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baby mice revisited

S

skelator

New member
well the first litter there were 9. theres only five left. they were born on the 18th. their a good size so i would like to think that theyll be ok. there was a runt who was kicking around a while but i think they finally ate him.

the 2nd litter of six was born on the 27th. at which time there were seven of the priginal babies still there. as of last night there was only one left from the 2nd litter and i could plainly see three carcasses in the tote.

so either i had alot of sick babies or i suspect one of the mothers just ate them all. im thinking the next time they get pregnant i may seperate them. if ones eating them then shell be snake food. '

5 outta 16 as pretty crappy imo. is this normal for first litters?
 
I agree, there's something wrong here. Just because it's first litters doesn't mean you should be losing that many babies.

Usually babies are lost because of stress on the mothers. Inadequate space, food, or external things like a busy or noisy room.

Can you post pictures of your setup and describe how you care for them?
 
well i theres three adult mice in here 1 male 2 females. they had a nest in the white bowl up untill yesterday. i assume it was too crowded with the growing babies and they just made a nest outside the bowl. they always have water. i feed them mouse blocks, dry oatmeal, little bit of dog food on occasion, sunflower seeds occasionally, as well as plain cheerios. i threw in a couple peanut butter crackers too. they aslo get veggies when theres scraps. honestly i think they eat pretty damn well lol. i tossed a little maccaroni in there today too just to see if they like it.

the tote is kept in the cellar theres not much going on down there so noise shouldnt be a factor at all. i could put it in the garage if you think it would help but the garage isnt heated at all if that matters. i dont use the garage at all during the winter so the only reason for me to go in there would be to check on the mice. i suppose the water could freeze so that might be a bad idea.
 
I would wait until the next litter to make a decision. It is not unusual for a first time mom to freak out and eat all the babies because she doesn't know what to do- you are lucky that even some of those babies survived. If you still have issues with the second litter, it is time to cull out the cannibals.
 
i read alot about it online.it said somewhere that if you have 2 mothers together and one has her babies a little while before the other. then the one who had them last might think theres something wrong with them cuse their alot smaller than the first litter. do you think theres any truth to this at all?
 
Well it looks like you've got a good amount of space for 3 mice, and supplementing the mouse blocks is a good idea. Even though they're very popular, I've heard of people losing litters and the only thing they change is adding variety to the food, and that solves the problem.

If the garage gets cold enough to freeze the water, you certainly don't want your mice out there, especially not with babies! The cellar is a good place; that's where we kept all of our mice.

If it's not too much trouble for you, I would go ahead with your idea and separate them for the next litter. It doesn't seem to me there are any external stressors, but it'll help you figure out who the culprit is, and yeah, you definitely want to get rid of that one.

I hadn't heard anything about the size difference in litters freaking one of them out; interesting idea though! :) I suppose it's possible to attribute this one to first time mothers; I forget that even though I only had 1 experience out of hundreds of litters that I would call "first-time mom issues", other people may have different experiences.

And not related to your problem, but do you usually keep a lid (ventilated, I hope?) on the tote? I ask because I know how high mice can jump (higher than you'd think!) and I can easily see one jumping to that zip tie for the water bottle, then to the edge of the tote.
 
yeah the lid is plenty ventalated. the bedding is aspen, the same stuff i use for my snakes. i just checked them a few mins ago. i still got the five. i think theyll be fine. but im still bummed i only got 5 outta 16 :(
 
Okay cool, Sometimes non-kilned pine puts off vapors/resin that can be absorbed through the pinkies skin and can actually kill them. Thought that might be an issue. It sounds like you have a cannibal. Seperate them when they get real big again and see which one is eating the babies. Then like you said, cull the cannibal. :)
 
sounds like a plan. i have to wait 4 weeks before i can remove the babies correct?

also how long before they start to breed themselves?
 
Well 4-5 weeks, I often wait until the mother is ping pong-ish again. They can breed as early as 6-8 weeks but most go 10-12 weeks before breeding.
 
ok i got another question. when both have more babies and i find the cannibal. what should i do? if i feed her to a snake then my babies will die. could i another female mouse nurse them or would they likly be eaten? or should i just ride it out and turn her into snake food after she eats them all again?
 
Fostering is not too difficult to do if the pups are all the same age-or close to it. What I do is take both litters away while the foster mom isn't looking, and gently rub them all together with a small bit of bedding from the foster mum's enclosure. Then put all the pups in the foster mum's nest.

Make sure you watch to see if the bad momma is just eating stillborns. No need to cull if she is just doing her duty and will produce well for you after her first litter.
 
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