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finally got some mouse babies

S

skelator

New member
well i bought the mice on 11/15 and today there was 8 or 9 babies in the tote. i cleaned the tote yesterday and noticed one of the mice was huge and very lumpy. so today i checked em out and the babies were there.

hopefully they dont get eaten. i put in a bunch of mouse blocks, some dry plain oatmeal and some dog food.

is there anything i can do to lessen the chances theyll be eaten?

also when its time to clean the tank can i just take then outta there,clean it and put them back or will that make the parents eat them or anything.

well it took 3 months almost to the day to get some babies. hopefully they do ok :)
 
I and the guy I buy my mice from just gather up the babies, clean the tubs, and put them back. His don't eat each other.. mine sometimes will eat one here and there. But my colony is tiny, he's got tens of thousands that he's bred for years lol.
 
Congrats! When the babies are young I usually leave the nest alone, and clean around it. That is unless the nest is very dirty, ie blood or dead babies.
 
skelator said:
wow does he sell them frozen or live? hes gotta sell a TON to make it profitable.
Click to expand...

Both. And he sells to local pet stores in the area as well. I go up there every couple of months to stock up on rodents, if they're not already prefrozen, we'll go pick out what I need and euthanize them. He supplies a LOT of people in Northern Colorado/ South Wyoming. And they're pretty cheap.
 
Just leave them alone for the first couple of days. Then if you must clean, I remove the babies and some of the nest(for the smell). And clean away. Usually there are few issues after a couple of days.
 
The less you disturb them, the less the chance of them getting eaten. When I used to raise mice/rats, I wouldn't touch the cage AT ALL for a week, except to give more food if needed. Yes, it gets a little smelly, but I'd rather have a smelly cage than dead babies.

After that, I would clean around the clump of babies and watch the mom for any signs of stress. Once a week and a half had gone by, it was back to normal. I found that the most common time for cannibalism was that first week, so you should be fine after that.

The other one you said was "huge and lumpy" is probably about to give birth.
 
I go through the nest on the 1st day they are born to do a quick count, remove any that are dead and cull runts. I remove the Mom first, so she doesnt see me going through the nest. I do at times have Moms eat their litters, but its very rare here. All the females I have I have held since birth so they are very tame and use to me. On mouse websites like the fun mouse, they recomend starting to hold them at 3 days old so they are tame. For me 3 days with rotting dead babies is too long. This is how I do it, and for 5 years I have had great sucess with breeding mice. Everyone has their own way of doing things and it's best to find out what works the best for you. That said If the Mom is nervious, doesnt trust you then she is more likely to cull her litter. I am picky of who I breed, if I have a mouse that is scared of me, runs away and can't be hand tamed that one is culled asap. I can put my hand in my tanks and they will hop on my hands and climb up.
 
ok thanks all for the info.

to clarify the huge lumpy one was te one that gave birth. i honestly cant tell which one it was now as their all pure white albinos.
 
Some times you can tell who the Mom is by looking at her belly. Her nipples will look fuller and wet. Some times the other females will lacate and nurse as well, so that doesnt always work lol!
 
i like of suspect i only have females left. i had one that was basicly a walking corpse for some reason so i got rid of it. theres a sporting chance that could have been my male. i dont wanna get another male and throw him in there cuse that might upset things. i may start another colony 1male and 2 or 3females. then after i move the babies to their own tote i could get a male for the current setup.

or i could just wait it out and see what happens.
 
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