. Females have a smaller space between urethra and anus than males do. In due course males will drop their testicles.

Selective Mice Breeding

Selective breeding is a process to breed mice in a systematic manner. Thus, their qualities can be changed. Selective breeding helps in improving the offspring of the mice. The consequence of selective breeding is that the mice can improve their color or markings, types and also their health. Before opting for selective breeding, certain points are there that that must be kept in mind. The points are-

1. The color, coat variety or marking you desire to breed
2. Quality of mice you already have
3. Number of mice you are having
4. You wish to breed the same mice variety or different varieties of mice

After mice breeding always keep in mind that the mother needs rest from pregnancy and feeding babies. Thus, rest for a minimum of a few weeks after weaning the babies is required before breeding her again. Mice are made to breed in the fashion of rabbits and in the wild continuously produce babies, but rest should be provided between litters. Breed carefully so you don't generate more than you can handle. Ensure a healthy diet to your mice. Keeping all this in mind you will be producing and raising healthy and happy mice.