Floof
New member
So, I recently decided to try mouse breeding again. Last time I tried it had its up's and down's, but overall was an interesting and actually kind of enjoyable experience (aside from the smell!).
Well, we're only a couple months in, and it's already quite interesting, again. Last time I tried mouse breeding, I started with 3 females: One who turned out to be infertile, one die-hard cannibal, and one who always had tiny litters (though, funny enough, her offspring went on to have perfectly normal litters!). This time around, once again, I've wound up with some... Interesting... females. Out of 6 girls, I have 2 or 3 who are perfectly normal, one who just took awhile to get preggers, and two who are totally weird.
To start, I have a small black female who is quite neurotic. Rather than use the wheel, she always runs in a counter-clockwise circle. NEVER clockwise, mind you! She's given me one litter so far, which counted in at 7 babies. There was an overcrowding issue, though, which I didn't realize was a problem until 2 pregnant moms started cannibalizing her babies, and in the end the count was 4.
Anyway, this strange little mouse was an equally strange mom. She would settle down and feed her babies... She was a good mom like that... But then she would pick up a baby, race in circles, and dump it on the other side of the tank. Wash, rinse, repeat with the other 3. I finally moved the litter into a different tank (those 2 pregnant moms, who gave birth just 1 and 2 days later). They fostered the little litter with no issues. All 4 are/were black selfs, just like mom. Now the other interesting part: Neurotic mom's female offspring just won't thrive! We wound up with a perfect 50/50 split. 2 males, 2 females, out of Neurotic Mom. The 2 males are fat, happy, and perfectly normal mice, right about weanling size right now. The 2 females... Well, one passed shortly after reaching the "hopper" stage. She was always the "runt," if you will, of the 3 litters. Even fully furred and having just opened her eyes, she was the size of a large pinky/small fuzzy. I tried moving her back into Neurotic Mom's tank, where one of NM's (not neurotic) cagemates had recently given birth. She didn't take, so, after a few days, she went back in with her original group. She passed a few days later. Now the second one is still alive and well... But, she, too, is smaller and overall weaker than any of the other 2 dozen, give or take, weanlings. I don't know if it's some strange coincidence, or what, but where NM's two male offspring are thriving and doing wonderfully, her two female offspring just aren't!
Considering the size we need most right now is adult mice, I suspect I'll have another couple chances to see whether NM continues to produce "runty" females and normal males, or if this little observation was a total fluke. It'll definitely be interesting to see what happens!
Now, the other strange Mom. Gold Mom was one of the original 2 females we picked up at a pet store up north. The employee reported that she'd been returned to the store the day before (or something like that) because the person who purchased her was upset that she wouldn't get pregnant... Or something. Anyway, she looked nice and pregnant to me, plus she's adorable, so I took her home despite. She plumped up, and, a week or two in, I could *swear* she was going to give birth the next day (and here's where I start hating myself for not keeping better records!). She continued looking like she'd swallowed a baseball for another week or more, before, one morning, I peeked in to discover a stillborn pinkie. Strange.. And she still looked preggers. Tossed the dead pink, and kept a close eye to see whether she would give birth to the rest of the litter over the next couple days.
Now, let's note here that these are feeder breeder mice. I'm not inclined to take a feeder breeder to a vet; rather, if something goes fatally wrong (so long as it's not dangerous to the snakes), that feeder breeder will quickly become snake chow. A sentiment I'm sure many here understand.
Gold Mom continued to look very pregnant, but not give birth, for another few weeks. Neurotic Mom gave birth, followed soon by the Agouti Girls. Another couple weeks later, Silver Mom also gave birth. But, still, Gold Mom continued to look very fat, very about-to-give-birth, and yet, day after day, not a single pinky was to be seen out of Gold Mom. Finally, earlier this week, Gold Mom gave birth! To a happy, healthy, beautiful litter of 10. Nothing dead, rotting, or otherwise what I was expecting from what appeared, for all intents and purposes, to be a month overdue litter. Nope, everything about her babies is perfectly normal. Everything about her is normal, too. Except, she STILL looks heavily pregnant. A little less heavily pregnant now that she's 10 pinkies lighter, but still very much with child. And there hasn't been a mature male in their tank since shortly after NM gave birth. What... The... Heck.
So, trying to imagine what in the world could be going on with her, my mind flashes back to an episode of Grey's Anatomy, in which one of their patients has 2 uteruses and, likewise, 2 pregnancies, conceived some weeks apart from each other. And my sleep-deprived brain wonders, is this possible in mice? I have no idea, but she sure is a weird mouse.
I actually think I'm going to give it a test eventually. Maybe leave her in with a male for a few weeks or whatever, and then move her in to an isolation tank to keep a closer eye on JUST her, keep super good records, and see what happens. Call it morbid curiosity, but I'm just completely fascinated by this girl.
In other news, we are up to 5 successful litters now (well... 4, depending on how you look at it!). Neurotic Mom's and Agouti Girls' litters are all about weaned, so we should be looking at 3 more litters here in the next week or so, and my male (because I'm "smart" and only have 1 male to 6 females in 3 different enclosures. Working on remedying that, though) is currently in with a very cute little Siamese gal (an "OMG must have!" from Petsmart) who is veeeery fat and due about a week after the Agouti Girls. Yes... I am currently drowning in baby mooses! But it's okay, because I have a very cozy freezer waiting for them, just as soon as they are big enough...
Aaaanyway, thank you for reading my middle of the night ramblings. Hope they were at least kind of interesting! It is now 2 AM... So I think I better actually try to sleep. (And perhaps in the future actually make an attempt at going to bed at a normal hour...) Anyone with thoughts on my two extremely strange gals, I'd love to hear it; everyone else, hope you enjoyed my rambling ooon and ooon, and good night! I'ma go pass out now.
