first time breeding mice....

[nguyen_inc]

Well, I am planning on breed mice for some of my mice eating reptiles. I am thinking of buying a 1 to 3 or 4 ratio in a Rubbermaid. I was food shopping with my mom the other day and I found a bag of dog food for a good price, it's called "bit size meals", I think. Can I use this? Would pine shavings be good for the bedding and do I need to add cotton or any thing for the females to make a nest? Which males would do better, ones which looks psycho or the tamer ones? Last, how do I find out of the sex of pinkies and fuzzys (websites or pics will help the most)? I have looked at tons of sites but none of them answered my ??s.