# who breeds mice or rats in a shed?



## billyroyal (Jan 27, 2009)

im thinking of breeding a few mice and rats but they will have to go in my shed cos i know they stink so just wondered if any one else does this and do the survive ok in the winter months and do they still breed ok over winter? cheers for any help.


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## billyroyal (Jan 27, 2009)

no body breed them in there shed then? :whistling2:


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## garlicpickle (Jan 16, 2009)

I'd like to know the answer to this too. my multis are in the shed at the moment and it's starting to get cold at night.They have plenty of bedding and all snuggle up in one nest, so I'm sure they will be warm enough, but I'm wondering if lower temps will stop them breeding.


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## Iggylover (Sep 2, 2009)

I used to keep most of my rats and mice in the shed, regarding smell the rats wont smell unless you are not cleaning them out enough like every 5- 7 days, mice on the other hand have a strong smell all time from their urine and not alot you can do about that you will have some amount of smell no matter how much you clean out. due to nature rats and mice will be reluctent to breed during the winter months but you may have you few that will, you increase production by heating the shed and using lighting to increase longer daylight hours to trick them into breeding.but remember just cause they are down the shed they can not be ignored as your feeders still need to be happy and healthy or you will be feeding dieased animals to your prized snakes.


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## Alex (Jun 14, 2009)

Iggylover said:


> I used to keep most of my rats and mice in the shed, regarding smell the rats wont smell unless you are not cleaning them out enough like every 5- 7 days, mice on the other hand have a strong smell all time from their urine and not alot you can do about that you will have some amount of smell no matter how much you clean out.* due to nature rats and mice will be reluctent to breed during the winter months but you may have you few that will, you increase production by heating the shed and using lighting to increase longer daylight hours to trick them into breeding*.but remember just cause they are down the shed they can not be ignored as your feeders still need to be happy and healthy or you will be feeding dieased animals to your prized snakes.


This is the best method  Just use a space heater in there to keep the temps up to stop them getting too cold.


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## Twiglet (May 6, 2009)

despite once becoming dubbed on a very "fluffy bunny brigade" american pet forum as a 'back yard breeder' for doing so i think sheds are the best place to breed mice etc. make sure its VERY well insulated, mice are so prone to RI's that cold damp conditions will be asking for trouble. 
i used an oilfilled radiator to keep the temp constant and put heatmats under tanks or cages containing anything delicate over the winter months.
I also used to slighly increase the protien and fat content of the animals food over the winter and had a light strip that i turned on for 14 hours a day (ish!) during the dark months so that everyone kept breeding and didnt notice the seasonal changes. 
i'm all for breeding your own feeders... its so much better for your herps than feeding the crap that comes pre-frozen. 
And you get a better feeding response!

back to insulation, I used everything from celotex to polysyrene and the padded foil backing you get to go behind radiators... yeah... the shed looked like the inside of a space shuttle but it was warm and cozy and i cant imagine that the mammals had any serious complaints about my lack of home improvement skills...



> I'd like to know the answer to this too. my multis are in the shed at the moment and it's starting to get cold at night.They have plenty of bedding and all snuggle up in one nest, so I'm sure they will be warm enough, but I'm wondering if lower temps will stop them breeding


in all honesty with out some form of heating you'll probably find that the multi's will die over winter. Don't forget that they are an african species. No amount of bedding will keep the temps high enough for them to be comfortable and they'll certainly stop breeding once it gets really chilly. even if its just a heat mat on a stat at one end of the cage (underneath it obviously!) to keep them warm your chances of keeping them breeding will be increased but with out additional lighting you'll probably find that they stop breeding anyway. 

Kat


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## billyroyal (Jan 27, 2009)

ok thanks so it seems they will stop breeding over winter then,ill look into a oil heater,if not ill look into just doing a few rats in the house if they defo dont smell,cheers.


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## ladyboid (Nov 25, 2007)

my rats and mice still breed through winter in the shed .. I dont normally heat unless we have hard frosts that last for days.
All i do is give them a light for longer day hours.


