Feeders.. Mice, Crickets, Worms, Roaches, etc

Rick

I was curious how many people here actually breed feeders for their tegu?

I currently have a 10 gallon tank I use to order 1000 crickets at a time, but I don't actually put any breeding media in there. I have several small tanks I am using to breed mice. Tux is currently on fuzzies and breeding mice is a lot easier/cheaper then buying live fuzzies or storing 500+ fuzzies in the freezer.

My current breeder mice have 8 to 12 pinkies each litter and I have several females pregnant all the time. I am currently looking to buy some lab mice to use as breeder stock. These are known to have larger litters (up to 24 pinkies on average) and they breed just as fast and just as often.

I plan on making a large breeding colony in the outside shed during the summer and freeze what I don't use. This will get me through the winter without having to have a bunch of tanks inside.

I have also given thought to raising hissing cockroaches, but I don't think they are the best option.

Rick
theTegu.com

Rick
theTegu.com

John · Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2004 4:07 pm Post subject: Well...

I would love to breed my own feeders. Mice and rats both Stink no matter how often you clean their cages and no matter what substrate you use! I'm 19yrs old still living at home so I'm still going by what the parents say (if it were totally up to them I wouldn't have any reptiles, lol I have no choice but to be defient to a degree, they put up with the lizards though.) I had about 10 gravid female hissers but they all ended up being fed off to my striped possum I had back in the day. Crickets make to much noise and also smell! Roaches would be great but we have these things that put out a weird frequency to keep away roaches and ants and everything and they work very well so I doubt they would breed for me anyways. Supposedly it drives mice and rats crazy as well. Anyways I'm stuck with buying f/t for now. My partner will be breeding mice/rats in mass soon for our ball morphs so I'll just be picking out a few to take home to my place

Till then I'm stuck ordering in bulk! From what I hear there are much better roaches to use besides hissers.
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tc5000 · Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2004 10:28 pm Post subject:

I'm not one for watching the whole kill thing and I'm a vegetarian. However I enjoy keeping carnivorous lizards so I am stuck with f/t rodents. I do feed crickets but only 2 weeks out of each month. I order them 500 at a time and at $12 delivered I figured that beats the hassle and stench of keeping and breading them full time.

I'm picking up the freezer tomorrow that I bought Sunday before I met John, specifically for the frozen feeders =) 4.7cf for only $140 at Home Depot.

Rick · Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2004 8:32 pm Post subject:

I do feed live and frozen pinkies/fuzzies. I must admit that it can indeed be hard to raise something "warm and fuzzy" and then feed it off to the tegus. I have given thought to prekilling the mice, but most methods seemed a little less humane then the quick 'grab and snap' my tegus do.

I have recently done much research and will soon be making a small CO2 euthanasia chamber. The gradual displacement of room air with CO2 will allow for the anesthetic effect of CO2 (CO2 narcosis) to take place before asphyxiation so there will be little to no pain before suffication.

For anyone interested, here is my small inside breeding colony, I intend to set up a larger colony in an outside shed this summer so that I have a steady supply of feeders.

Rick
theTegu.com

KLiK · Member Joined: Dec 12, 2004 Posts: 25

i breed my own mice for my monitor. i keep 1 male and 5 females in a 10g with 5inches of wood saving, a food dish, and a water bottle. i have had a very small problem with the male eating pinkies, but there are so many of them and usually he only will take out 2 or 3. as for feeding, i feed my monitor live pinkies, fuzzies, and adults and have had no problem. Rick if you want a quick CO2 chamber just take a small bowl with water n put dry ice in it then put a bigger bowl turnd over on top of it and put the mouse under
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Rick · Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2004 11:00 pm Post subject:

From what I have read, precharging the chamber is not as humane. A sudden exposure of conscious mice to carbon dioxide concentrations of 70% or greater has been shown to be distressful so the use gradual displacement of room air with CO2 at 10% to 20% saturation is the best method to use.

