Cull day - for those that cull their own rodents

[Lockie]

Hi everyone,

I'm after some info - at what age do you cull your rodents? (mice & rats). If you could reply and answer the following, it would be great. Correct me if the ones i've already filled out are wrong.

Adult Mice = Cull at 49 days old?
Hopper Mice = 14 days?
Fuzzy Mice =
Pinky Mice = the day they're born

Adult (Large) Rats =
Hopper (medium) Rats = 21 days?
Fuzzy Rats =
Pinky rats = the day they're born


thanks for your help!

Lockie

 

[dragon lady]

an interest bump!

 

[Nikki.]

Mice
Pinkie - Newborn
Fuzzie - 7 days old
Hopper - 14 days old
Weaner - 21 days old
Adult - 42 days old




Rats
Fuzzie - 7 days old
Hopper - 14 days old
Small - 21 days old
Medium - 35 days old
Large - 49 days old
X large - 63days old

This is what i found in my Doolittle farm pamphlet!
Cheers Nikki

 

[Lockie]

Thanks Nikki - you're a legend!

Lockie

 

[dragon lady]

that was great info Nikki!
i bought my first trio for feed breeding of rats yesterday
apparently they will have litter of around 30+ full size..weighing 600grms +

thas was great!

 

[Nikki.]

Absolutely no worries Lockie! hehe d/l

 

[ambah]

Lockie, what will be your method of choice? lol

 

[luke.r.s]

copied that for when i get around to breeding my own, possibly worth putting the list in wiki/ adding it to something in their??

 

[Vixen]

Mice
Pinkie - Newborn
Fuzzie - 7 days old
Hopper - 14 days old
Weaner - 21 days old
Adult - 42 days old




Rats
Fuzzie - 7 days old
Hopper - 14 days old
Small - 21 days old
Medium - 35 days old
Large - 49 days old
X large - 63days old

This is what i found in my Doolittle farm pamphlet!
Cheers Nikki

I don't know how they get their rats to grow so quick, whoever can get a extra large in 2 months, kudos to them :shock:

 

[Vixen]

My females are currently 15 weeks old and theyre still barely big enough to breed.

 

[mckellar007]

I don't know how they get their rats to grow so quick, whoever can get a extra large in 2 months, kudos to them :shock:

i was thinking the exact same thing!! it would take me atleast 4 months

 

[Hetty]

That's because their rats aren't large. Their mice aren't either, I've only bought them on a couple of occasions out of desperation, and they're tiny.

I cull my mice/rats when they're a good size for my snakes. There was a thread (or a post) a while ago (I think by Den) showing pictures of the size of mice/rats and grams. I'm inclined (and I know a lot of others are too) to think that rats/mice should be sold on how much they weigh rather than terms like 'pinkie' and 'fuzzy'.

 

[Jonno from ERD]

It's got to do with diet, housing, environment and strain of rats. If you have everything covered, you can have rats pregnant at 28-35 days and dropping their first litters before they hit 60 days. Unfortunately the secrets of high-output rodent breeding etc are kept very hush hush by those in the know. When correrctly set up, you can easily punch out an average of 13 young per pair per month.

 

[Hetty]

Rats pregnant at 4 weeks? I'll believe it when I see it :lol:

Are the litters culled down to a few pups to get that result?

 

[Jonno from ERD]

Litters culled to a maximum of ten. The rats copulate at 4 weeks resulting in pregnancies.

 

[Tristis]

i cull my mice and rat at what ever size i need.
you can sort of double clucth rats. the females will lay a second litter when the first is just being weaned.

 

[Jonno from ERD]

Yep, females will cycle within 24 hours of dropping a litter of bubs and will be pregnant while they are lactating.

 

[Vixen]

Litters culled to a maximum of ten. The rats copulate at 4 weeks resulting in pregnancies.

I know others think differently but IMO that is way too young for a female. Other than having smaller babies, they may not be mature enough emotionally to deal with looking after a litter.

 

[No-two]

I know others think differently but IMO that is way too young for a female. Other than having smaller babies, they may not be mature enough emotionally to deal with looking after a litter.

My thoughts exactly. It'd be like a 13 year old having a baby. Snake food or not, I like to give my mice the best life possible while they're still alive.

 

[Hetty]

I agree with you guys. While I think breeding a female at four weeks is very impressive, I wouldn't do it myself (if I could!). I'm quite fond of my rats and my four week olds are around 1/3 of the size of an adult.. I can't imagine them coping with that.

I breed my mice at any age though, they grow to full size a lot faster than rats do, and seem to have no problems coping with breeding young.