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## Twiglet (May 6, 2009)

maybe mine wouldnt breed if the temp dropped because they were always kept very warm because of the fact that i had exotics in there too and so if the temp did drop for any reason it was a bit of a shock!
perhaps it just depends on which line they are from too. some breed better than others and most of my mice and rats were from show lines rather than feeder breeder lines. 
id say get a heater if only for your own convenience... its no fun cleaning out rodents in minus temperatures!

Kat


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## billyroyal (Jan 27, 2009)

Iggylover said:


> I used to keep most of my rats and mice in the shed, regarding smell the rats wont smell unless you are not cleaning them out enough like every 5- 7 days, mice on the other hand have a strong smell all time from their urine and not alot you can do about that you will have some amount of smell no matter how much you clean out. due to nature rats and mice will be reluctent to breed during the winter months but you may have you few that will, you increase production by heating the shed and using lighting to increase longer daylight hours to trick them into breeding.but remember just cause they are down the shed they can not be ignored as your feeders still need to be happy and healthy or you will be feeding dieased animals to your prized snakes.


 you say rats wont smell if cleaned out every 7days if i keep say 20 in the house and clean them out every week will they not smell? never kept rats so dont know.may have to keep them in the house if they dont breed in a cold shed.


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## saxon (Feb 26, 2007)

Yes there will be a smell with 20+ in the house however many times you clean out. So long as you keep on top of it though the smell is not too bad just the regular smell you get with owning animals.
Anyone who doesn't own any animals will smell 'a smell' even going into a home with say one cat or one dog!

Having said that I keep all my rodents in the shed, except the cages with babies in that are ont eh rack behind my settee, that amounts to about 12 cages usually.

In the shed I have an 'oiless' heater, the Cadiz, and I give them a 4ft 10% UVB light for 17 hours a day.
My syrians and mice stopped breeding last year as the OH wouldn't let me have the heating on enough but this year he's agreed I can have it on as long as they need it.
I didnt' lose any multi's last year though even though it got pretty damn cold up here. They continued to breed as well.

I'm planning on keeping the shed at around 15-18c this year and see how that goes.


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## billyroyal (Jan 27, 2009)

saxon said:


> Yes there will be a smell with 20+ in the house however many times you clean out. So long as you keep on top of it though the smell is not too bad just the regular smell you get with owning animals.
> Anyone who doesn't own any animals will smell 'a smell' even going into a home with say one cat or one dog!
> 
> Having said that I keep all my rodents in the shed, except the cages with babies in that are ont eh rack behind my settee, that amounts to about 12 cages usually.
> ...


so what month do they tend to stop breeding and when they start again?


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## garlicpickle (Jan 16, 2009)

Twiglet said:


> in all honesty with out some form of heating you'll probably find that the multi's will die over winter. Don't forget that they are an african species. No amount of bedding will keep the temps high enough for them to be comfortable and they'll certainly stop breeding once it gets really chilly. even if its just a heat mat on a stat at one end of the cage (underneath it obviously!) to keep them warm your chances of keeping them breeding will be increased but with out additional lighting you'll probably find that they stop breeding anyway.
> 
> Kat


Thanks for the info - there is no power in my shed so I can't use a mat down there, but I can bring the tank inside for the winter months.


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## freekygeeky (May 25, 2007)

yea w e have no heating or electricty for the cooler/warmer months, my shed is comming in a weeks time, i hope mine is ok1!!


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## Fancy Mice (Oct 10, 2006)

Mine are in an insulated garage with no extra lighting throughout winter (there are windows though) and a heater on a thermostat to prevent the temp dropping too low. They breed throughout the year.


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## Majestic Morphs (Apr 8, 2008)

We breed all our rodents in shipping containers they are like sheds.... They have lights and extract fans but no heating they do slow down in the winter months but they do still breed just smaller litters...


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## oakelm (Jan 14, 2009)

Mine are in an insulated shed, used to be in a room in the house but do stink the place out when you get a few. The rats dont seem phased by it and continued to breed regardless but the fancy mice breeding drops way down in my lot even with loads of bedding and a draft free shed. So some of the mice groups have moved back in just to keep production up. Dont have electric in my shed otherwise I would just have a heater in there. Will be getting the electrics done by next winter for certain.


