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odd mouse colony problem

S

skelator

New member
well i still new at this but a new problem has formed. i got 2 litters of babies that were born and raised together. the 2 mothers and the father were all kept together untill one of the mothers was about to give birth again. then all the adults were seperated from the babies.

i had 18 babies at that time. now here and there they eat one. im down to 12 and now all but one of them has their tails chewed on. some are pretty bad. what the hell is going on? could just one mouse be doing all this damage? i noticed only one mouse with a tail that hasnt been chomped on. so i threw him in his own setup a few mons ago just to see what that hells going on.

they have plenty of protein in their diet. they eat blocks, hog grower, crackers, peanut butter at times, and oatmeal. also the occasional stale cookie.

i havent had this problem with my other 2 or 3 litters. could it be just one psychotic cannibal? every single mouse has has his tail chomped on some are missing quite a bit of length.....its frusterating any ideas?
 
I would say something is missing in their diet. I keep all mine together even the male because they actually help take care of the babies
 
When a colony is breeding good I wouldnt seperate them just take out the babies when you need them or there eating on there own. Some mice are cannibals and will just eat there young. Good Luck
 
i only removed the 3 adults so they could care for the new babies. i did this last time and i didnt have this problem at all.
 
They may be demonstrating aggressive behavior due to overcrowding. Many animals become violent with each other when they live in unnaturally close quarters or are understimulated. Every mouse is different, but you may have one who is especially sensitive to that kind of thing.

For extra protein you could give them a bit of scrambled egg, just a bit. Otherwise it may be understimulation, overcrowding, or a random psychotic mouse.
 
Did you separate them and then put them back together? Because if you do that they will fight because they don't recognize each other any more. I had pet mice that did this. I didn't know females could get pregnant right after a litter is born. I let dad raise the first babies but then took him and the older boys out for the second litter. When I put them back together, they all started fighting. So I had to separate them again.
 
Did the parents grow up together? The best formula I find usually is to get a litter, grow them up together and let them be the breeders (keeping the size of harem or whatever you want). They usually do quite well like this and I don't separate them from each other ever. If you do separate them they'll fight when reintroduced (usually the females) until they've calmed down again or figured out who's who. I rarely see a male eat babies, it's usually a different mom, or sometimes their own mom. If I have a group that isn't playing by my rules, they get to be snake food :) It's just not worth your time to keep mice that ruin all your efforts to produce babies. I don't think it has much to do with diet unless there's a lack of food or very poor food. What you're doing sounds fine to me.
 
nope i never seperate the parents. i only took the parents from the babies when one of the parent was about to give birth. idont know whats going ive lost a few more. im contemplating killing them all and just freezing them. i would like them to get a big bigger but they keep killing each other it might not be worth the attempt on growing them out. i usually just kill them as i need them.
 
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