Ooops baby mice AGAIN

[Noisy_minor]

For those of you that dont know i keep and breed pythons i feed all mine on frozen rodents that have been euthanasied humanly.

Anyway, i was at a guys place, checking out some hatchlings he had for sale. When i noticed in the mother snake's cage, were 4 little albino mice, looking pretty pathetic. i asked the guy why he had 4 live mice in with one of his snakes, and he replied, "shes not interested in them at the moment but will wait till she does eventually eat them".
Well, i cant write what i actually said, its quite colourful. but i basically told him he was an amature, and had alot to learn before i would even consider buying one of his animals, and that i was taking the mice. He wasnt happy, but when i said i would inform the EPA, of his little illegal corn snake, he backed off pretty quick.

Anyway i got them home, there was 3 boys, and 1 girl. i seperated her, and about a week later she poped out 5 babies. Then i had nine mice, about a week after that, one of the boys escaped in the house. It took me a week to finally catch him, and i didnt think anymore of it. Then this morning, i went to clean out the mum and babies cage, and found 4 more babies, about 4 days old. Well u could have pushed me over with a feather, i was shocked, and it took me a few minutes, to realise what must have happened. i still am not sure as to how he got in to her cage, and out again. However i have rewired all the lids, (these are home made cages, from stroage tubs) and now there all tightly wired shut.

Now i have 13 little albino mice lol

Talk about Ooops babies

[Trees Gray]

Thank you for rescuing these mice from such cruel act, it's amazing how they multiply so quickly!

My rehabber also buys the frozen goodies for any of the hawks she rehabs. She has quite an assortment in her freezer for the various carnivors she rehabs.

[Lady Tarheel]

Good for you! I know mice are sacrificed all the time for raptors and reptiles, but like you said, hopefully, the supplier does euthanize humanely rather than be a sitting "duck" in a cage with a snake. I babysat two turkey vultures several years ago and it was hard feeding those babies even the frozen mice. The mice had to be chopped up because the vultures were so young they couldn't handle the whole mouse. Thank goodness, the rehabber I was helping did this in advance.

Would be nice if laboratories could find an alternative to using these little guys to experiment on.

[Lovebirds]

Can I ask a dumb question? How does someone "humanely euthanize" these critters that get fed to snakes and such? I'm quite sure that no one takes a box of 50 mice to have them PTS at a vets office?
Just curious.

[philodice]

I had pythons once that I couldn't keep because they would only eat live mice. I could not do it!
And remind me not to go over to a rehabbers house looking for frozen pizza.
"Mice on Ice"
How do we kill our mice and rats?

No, we don't thump them, drown them, or electrocute them. We put them down with the most humane method, CO2 gas, carbon dioxide, this is a natural substance that just puts them quickly and quietly to sleep. We then immediately seal them into Cryovac®, wheel them into a walk-in freezer, blast them with cold air. They go from happy little mice or rats to rock hard in about 30 minutes. They don't come fresher than that.

[Noisy_minor]

Philo said it all. I here alot of people say they will only eat live, but i have never had any problems, with them chaning to frozen. you need a little more patients, but other than that ive always found changing them from live to frozen to be very simple.

[Lovebirds]

YUCK........well, my hats off to both of you. I know that everything and everybody's got to eat, but I ain't got to be the one to feed em'...........I can step on a bug and swat a fly.........but that's bout as good as I'll ever get.

[maryjane]

Originally Posted by Lovebirds

YUCK........well, my hats off to both of you. I know that everything and everybody's got to eat, but I ain't got to be the one to feed em'...........I can step on a bug and swat a fly.........but that's bout as good as I'll ever get.

I can't even do that. Although today is daddy long leg round-up day...they just move outside, I have about two thousand of them in here at the moment.

Congratulations on the oops babies. I love mice (and rats) and I've been thinking the last few days of checking shelters for some mice. I miss having them and now that my last rat has gone on to rattie heaven, I would love some mice again. I once had a little red one with giant (I mean GIANT) ears, he was labeled "Fancy Old English Mouse" so we called him The Fancy Lad. Show us some pictures if you get a chance!

[Noisy_minor]

Ill get some pics up tomorrow, there is one pic in my album of the three boys.
I used to breed mice when i was a kid, i had some really awsome colours, and still remember the majority of there names and family tree. (dont ask how i think im getting early onset of Alzheimer's) Now i "try" not to breed them anymore. although its cool watching them all grow up again.

[Noisy_minor]

Ok i got some pic's today.

here's mum and the babies


the most recent 4 ooops babies


3 older sisters with there new siblings


and the first 5 when they were 2 1/2 weeks old


Ive got togo to work now but when i get home ill resize the images again my firs attempt didnt work all that well.