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Keeping young live mice alive.

princess

princess

Cornaholic
My normal frozen mouse dealer is on holidays so I've picked up 30 live mice through a friend this week to tie me over.

I got 20 adults (they look to be really good, healthy 5-week-olds or so) and an orger of 'weanlings' that look to be only past hopper size. I asked for 10 weanling size because I have a bunch of snakes taking that size but these seem a little on the little side of weanling so I'd like to keep them a little while to let them grow (only a week or so).

What kind of success do you think I'll have with keeping them alive and well at such a small size? They can huddle and share body heat so I'm not worried about them getting too cold at night (they're in the shade on the balcony) but I just wonder how well the little ones. (perhaps 2½ weeks old) do when they're without their mum. Would it just be a better idea to kill and freeze them now and use them in a couple of months when I have a snake ready for that size? -or try to grow them up for a week?
 
Do you have the mother? They won't grow without having her nursing them at that age and they are mammals so they probably won't make it through a couple of days without the mother. Also any of the females you have that might be able to nurse them would do.
 
Well, I can tell you what my experience was. My female had babies, but died when the babies were 18 days old. They were so close to the "21 day" approximate weaning age that I thought they'd be okay.

The babies ate small pellet chunks, and we also soaked some pellets in water to make soft food. They drank out of the water bottle too.

Okay, so what was the problem? I'd read that the Mom licks her babies to encourage the baby mice to empty their bowels. She does this and eats the "poop" to help keep the nest clean. Well, I thought they were old enough that wouldn't be a problem and I'd seen little mouse poops in the cage.

The mice were eating and drinking fine, but got sick fairly quickly. I could tell by the way they looked that something was wrong. So, I tried to find pictures etc that would help me figure out what was happening. It was then that I discovered the mice were sick from fecal impaction.

After their Mom died, I should have encouraged the babies to empty their bowels by gently rubbing their tummies and genitals with a warm, damp cloth or cottonball. It just didn't cross my mind that these babies would still need bowel movement stimulation. I felt bad, but you live and learn.

If you want to try and keep your babies alive for a week or so, I'd suggest feeding and caring for the babies as I've mentioned. I'm curious to know what you decide and how it goes.
 
Hmmm, I'm working the next few days so it'll be hard to be there to help toilet them every 3-4 hours but as long as they can have an overnight stretch and a day time stretch, I think I can help them out 3 times a day.

I think the smallest few will get dispatched tonight and go towards my freezer stock but the bigger few I'll help along for a few days and see if that does the trick.

The 7 or so females I got in the order of feeders are young females, probably 5 or 6 weeks old at the most so I doubt they could spontaneously lactate at such a young age...+, it would take a couple of days for milk to come in.

They're active and cute and are running around nibbling food so they seem pretty OK for now. Thanks for the advice. :cheers:
 
I don't know what size the snakes are that need the weanlings so forgive me if this is of no use ..... but if you have a bunch of these sized snakes and only 10 "weanlings" then a smaller meal won't hurt them for the short time it takes to use up those mice. Won't the smaller meal give their digestion system a slight break for the one or two feeds? ........ anyway, it was just an option.
She'll be right mate, bung a banger on the barbie and grab a tinnie, when you get the "propper" size mice they will be onto it quicker than a pack of dingoes with a 3 legged cat. :cheers:
 
Bloody yobbo you are mate!

Yeah, the thing is the yearling size snakes I have on weanling size mice could actually be on a little bigger. 2 of the 4 can eat an adult with no trouble and the other 2...it would only ba a little push!

Well, I'll have another look at them tonight and decide what to do.
 
Could you use 2 of the smaller size mice then ? I have had to do that .... untill my rats decided they like to boink, the randy lil' buggers. :rolleyes:
Good luck, if you were closer I could prolly' help some. (what tha' made ya go to Sweden ???)
 
My darling Dane! You know how us Aussie girls like our Danish boys!...But we were the originals...Mary and Fredrick coppied us!!! He moved here about 6 months before we met and asked me to move in after 4 days...the rest is history!
 
I regularly wean ,ice at 2-3 weeks. They do great and I don't massage their genitals or bowels.

I think you'll be fine.

Q
 
princess said:
My darling Dane! You know how us Aussie girls like our Danish boys!...But we were the originals...Mary and Fredrick coppied us!!! He moved here about 6 months before we met and asked me to move in after 4 days...the rest is history!
Click to expand...

Not being a girl I will have to take your word for it mate, I am glad you took your time to think about the move though, all 4 days :p

Congrats ... seriously :dancer:
 
Quigs said:
I regularly wean ,ice at 2-3 weeks. They do great and I don't massage their genitals or bowels.

I think you'll be fine.

Q
Click to expand...

Hey Quigs, thanks for the info. That's good to know! It may have just been my situation... the Mom wasn't feeling well, had a fairly big litter, then died 18 days later. So, the babies probably weren't getting the nutrition etc. they needed to be at the proper stage for weaning.
 
Well I've had them for 24 hours now and they've been away from their mum for at least 50-60 hours and they're doing great. They're running all over the place, eating, grooming, sleeping (about 8 fit in one toilet paper roll!) I've fed off one so far. I'll feed off another in 4-5 days and then freeze the rest. as I only have one snake taking that size (an 8 month old)
 
Thanks!

The remaining adult mice from my order stand at about 7 females and 4 males but one of the males was a nasty little **** and was biting the other males so I whalloped him and my snow '04 got fed 1 day early!
 
Well I tried to write S.H.I.T. hehehe...dumb censorship program can't trick me!!!! but it's not PC....I can think of a lot more nast 4 letter words to exchange in!!!!! :rolleyes:
 
Yes, a lovely little private school girl from Australias cultural capital....and don't you try to argue that Noosa is the cultural capital!!!

avagoodweekend!
 
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