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## Grond (Jun 17, 2008)

Mine are in a shed, but it's insulated and heated, so they breed all year round the same.


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## dragonsRus (Jun 1, 2008)

i do i breed quite a lot in my shed, although they have actually started producing less since it got colder but ive got a few rolls of insulation for the walls and roof so should be warm in no time


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## Renfield (May 20, 2008)

I breed mine in my heated greenhouse, no probs so far and they are still producing litters


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## rainbowboa69 (Sep 11, 2009)

billyroyal said:


> im thinking of breeding a few mice and rats but they will have to go in my shed cos i know they stink so just wondered if any one else does this and do the survive ok in the winter months and do they still breed ok over winter? cheers for any help.


Done it for years without any problems and they only STINK (if like any other animal thats kept in an enclosure you dont keep them clean)


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## saxon (Feb 26, 2007)

Well with heating and lighting at 17 hours+ per day my mice are all breeding this year.

Last year they slowed down and stopped by the end of November.
I lost most of my breeding mice due to this.

My syrians are still belting them out as well and as others have said nothing seems to stop rats from breeding other than keeping the sexes apart!!!!!

As to them stinking...even with regular cleanouts you can still smell rodents to some degree.
Mine dont' smell unpleasant but if you weren't an animal owner you might think they did. Even the smell of shavings can be unpleasant to some.


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## Hants-snakes (Jul 1, 2009)

rainbowboa69 said:


> Done it for years without any problems and they only STINK (if like any other animal thats kept in an enclosure you dont keep them clean)


I have a bank of 20 and a bank of 36 mice and a bank of 18 rats/multis they do STINK even when clean! The nice clean garage smell only lasts 1-2 days before the lurvley mouse pee aroma is back again.

On a more positive note the rats smell less and the multis even less!!

They tend to drop litters throughout the year but the frequency of the litters degenerates throughout the winter months. They are kept in an unheated garage, without artificial lights/heat ect.......


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## Grond (Jun 17, 2008)

rainbowboa69 said:


> Done it for years without any problems and they only STINK (if like any other animal thats kept in an enclosure you dont keep them clean)


Mice kept in quantities smell no matter how clean you keep them. Unless you buy the non urinating variety..........:whistling2:


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## rainbowboa69 (Sep 11, 2009)

Grond said:


> Mice kept in quantities smell no matter how clean you keep them. Unless you buy the non urinating variety..........:whistling2:


But smell is not the same word as STINK look it up in the dictionary.
Everything has a smell to it but not everything stinks lol:Na_Na_Na_Na:


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## Grond (Jun 17, 2008)

rainbowboa69 said:


> But smell is not the same word as STINK look it up in the dictionary.
> Everything has a smell to it but not everything stinks lol:Na_Na_Na_Na:


Quite right!

Stink is a subjective word and therefore open to personal interpretation!

What I think stinks, you might like.

Everyone who has ever been in my shed thinks my mice stink, and they leave a lingering smell on your clothing for hours afterwards.

I only clean them out every 5-6 days though......


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## freekygeeky (May 25, 2007)

currently mine are all in my bedroom, so i smell of mice 24/7 and its ruff really really ruff....

cant wait to have my shed, even f they slow down for winter, i dont care as long as i dont smell!! lol.

i wont be having heating in there mind you or lighting, we have no way of getting electricity in there (for now anyway) so, i am getting some insulation etc... hopefully that'll be enough. is there a point where the mice will die of cold? without the help of a heater?


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## Grond (Jun 17, 2008)

In a well insulated shed, it's unlikely the temp will ever drop below freezing unless there's a very long cold spell. The mice generate some heat themselves and the insulation should keep it in.

I don't think they'd die in this country in winter, but I've not tried it myself!


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## Paul Chase (Mar 7, 2007)

I keep my mice in a shed and the only problem i have ever had isnt being to cold, but a few years ago it was to hot for them. They seem to suffer more from being too hot. The way i over come this was to put a canopy (old gazebo) over the shed, to put it in some shade. Then put a fan in the shed, worked a treat.


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