The Smell... :-(

I was hoping to get at least one litter of pinks from my 1:2 mouse trio. The smell in my small apartment is about to turn my trio into feeders. It just isn't worth it LOL!

How do you mouse breeders stand it? Let alone those who keep them as pets!

My hat is off to you :-)

I bred gerbils. Much less smelly. Being desert animals, they retain more water and urinate less.

yuck, clean constantly, that's how. I swear mice need a little mouse maid or something constantly to keep them clean.

I can't handle having more than one mouse at a time, we had one as a pet and we kept her very clean, but even then within a day it was time to clean again cause of the smell!

Good luck. Rats don't smell as bad as mice, just so you know.

I have Gerbils - but I don't breed them. They are my favorite little critters. I hardly ever smell them.

It is worth paying .80 for fuzzies from my local herp shop! With only 3 snakes, it isn't worth it to me to buy bulk from Rodent Pro or somewhere like that.

Honestly, I've done some math on this before.. Breeding rodents saves money, but not that much, and usually for small collections, buying f/t is still cheaper than breeding(all the food and care they need and switching them out to keep them healthy, you don't want to over breed your female)

Well, you can also buy at conventions, they usually sell in smaller amounts there, and you can still get enough to keep in the freezer until you need more! I plan to someday get a mini freezer to keep in the reptile room to keep my frozen rats in, so I can have plenty for the next few months and not have to worry about getting them(spending gas money to drive back and forth to petstore, and spending the TIME)

There are some sites that sell in smaller quantities, there is laynelabs that will sell just 25, 50, or 75! If you buy 25 that just lasts you about two months before you need more at one per snake each week!

HOOO WEEEE!

Apparently, a skunk just sprayed nearby outside and the pungent odor is seeping in.

The mice don't seem that bad right now. Ugh...

Thanks for the info. I will check out the website. We don't have shows here in TN - the regulations on Colubrids is too strict, and the licensing fees are higher than people want to pay in order to enter a show.

And that stinks.

However, I am sure it has saved me from having about 50 snakes. I wouldn't be able to keep myself from buying many animals at "show" prices.

Wow. Even if I buy 50 pinkies from Layne Labs, by the time I pay shipping it is still .96 each. Over a dollar if I only buy 25.

Shipping gets you every time, dang it.

Well, that's why people buy in more bulk, lol! Shipping is less of an impact the more you buy. Oh well. It's probably worth it to buy from the store/have a SMALL breeding mouse group. Only problem with the trio is the momma mice will need a break so you won't always have babies, unless you get more mice. And that will stink worse, lol! But supplemented home bred mice will probably keep it cheaper than all store bought

And don't forget, petstore bought frozen also include gas to get there and back! When I started breeding mealworms I learned how much that was a pain in the butt, lol!

Originally Posted by Knox

HOOO WEEEE!

Apparently, a skunk just sprayed nearby outside and the pungent odor is seeping in.

The mice don't seem that bad right now. Ugh...

Are you sure the odor is not mixing to smell bad?

I could never breed mice... they make me cringe from how gross they are.

Originally Posted by gapeachkatie

Are you sure the odor is not mixing to smell bad?

I could never breed mice... they make me cringe from how gross they are.

How are they gross? They are mammals, they urinate and deficate on a daily basis. If you were in a bedroom, with no toilet(just to make relation to a mouse in a cage) for a couple days and you did your business daily, how bad do you think it would smell? Probably just as bad if not worse!