how do you breed mice or rats? do you walk into the pet store and say i need a male and female adult mouse or rat? i have an empty 20 gal and am gonna need em.

Well if you plan on only using the 20G you cannot do rats... there is sooo not enough room for 2 rats and their babies... plus with rats its ideal to seperate mom and dad so she doesnt end up wiht new babies before she weans the old ones... this could and probably will end with her death...

however you could do mice!
I wouldnt recomend more than 1m 2F for a 20g but go with what your comfy with they are your mice... just DO NOT do more than 1m as they will fight over the girls... whether you seprate male or not after breeding is up to you some breeders do some dont... I personally dont and have not had a problem... I do not recomend getting your mice from a pet store... those tend to be past their prime and inbred... inbred isnt much of a problem if you plan to kill them off and feed them to something... I would find a local breeder... I am not sure of exact age but you dont want your mouse too young or too old... I also suggest that you seperate boy babies from girl babies and babies from parents once they are eating on their own as to prevent very inbred babies... that is if they are alive past weaning... I am not sure what size you plan to feed... any other questions?

well theyd be going to a ball python, so theyd be like hoppers or weanlings. but how do you tell the difference between a male and female at such a young age?

If your feeding all the babies you wont have to worry about it but should you decide to keep a litter longer or something... Once you know what to look for its really easy... here is a great site with pics http://www.thefunmouse.com/info/sexing.cfm they have babies on there too just a bit down on the page... hope that helps!

wow u just helped me so much dude. thanks

no problem...I remember when I first started out I had all the same questions lol... it was hard to get clear answers from most people