babies took mouse tails

[sschind]

My two baby T. sirtalis parietalis took fish scented mouse tails today. One ate two of them the other one. They took them with no problems. I am going to have to monitor my mouse colonies a little closer for tiny pinkies now. The only problem will be explaining to customers why their frozen mice have no tails. I guess I'll have to use those for my own snakes. Don't want anyone feeling cheated.

[Cazador]

My neighbor just told me he has a bunch of shrews in his garage, so I was thinking of starting a shrew colony . I bet they'd have TINY babies . What do you feed your mice? Is maintenance a big deal?
Rick

[sschind]

I feed my mice a lab rodent diet but I should have made it clear these tails came from frozen rodents . I've heard shrews are difficult to raise. They are insectivores and they need to eat their weight in food every three hours or so. A friend of mine used to have pygmy mice, those babies were tineeeee, but the monkey pox scare has pretty much made them impossible to get. I may have to check on it now though. I am sure someone still has some hidden away.

[Cazador]

Thanks Steve. Maybe I'll just let my neighbor's population do its thing and pick off a few of the extras .

[GarterGuy]

Originally Posted by sschind

I feed my mice a lab rodent diet but I should have made it clear these tails came from frozen rodents . I've heard shrews are difficult to raise. They are insectivores and they need to eat their weight in food every three hours or so. A friend of mine used to have pygmy mice, those babies were tineeeee, but the monkey pox scare has pretty much made them impossible to get. I may have to check on it now though. I am sure someone still has some hidden away.

I've actually seen them for sale at the local reptile shows here in PA. I didn't know they were carriers of the pox???? Only thing I know about breeding rodents is they STINK!!!!!! Tried it once and I'd much rather go out and buy a brick of frozen ones then have to deal with that again...LOL!

[sschind]

They weren't the carriers but in typical government fashion they deemed it necessary to make a large number of African rodents illegal. I don't think these were on the list but I think spiny mice were and at least one other one that I had limited experience with.

Rodents do stink, and I would rather go with the frozen ones as well but even the smallest of domestic mouse pinks are too big for my baby garters right now. Besides, the pygmy mice are actually fun to watch.

[KITKAT]

Originally Posted by Cazador

My neighbor just told me he has a bunch of shrews in his garage, so I was thinking of starting a shrew colony . I bet they'd have TINY babies . What do you feed your mice? Is maintenance a big deal?
Rick

HA!

First, shrews are terribly difficult to keep in captivity. Their metabolism is so high that they must be fed several times a day. Miss a feeding and they die. Secondly, shrews are bitter to the taste. Owls will feed on meadow mice (Microtus) and white-footed mice (Peromyscus) much more readily than they do on shrews. Shrews are the last choice of prey because of their bitter taste.

Finally, shrews are prone to lipidosis... a fatty disease of the liver... unless they are fed the right balance of foods, at the right frequency.

I am a former researcher on shrews, btw, when I worked at the zoology dept. of Ohio State University in the late 70's. I am the first (and to my knowlege the only) American to ever observe "caravanning behavior" in an American species of shrew.

So, when Shakespeare chose the name of his play, he was pretty accurate. You cannot "tame a shrew".

[Stefan-A]

KITKAT, any problems with starting a Microtus colony then?


Well, except the fact that some local populations carry a hantavirus that causes nephropathia epidemica. And the fact that it would be illegal using wildcaught voles.

[Cazador]

Thanks folks . The shrew colony looks like another passing thought.

[Thamnophis]

Shrews... Long nosed mice?