Show & Tell
Yes, I did it again. NO snake toDAY, but an example of a topic that’s crucial to snake keeping; MICE. I have only skipped two or three years of raising mice since 1971. As long as they are housed outside the home, they are a joy to have, and are a convenience that also facilitates profits in the business of selling snakes. Naturally, I may love having them because they are so critical to the success of my first pet passion, reptiles. I thought for sure the featured mouse toDAY was going to have 19 babies when I photographed her a few DAYs ago, but alas, she only had 17. I’m positive the record litter surpasses my lifetime record of 23 live-born babies from one mouse, but the strain I have now is highly fertile. Like my friend, Jud McClanahan in Kansas, I have not added a single specimen to my latest strain of these highly productive lab mice since 1999 (Jud has gone even longer than that). Starting with 350 units (seven Freedom Breeders) in 1999 I’m now down to using only two racks, containing 80 units. I still spend over $25K annually for frozen mice, in spite of producing an average of 120 pinkies per DAY (when most of my mouse breeders are young adults, the average is over 200 per DAY). Were it not for the restrictions of time and energy, I’d get back to 5-7 racks, and perhaps be able to stop buying frozen mice. BTW, we never sell snakes that are eating only LIVE mice. I only have live mice so I can freeze the very smallest pinkies for those newly hatched corns. BONUS PIC . . .