Raising Feeder Mice

Pre-raising Basics

• You can purchase feeder mice from a pet store, but it can be an expensive investment. A better alternative might be to look in reptile magazines or online, where reptile hobbyists and mouse dealers sell mice at lesser rates. You also can buy frozen feeder mice.

  If you want the hardiest and most prolific breeders as feeders, you'll want white lab mice with clear eyes and smooth skin. You should get approximately one year of breeding out a mouse, so you should replace female breeders yearly and male breeders approximately every year and a half.

Living Quarters

• You can keep mice in a glass aquarium or a built-for-mice lab cage that can be found at a reptile supply house or through a specialty mail-order company. If you can afford it, you can use stacked trays with automatic feeding and watering. For cage bedding, avoid using cedar shaving, since it contains an oil that rubs off on mice and could harm them. You can use pine shavings or newspaper, though the latter will require more frequent cleaning.

  To promote a healthy colony, clean and wash the mice cage once or twice weekly. Make sure the cage is completely dry and secure before replacing bedding and putting the mice back inside.

  Keep four to five females and one male in a cage. If you have more than one male, there will be fights and injuries and females will become nervous.

Food and Water

• You can feed mice biscuits, corn, dry dog food, gerbil or hamster food, lab blocks, oats, sunflower seed (small oil), wheat and other pelleted foods. Keep the food off the cage's floor to avoid soiling. Feed mice in the evening, when they are most active.

  You can secure a pint water bottle with Velcro strips on the inside of the cage to provide water.

  Make sure you provide enough food and water for your mouse population. A lack of either can result in a smaller litter size and an unhealthy environment.

Breeding and Euthanizing

• After a male and female mate, remove the female from the environment. A female usually gives birth in 21 days, with litter size averaging five to 15 pinkies. At roughly 21 days old, the young mice should be eating on their own and you can return the female to the group environment. The young mice should mature into adults in 45 days.

  When time comes to euthanize for feeding, you can put a mouse in an airtight container and pump carbon dioxide inside. You can purchase carbon dioxide in the form of air rifle cartridges, dry ice or pressurized containers. While this method is a humane and quick way to kill a mouse, you also can sever the mouse's spinal cord by pressing a pencil or screwdriver between the mouse's head and shoulders and simultaneously pulling on the mouse's tail.