Are feeder mice safe?

[Cecisflock]

Mice are VERY clean i hear.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Females will also kill babies if they're too stressed out (got to learn that in elementary school when our class' mama mouse started eating her babies), so having a bunch of mice in a small enclosure like a trash can won't give you the results you're hoping for.

 

[Quatie]

That many females would need a rather large cage. Each female is going to produce around 8-9 pups every month once they come of age. And they can produce even larger litters, that is just around average. So you would be looking at over a hundred pups the first month they have litters. As stated, females will kill their pups if stressed. The young can kill the pups as well. Sometimes mothers will just not care for the young at all when stressed. Also when stressed, some will stop cycling, basically stop producing young.

You also don't want too much inbreeding, it can cause sterility issues. Also other health issues can become more common.

Otherwise, domestic mice don't really have a bunch of diseases in them. You are more going to have to worry about accidentally giving them a disease from contact with other animals.

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

OK, am am prob going to but a few from the pet store, and I ma building a cage (half or 1/4 inch wire) and it should be pretty roomy. Have not figured out the exact size yet though.
Thanks guys I would been in a lot of trouble with my plans if you had not helped me

 

[Quatie]

OK, am am prob going to but a few from the pet store, and I ma building a cage (half or 1/4 inch wire) and it should be pretty roomy. Have not figured out the exact size yet though.
Thanks guys I would been in a lot of trouble with my plans if you had not helped me

Thing with mice, if they can get their head through it, they can get their body through. I had some bad cage lids, and would find young mice running around. So go with the smaller wire.

 

[rosemarythyme]

building a cage (half or 1/4 inch wire) and it should be pretty roomy.

Small mice can squeeze through 1/2" openings, so I would go smaller.

 

[RosemaryDuck]

Thing with mice, if they can get their head through it, they can get their body through. I had some bad cage lids, and would find young mice running around. So go with the smaller wire.

I second this . I've got 2 rack systems, and the 1 system has slightly larger wire then the other. I did occasionally have 1-2 hopper mice figure out out to squeeze out but they never figured out how to get to the floor since my racks are high. I'd just toss them back. I fixed it by just putting smaller wire on. I don't get any loose ones now .

 

[SpotTheCat]

OK, am am prob going to but a few from the pet store, and I ma building a cage (half or 1/4 inch wire) and it should be pretty roomy. Have not figured out the exact size yet though.
Thanks guys I would been in a lot of trouble with my plans if you had not helped me

If you can stick a pencil through the wire then mice can go through.
My cages are
25cm x 40cm (9.8inx15.7in) for 1-3 pregnant females and the male for two weeks.
24cm x 36cm (9.8inx14.2in) for my lone males it can comfortably hold 2 mice and at a bit of a squeeze 3 mice I normally only do 3 mice in them for a short amount of time.
38cmx60cm (14.9inx23.6in) For grow outs and none pregnant females fits about 10 mice.
My mouse cages are made out of plastic storage boxes with wire lids.

 

[Bigtom Turkey]

Plastic containers those would work great! Thx for the numbers.