The BRODENTS! Rodent Enthusiast Thread!

[Kisiel]

My adorable babies <3 there would have been 3 but Misty passed away. Shuffles has red eyes, and Rose has black eyes.

I love pale things! The pink eyed is silver fawn and the ruby (they're very dark, but not actually black!) is topaz - some of my favourite varieties! I know people that breed both and can never get enough of them.


@Middy is that first one supposed to be Rex? What lines / varieties do you breed?

[.Middy.]

The first Siamese is Rex, not a great Rex but yes lol. Like I said I’m honestly not super impressed with her or what she’s produced so far, but I’m giving her one more shot since she is a nice tempered doe.

Right now I’m focusing on getting my temperaments 100% squishy amazing level. So im still kinda playing around with varieties lol. I’m working on getting a DWS line, and a marble line going. Then I also have my crazy mixed up line going that I’m fully focused on temperament and letting whatever colors show up happen lol.

[meerkat boi.]

ugh.
guess whos hyped for summer holidays this year.
my mom said that I may be finally be able to get a hamster after summer because no one would be able to care for it when we are in France. D:
she also said based on how I do in school.
got mostly a's and crap on my exams.
an a level student in all my classes.
ive worked hard and hopefully after the wait I shall be rewarded.

ive been waiting since summer last year

[w0ah]

This isn’t my first time being on this thread. Once I was here looking for advice on pet hamsters, and even before that, mice. Unfortunately, my mouse died young and my hamster was quite a trouble and always made me feel bad, seeing her stuck in this large cage I built her, chewing on the metal bars... Although she was a bother to me, and noisy, I always took very good care of her. I just never bonded to her like I did in that short period time I had my one male mouse.

I’ve decided I’d like to own mice again. I’ve stored away reasonable amounts of money to buy supplies ( food, toys, and a new water bottle, along with a new wheel or two ), and items for building a custom cage of the sorts ( it will have a longer layout, and be just a bit larger than a 20 gallon). I’m considering buying 2-3 female mice. After doing extensive research on all of the matters concerning the ownership of mice for months and months on end, I feel ready to take on this journey. Although, before I take on this task, I found it to be a good idea to look for the opinions of the community that knows most about owning such rodents.

1. I know most sites say that you can keep up to three female mice in a 10 gallon tank, but that just sounds way too small to me, and almost inhumane. Are there any recommended sizes for cages that I should keep up to 3 female mice? I do plan on making their cage not only have floor space, but lots of different levels that they can climb up to, which will make the area seem more spacious. Is there anything else I can add, possibly, to make it better for the mice?

2. I am so confused on what to feed the mice. Before, I just fed my mouse blocks ( not particularly lab blocks ) and a seed mix ( unknowingly probably not that healthy ), which seemed to do him well. But after doing more research, I've found that there are so many different options. However, every website I go on says a different thing about certain brands and what to feed them. I don't want to have to prepare my own seed mix, which is highly not recommenced for people that are just trying it out, as it can turn dangerous for the mice, and not include certain minerals and vitamins the mice need. I've heard things about ordering special lab blocks, or about not feeding lab blocks and keeping them on an all seed-based diet. I've heard to use parakeet food, and whether or not to use Oxbow, which I found to be a pretty good food brand myself. I've also heard that I should pick out certain grains and seeds in mixes that are not good for the mice. All of this these choices puts my head in a whirl. Does anyone have any simplistic, healthy food option that I can use, and clear up this confusion for me?

3. I definitely want to use a paper bedding in the cage, but I've also wanted to try out using a fleece bedding for mice. I was thinking on sectioning out the cage, and making about a half or two-thirds of the cage bedding, and another part fleece. I've also heard recommendations that when the mice get older, it is better to use fleece instead of bedding, as it is healthier for their immune system. Does anyone have different viewpoints on this? Which bedding should I stick with?

I know this is A LOT, but I just want to be sure that I know everything and anything so I can give these mice the best life they can possibly have, in captivity at least. Thank you to all who read and respond, and I shall hopefully hear from some soon. If it is easier to just shoot me a pm, that would be fine as well. My box is always open.

Have a wonderful day,
~rose

[.Middy.]

Today I got the chance to get some rats from a really awesome breeder a few hours away from me. Needless to say i jumped at the chance because I’ve heard amazing things about her rats. Very glad I did because these are some awesome rats lol. They are super sweet, squishy babies and omg they are beautiful! I love them so much lol

I was only planning on getting two does and a buck, but the breeder got the buck confused with another and decided to bring both to let me decide between lol. Picked my original favorite, so she decided to just give me the extra boy and I’m a total sucker for DWS and sweet bucks so I said yes of course lol.

First photo is my favorite buck, second is my marble doe Calliope, third is my extra buck, and fourth is my other Marble hooded doe Arizona! Still need to name the bucks haha

[ShadyBro]

Does anyone have experience dealing with abscessed teeth in rats? One of my girls has a nasty big abscess on her jaw that's been going back and fourth between golf ball sized to barely noticeable for the past week. My best guess would be a tooth issue due to its placement, and its not drainable from the outside so she would have to be put under to work on it from inside her mouth. Neither I nor my rat vet thought it fair to put such an old rat through dental surgery, but she isn't in pain either (thanks to some really nice pain-killers and her being a total champ about taking her meds) so its been hard trying to decide what to do. Her teeth have begun to misalign from the repeated swelling however, so I am starting to think her time is up if the abscess doesn't go away on its own with the antibiotics soon. I was thinking about getting some xrays at my local vet office but wanted to ask around and see if anyone had their own experiences to share, to see if it would be worth it. I do not have a great local vet when it comes to final decisions - he doesn't see small animals as being 'worth it' and mostly works on farm animals so he has that nasty 'just kill it' mentality (and this is who I would see about having her put down since my experienced rat vet that I use for surgeries and the like is about three hours away), so I wont be taking advice on that from him anytime soon and wanted to rather hear from other actual pet owners to see what others have dealt with in malocclusion.