Well, we're only a couple months in, and it's already quite interesting, again. Last time I tried mouse breeding, I started with 3 females: One who turned out to be infertile, one die-hard cannibal, and one who always had tiny litters (though, funny enough, her offspring went on to have perfectly normal litters!). This time around, once again, I've wound up with some... Interesting... females. Out of 6 girls, I have 2 or 3 who are perfectly normal, one who just took awhile to get preggers, and two who are totally weird.
To start, I have a small black female who is quite neurotic. Rather than use the wheel, she always runs in a counter-clockwise circle. NEVER clockwise, mind you! She's given me one litter so far, which counted in at 7 babies. There was an overcrowding issue, though, which I didn't realize was a problem until 2 pregnant moms started cannibalizing her babies, and in the end the count was 4.
Anyway, this strange little mouse was an equally strange mom. She would settle down and feed her babies... She was a good mom like that... But then she would pick up a baby, race in circles, and dump it on the other side of the tank. Wash, rinse, repeat with the other 3. I finally moved the litter into a different tank (those 2 pregnant moms, who gave birth just 1 and 2 days later). They fostered the little litter with no issues. All 4 are/were black selfs, just like mom. Now the other interesting part: Neurotic mom's female offspring just won't thrive! We wound up with a perfect 50/50 split. 2 males, 2 females, out of Neurotic Mom. The 2 males are fat, happy, and perfectly normal mice, right about weanling size right now. The 2 females... Well, one passed shortly after reaching the "hopper" stage. She was always the "runt," if you will, of the 3 litters. Even fully furred and having just opened her eyes, she was the size of a large pinky/small fuzzy. I tried moving her back into Neurotic Mom's tank, where one of NM's (not neurotic) cagemates had recently given birth. She didn't take, so, after a few days, she went back in with her original group. She passed a few days later. Now the second one is still alive and well... But, she, too, is smaller and overall weaker than any of the other 2 dozen, give or take, weanlings. I don't know if it's some strange coincidence, or what, but where NM's two male offspring are thriving and doing wonderfully, her two female offspring just aren't!
Considering the size we need most right now is adult mice, I suspect I'll have another couple chances to see whether NM continues to produce "runty" females and normal males, or if this little observation was a total fluke. It'll definitely be interesting to see what happens!
Now, the other strange Mom. Gold Mom was one of the original 2 females we picked up at a pet store up north. The employee reported that she'd been returned to the store the day before (or something like that) because the person who purchased her was upset that she wouldn't get pregnant... Or something. Anyway, she looked nice and pregnant to me, plus she's adorable, so I took her home despite. She plumped up, and, a week or two in, I could *swear* she was going to give birth the next day (and here's where I start hating myself for not keeping better records!). She continued looking like she'd swallowed a baseball for another week or more, before, one morning, I peeked in to discover a stillborn pinkie. Strange.. And she still looked preggers. Tossed the dead pink, and kept a close eye to see whether she would give birth to the rest of the litter over the next couple days.
Now, let's note here that these are feeder breeder mice. I'm not inclined to take a feeder breeder to a vet; rather, if something goes fatally wrong (so long as it's not dangerous to the snakes), that feeder breeder will quickly become snake chow. A sentiment I'm sure many here understand.
Gold Mom continued to look very pregnant, but not give birth, for another few weeks. Neurotic Mom gave birth, followed soon by the Agouti Girls. Another couple weeks later, Silver Mom also gave birth. But, still, Gold Mom continued to look very fat, very about-to-give-birth, and yet, day after day, not a single pinky was to be seen out of Gold Mom. Finally, earlier this week, Gold Mom gave birth! To a happy, healthy, beautiful litter of 10. Nothing dead, rotting, or otherwise what I was expecting from what appeared, for all intents and purposes, to be a month overdue litter. Nope, everything about her babies is perfectly normal. Everything about her is normal, too. Except, she STILL looks heavily pregnant. A little less heavily pregnant now that she's 10 pinkies lighter, but still very much with child. And there hasn't been a mature male in their tank since shortly after NM gave birth. What... The... Heck.
So, trying to imagine what in the world could be going on with her, my mind flashes back to an episode of Grey's Anatomy, in which one of their patients has 2 uteruses and, likewise, 2 pregnancies, conceived some weeks apart from each other. And my sleep-deprived brain wonders, is this possible in mice? I have no idea, but she sure is a weird mouse.
I actually think I'm going to give it a test eventually. Maybe leave her in with a male for a few weeks or whatever, and then move her in to an isolation tank to keep a closer eye on JUST her, keep super good records, and see what happens. Call it morbid curiosity, but I'm just completely fascinated by this girl.
In other news, we are up to 5 successful litters now (well... 4, depending on how you look at it!). Neurotic Mom's and Agouti Girls' litters are all about weaned, so we should be looking at 3 more litters here in the next week or so, and my male (because I'm "smart" and only have 1 male to 6 females in 3 different enclosures. Working on remedying that, though) is currently in with a very cute little Siamese gal (an "OMG must have!" from Petsmart) who is veeeery fat and due about a week after the Agouti Girls. Yes... I am currently drowning in baby mooses! But it's okay, because I have a very cozy freezer waiting for them, just as soon as they are big enough...
Aaaanyway, thank you for reading my middle of the night ramblings. Hope they were at least kind of interesting! It is now 2 AM... So I think I better actually try to sleep. (And perhaps in the future actually make an attempt at going to bed at a normal hour...) Anyone with thoughts on my two extremely strange gals, I'd love to hear it; everyone else, hope you enjoyed my rambling ooon and ooon, and good night! I'ma go pass out now.
