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So I bought a pair of mice...

Drewby07

Drewby07

curiocreatures.com
At my local pet store today I was shopping for frozen feeders...and they had some "fancy" mice that had just come in. The golden one is a male satin, and the female is ( I think) just....a normal mouse. She is apparently pregnant..

I've been reading up on breeding feeders for a while, and paying .99 each for frozen pinkies last night just sent me over the edge. Here they are....

meece.jpg


So I need to separate them since she's pregnant....which I will do tonight. Any other pointers or tips from all the pros here?
 
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new mice

yes try not to disturb her as much as possible, I recently also got a female mouse who was pregant and she gave birth two days later but think due to all the stress she ended up losing them.

Also if the male is not the father he could harm them too. I have since had another litter and they are doing fine.
 
Yeah I doubt he is the father....she was in a tank with at least a dozen others. I may get another female this weekend. I also plan to move the mama to a "nursery" tank to have the babies....
 
I think you might be better of NOT seperating. I think mice tend to function as colonies, every time one is introduced (or REintroduced) there is a little adjustment period. Most people I know of keep them in groups of one male to a few females and don't seperate the male for the babies to be born. I have found most male mice are usually good fathers and will take care of the babies.
 
Oh ok.....and how about introducing another female? I know they are usually kept in harems....is that ok?
 
new mice

yes another female should be fine but maybe wait until she has had her litter first, my colony has 1 male and 3 females and one has had a litter about 3 weeks ago and the other 2 girls are pregnant as well they are well established and have been together for a while.

There maybe a little fighting to start with but then they should settle down
 
Yep, they will squabble a bit to establisdh the pecking order but they do well in groups. Usually the mothers will nurse each others babies and the dad will watch them and keep them warm too. I have noticed mine will usually eat in shifts so at least one adult mouse is in the nest with the babies at all times. Just a note- in my experience the first litter is cannibalized a lot of times but then after that they get the hang of being parents and don't do it anymore unless they are not getting adequate nutrition. It's weird.
 
Yeah I the first litter of pinks will probably end up in the freezer unless I don't catch them in time. Depending on how many I'll probably leave a few for her to eat / raise as she sees fit.
 
I would keep the male and female together. Don't introduce any new females until the litter is gone, whether weaned or frozen.

As long as they are together for a while before birth, he probably won't harm the babies. The only time I have had that type of situation was when a new male was added with a litter already present. He killed the whole existing litter. But any born when there is a sole male are not usually harmed.

Feed them a good quality lab block (NO Kaytee brand) and plenty of fresh water available and the female shouldn't be eating any of the babies.
 
And now I have babies!!

mousebabies.jpg


There are 5 or 6.....apparently the male ate the first few. :angry01: When I checked on them he was eating an unidentifiable mass of baby...and there was another one with it's head chewed off.(the pinkie with its head mostly eaten off was still moving...:puke01:....he got fed to a snake.) Luckily, I caught him before she was done birthing them all and removed him to another tank.



Anyway...they seem to be doing well. I'll probably raise them for a few days before I freeze them and put the male back in with mama to start all over again.
 
try and let her keep a couple of the babies as someone told me if you keep taking all the babies away from her she will not get the chance to do her parenting bit and it might affect her with the next litter.

At least you had chance to take the boy out before he ate all of them one of my new mice ate all of her last litter and still waiting for her to have another one.
 
Yeah I'm afraid that I'll probably let her keep these for a while...surprisingly I'm having a hard time thinking about tossing them in the freezer....even though that's what I bought them for.

Anyone know how old they would have to be before the male wouldn't pose a threat to them?
 
I would say at least 3 weeks, my babies are now 3 weeks old and quite happy running around and eating so I would think they would be ok, its a bit of a wait but worth it rather than risking harming then.

Before you reintroduce him completly clean out their house with all new bedding and then the mum and babies shouldnt be quite so bad with their smells as it will all be new.
 
And I checked yesterday to find only one pinkie remaining. I guess she ate the rest. Stupid mouse. I fed off the pink to one of my hatchlings and put the male back in with her.
 
it is so annoying mine done exactly the same and I lost all of her first litter it makes you wish you had took them out from the beginning. I am still waiting for my girl to get pregnant again they have been together over 5 weeks now.

I am currently waiting for my girl snake to do her pre lay shed, she has been in her nesting box for the last 4-5 days and her eyes are clouded over so not long now.

Will be needing some pinkies soon hopefully:dancer:
 
LOL....the wait is dreadful...just so you know. Mine laid 15 days after her prelay shed last year....and the eggs took another 65 days to hatch.....it nearly drove me crazy!
 
oh thanks for that lol, I am like a little kid again and keep checking her each day, we have not had her long and have never seen them shed either so its all new to me. Is it ok for her to stay in her box then.

Hope you have better luck with your next litter of mice, maybe it was like mine and her first litter and stressed from getting her pregnant.
 
It's not uncommon for mice, males and females, to eat most or all of their first litter. Makes you mad but it is just one of those things.

It's best to keep the male and female together. If you are going to get more, now is better than later. Once the colony is established, they don't always welcome new comers. If you let a group of females grow up together, they may never except a male in the group and may even kill him. (or worse, bit off his boy parts).

On future litters, if you only need pinkies, remove them when they are the size you want but always leave 4 or 5 for the female to nurse. If you don't she will go dry or won't mother future litters.

Don't worry about freezing the babies. If you close the door quickly, you won't hear the screams or see the suffering. :grin01:
 
LOL....I had planned to take these pinks out when they were a tad larger....apparently mom had a different agenda. Coincidentally, though, she ate them shortly after my 5' leucistic texas rat snake escaped and spent a day roaming my snake room....I'm thinking perhaps she saw it and ate them because she got stressed.....

The snake was captured, the male and female are back together......and I'll likely be adding another female or two in the next few days.

Oh and I'm not really that soft about the babies. Last night I fed off the remaining one to one of my hatchlings and it squeaked while she was constricting it. I was startled at first, but it's not really a big deal. The snake has to eat...
 
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