[MoonfallTheFox]

Does anyone have experience dealing with abscessed teeth in rats? One of my girls has a nasty big abscess on her jaw that's been going back and fourth between golf ball sized to barely noticeable for the past week. My best guess would be a tooth issue due to its placement, and its not drainable from the outside so she would have to be put under to work on it from inside her mouth. Neither I nor my rat vet thought it fair to put such an old rat through dental surgery, but she isn't in pain either (thanks to some really nice pain-killers and her being a total champ about taking her meds) so its been hard trying to decide what to do. Her teeth have begun to misalign from the repeated swelling however, so I am starting to think her time is up if the abscess doesn't go away on its own with the antibiotics soon. I was thinking about getting some xrays at my local vet office but wanted to ask around and see if anyone had their own experiences to share, to see if it would be worth it. I do not have a great local vet when it comes to final decisions - he doesn't see small animals as being 'worth it' and mostly works on farm animals so he has that nasty 'just kill it' mentality (and this is who I would see about having her put down since my experienced rat vet that I use for surgeries and the like is about three hours away), so I wont be taking advice on that from him anytime soon and wanted to rather hear from other actual pet owners to see what others have dealt with in malocclusion.

I have.. I lost a hairless buck from it. His front tooth abscessed really bad overnight. I did have the vet go in even though the rat was pretty old because he was in good health otherwise. The tooth itself was dead (black root, ew) and fell out during the procedure.

He seemed to be getting better but suddenly went downhill later on and had to be PTS. He was 2 and a half. X rays were done before the decision was made and the infection had gone to bone despite treatment.

The malocclusion itself can be managed with trimming but the abscess is the problem.

[The Lost Gremlin]

Does anyone have experience dealing with abscessed teeth in rats? One of my girls has a nasty big abscess on her jaw that's been going back and fourth between golf ball sized to barely noticeable for the past week. My best guess would be a tooth issue due to its placement, and its not drainable from the outside so she would have to be put under to work on it from inside her mouth. Neither I nor my rat vet thought it fair to put such an old rat through dental surgery, but she isn't in pain either (thanks to some really nice pain-killers and her being a total champ about taking her meds) so its been hard trying to decide what to do. Her teeth have begun to misalign from the repeated swelling however, so I am starting to think her time is up if the abscess doesn't go away on its own with the antibiotics soon. I was thinking about getting some xrays at my local vet office but wanted to ask around and see if anyone had their own experiences to share, to see if it would be worth it. I do not have a great local vet when it comes to final decisions - he doesn't see small animals as being 'worth it' and mostly works on farm animals so he has that nasty 'just kill it' mentality (and this is who I would see about having her put down since my experienced rat vet that I use for surgeries and the like is about three hours away), so I wont be taking advice on that from him anytime soon and wanted to rather hear from other actual pet owners to see what others have dealt with in malocclusion.

I have.. I lost a hairless buck from it. His front tooth abscessed really bad overnight. I did have the vet go in even though the rat was pretty old because he was in good health otherwise. The tooth itself was dead (black root, ew) and fell out during the procedure.

He seemed to be getting better but suddenly went downhill later on and had to be PTS. He was 2 and a half. X rays were done before the decision was made and the infection had gone to bone despite treatment.

The malocclusion itself can be managed with trimming but the abscess is the problem.

I had a hooded rex boy called Teddy who suddenly developed an awful mouth abcess at the same time he was suffering from a rather aggressive URI. He was about 2 years and had been healthy all his life until that point. But he wasn't responding to the URI meds and both the vet and I agreed that he was too weak to risk putting under anaesthesia. If he did survive the op, it probably would've been a rather miserable existence for him post-op considering his current health.
I let him spend his last few days with his new baby brothers before having him PTS.

[cardboardteeth]

any mice keepers out there? if you could pm me an answer to my questions that would be great!!

so I've been reading about mice [I'm going to get three girls fairly soon!!] and I was curious - do mice need to be fed flax seeds regularly? I've heard that it is good for them, but I don't know if it should be on the daily or not.

My meal plan is to feed them fresh fruits, veggies, and oxbow rat/mouse food [and of course flax seeds if they do need to be fed it daily] which I've been told is a good diet. is this true?

[MoonfallTheFox]

any mice keepers out there? if you could pm me an answer to my questions that would be great!!

so I've been reading about mice [I'm going to get three girls fairly soon!!] and I was curious - do mice need to be fed flax seeds regularly? I've heard that it is good for them, but I don't know if it should be on the daily or not.

My meal plan is to feed them fresh fruits, veggies, and oxbow rat/mouse food [and of course flax seeds if they do need to be fed it daily] which I've been told is a good diet. is this true?

They don't need it daily. The only thing they require daily is the oxbow. It's fine if you want to supplement their diet with some seeds, they'll love them, but they will be okay without them as well.