What I am going to do is get a small canister with cover. Drill a hole near the botton and mount one end of a coiled paintball remote. The other end I will attach to a 20oz CO2 paintball tank. I will drill an exhaust hole at the top of the canister, now a euthanasia chamber. The mice will be placed into the canister and the CO2 will be turned on at approx. 20% displacement. As the CO2 enters the euthanasia chamber it, being heavier then air, will force the air up and out of the whole on the top. By now the mice are affected by CO2 narcosis, the anesthetic effect of CO2, and feel nothing. In a few minutes all air will be displaced by CO2 causing the mice to be asphyxiated.

I understand this is more work then it's worth to some people, but even thought I am willing to kill a mouse for my needs I wish to go through the little extra effort to make it as humane as possible.

Rick
theTegu.com

KLiK · Member Joined: Dec 12, 2004 Posts: 25

to be honest i never even thought about using a paintball CO2 canister. thanks for the idea
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1.3.0 Leopard Gecko-May,Brenda,Kelly,Ned
1.0.0 Savannah Monitor-Tripp
1.1.0 Crested Gecko - Twiggy, Samantha
1.0.0 - Crocodile Skink - Tom
1.1.0 - Parots

Rick · Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 11:51 pm Post subject:

I figure CO2 is CO2 and a paintball CO2 canister is smaller and you can get it filled nearly anywhere. Since I often paintball I do have some 20oz tanks and a paintball CO2 'remote' hose. I am going to dig them out of the 'summer stuff' and either pick up something to use as a chamber for the gas or perhaps make something simple from lexan.

When I finally get around to it I will post pics.

Rick

John · Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 1:14 am Post subject: Co2 costs money....

I just kill them with my bare hands. Large rats can be a pain in the arse and get bloody. Tegus like em either way!
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Rick · Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 3:16 am Post subject:

That's one of many possible methods, second only to the "Ozzy Osborne" method (biting the heads off). I personally would rather go with the more humane method of CO2 euthanasia.

Rick
theTegu.com

toad · Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 11:17 am Post subject:

Working in a medical research facility I have a lot of experience with sacrificing animals. With all of the mice, rats, and g. pigs with use CO2. It is basically just a small rubbermaid garbage can with a clear plastic hose running from the CO2 tank. According to regulations we have to pre fill the can and then put the animals inside. If the animals are inside when the CO2 is released then the animals will stress before the gas can take effect. Just my two cents!!

Zack

Rick · Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 1:17 pm Post subject:

I have read and done alot of research and years ago precharging the euthanasia chamber was the primary method for doing euthanasia in most lab animals. It appears that most of the new documents claim you may still precharge for any animal that the CO2 does not cause distress.

From what I have read from recent studies and documents the precharging does appear to cause distress in mice and rats. When a rat is subjected to higher then 70% they dig, claw, climb, and otherwise try to escape and if subjected to 10 to 20 percent displacement they don't.

I am unsure as I am not in a situation where I do this every day. I will just make the small setup and try 10 to 20 percent displacement and see the results. I will then try 100% displacement by pre-charging the chamber and see if they react differently.

Thanks for the input.

Rick

Steve · Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2005 11:10 am Post subject:

I breed my own disco roaches, hissing roaches, some crix(don't want to deal with breeding crix), rats and mice.
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charlene · Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2005 12:26 pm Post subject:

I buy my crickets in bulk. 500 Twice per month. It costs my $20 from my local petstore but there is no shipping. It would be beneficial to me to breed my own mice seeing how I spend $50+ dollars a month on them (wow i'm starting to see where all my money goes lol) but I can't kill them, I would even feel guilty using a CO2 chamber. I think i'll just order them online.

As for the roaches. I have never used them but have done plenty of research because I plan on trying them when I find a decent price. Non-climbers seem to be the way to go (discoids, death heads, ect.) but they don't appear to be as prolific as the madagascar which is another plus when you have a bottomless pit, I mean baby tegu as a pet.

Charlene

John · Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2005 2:24 pm Post subject:

Charlene....Look up having crickets shipped to you. I believe 1000 is something like $11-20 shipped! As for Feeders...look into buying frozen. Rodentpro.com Rocks!
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John Light
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