• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

mice eating mice

c_win

c_win

corn luver
I have a small colony of a male and three females in ten gallon. I go away usually every weekend... and before I go, I always stock their tanks with food, usually another bowl full. There is always enough food left when I come home. But when I came home from being gone all weekend one of my females was dead and half ate and the female that looked pregant was not looking pregant any more and her babies were no where to be found. I don't know if the mother ate her babies and the other female or what. I also noticed that the one other female had some bite marks on her. They have been around each other for several months now so I don't know why all of a sudden they would turn on each other? I was wondering if I should get rid of the mice and start a new colony or just leave them? :shrugs: Any advice?
 
I had this same problem happen, but it was because the mice ran out of food, and ate the babies that were still nursing. I was able to save 2 of the babies, but the other 12 were completly gone.

I didn't get rid of my mice, just made sure that they had more food all the time. If you want to get rid of them, that is totally up to you. If you don't, then just keep an eye on them and watch for any strange behavior.

I had to seperate my male from the females when they first started having babies as the male would start eating on the babies. He doesn't do that now and I keep him in with the babies until the babies are of a size that I need to feed.
 
Eating babies is one thing....eating other adults is another. It sounds like they had adequate food, or should have. They can usually go a day or two without food without a problem such as cannibalism arising. Did they have food AND water when you got back?

I think if it were me, I'd scrap the entire colony and start over. Sometimes I'm convinced it's genetic at some point or another. I've had an adult female eat pinks, and if any of the babies managed to survive long enough for me to rescue them and place in a different colony...when grown up and breeding, they'll snack on babies too, and not just their own. *inwardly shudders*

So usually, unless its a first time mother deal, I cull them completely to avoid passing whatever it might be on to future generations.

You mentioned you had them in a 10-gallon tank. This 'should' be sufficient room for each mouse. So I don't really think it was an overcrowding and stressful situation.

As cheap as mice are, you could scrap the colony and start over pretty easily. Just make sure you go to stores that sell pet mice. I tried to buy "feeder mice" from the back room as a cheap route to setting up my own colony. Ended up with unhealthy mice who never produced much of anything. So I usually spend more and buy mice who've been treated right.

Hopefully it doesn't happen to you again. Good luck.
 
Thanks for your help. I when I noticed that the babies and the one was dead I checked to see if they had enough food and water. They had plenty of water and there was still food in both bowels. I always buy the fancy mice or whatever they are called. They have always been very healthy and good breeders for me, and they are pretty to look at. :) Maybe it is genetic ? I dont know.. But I think I am going to get rid of the colony. My husbands ball pythons eat live so I think the mice will be their next meal
 
I had that problem that my colony ran out of food and one of the younger females were eating the babies. But that was the reason why, so now I make sure that they always have food. I have not had the same mice eat any of the babies since that one time.

I personally would not worry about it happening again if this was the first case of the mice eating the young. Just keep an eye out for the mice food supply. :)
 
With the canniballism of adults, mice and rats instinctively eat dead mice and rats to keep predators from finding them. ("It smells like dead rats. Where there are dead rats, there are live rats")
I had a friend who had that happen to her. She didn't even know the 2nd rat was dead, she just came back from school and was greeted with a bloody half-carcass. :puke01:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top