Baby eater!

[diamondlil]

My best producing mouse (25 last litter) has been getting towards golf-ball size, then as her 2 sisters have given birth has been supplementing her diet by stealing pinks to eat.
I can't have her eating the snakefood, but don't want to lose her production rate, so I've seperated her out with a young male so she won't have any babies to eat. I'll probably raise breeders from this litter when she produces or consider 'retiring' her to the freezer sooner if she eats her own pinks.
Meanwhile her sisters are left with a measly 4 pinks between them to grow on as I've frozen 16 damaged pinks and thrown away the body parts that were strewn about uke01:

 

[Ginafish]

It's like some awful rodent version of Dead Alive! :sidestep:

 

[JAG 32]

i know how you feel, i bought a new petstore female and shes been stealing some pinks. Shes about this _ far away from a permanent nap

 

[waldo]

I had a baby eater, I ended up seperating her and everything was fine until she decided to attack the male. I waited until she gave birth this last time then fed her off. She was also a very good producer but had a nasty streak I didn't want to deal with.

 

[suecornish]

Okay, now wait. My brain is not working right. Did I read right - you have a female breeder mouse that is eating the babies????? uke01:

For the life of me I never thought mice were canabalistic. Go figure. :bang:

Just when I am almost sure about my place in the world, something like this comes along. :grin01:

Seriously, is this normal behaviour???

:crazy02:

 

[tyflier]

Okay, now wait. My brain is not working right. Did I read right - you have a female breeder mouse that is eating the babies????? uke01:

For the life of me I never thought mice were canabalistic. Go figure. :bang:

Just when I am almost sure about my place in the world, something like this comes along. :grin01:

Seriously, is this normal behaviour???

:crazy02:

It's not exactly "normal"...but it happens. In one of my colonies, I had a female drop a litter of 6, and the other two females(sisters and VERY pregnant) were supplementing their diets with the pinks...or else the lone Hopper that I'm letting grow up got to them, I'm not sure which. I'll figure it out when the next litter drops...

 

[suecornish]

Is it a stress reaction or are they known to do it also in the wild.

I am starting to think that every species is cannabalistic to some degree or another. (Well, except trees, plants, weeds, :grin01: )

:crazy02:

 

[diamondlil]

It's not exactly "normal"...but it happens. In one of my colonies, I had a female drop a litter of 6, and the other two females(sisters and VERY pregnant) were supplementing their diets with the pinks...or else the lone Hopper that I'm letting grow up got to them, I'm not sure which. I'll figure it out when the next litter drops...

I wasn't sure last time around, but this mouse and her 2 sisters dropped @50 pinks last time 'round, and then there was a lot of pinky-stealing and maneuvering to control 3 nests, and some pinks got eaten. This time I actually saw how 'Star' was fuelling her huge pinky production and have had to seperate her until I decide if her huge litter size will be more suitable to her being a lone female.

 

[rekn]

mice and rats are very opertunistic omnivores.

 

[snakeboy24]

i have heard of this happening a lot. i know that some other rodents such as rabbits will eat their own young if she feels at threat. i do not know if this is the same situation for mice but i can tell you for sure that it is not uncommon.

thats one part of mouse breeding I'm not looking forwards to. dint suppose anybody would be excited to see mouse body parts around the cage. lol