• 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.

Pinky eating colony

waldo

Crazy Tarantula Lady
My first colony is finally producing. First mom had her babie last week, ate them all before I even knew she had them. Second mom had her babies 4 days ago, there were 10, now there are only 4. I have 2 more pregnate and I'm worried they will get eaten too. Should I start seperating mom and babies? All the females except one are first time mothers.
 
I don't think so. This seems to be fairly common with first litters. I'll bet it won't happen with the next ones.
I would think it would be more disruptive to take her out than anything.

That's good news though! If those pinks are so good that the mom can't resist, you know your snakes are gonna' love em! :crazy02:
 
They are getting a high protien, high quality dog food in addition to their regular food. I'll the kitty food and see if it is better. Anyone ever feed insects? Sometimes I give them mealworms or crickets.
 
If the dog food is higher than say 20% protien then the kitten food probably wont make any difference.
 
Murderer?

You may have a lone murderer on your hands, as well. Sometimes, one female in the colony will attack and eat the pinkies. If you happen to notice one eating them, and the others trying to defend them, this would be your culprit. You could then remove just the killer from the colony.

I know it is reasonably common for a first litter to be killed, but I have not had that experience(thankfully). I would watch them fairly closely for the next couple of days, and see if possibly the deed is being done by a lone mouse, or the entire colony.
 
I actually though about the lone murdered theroy, I even have a suspect, I really hope I am wrong though as its my favorite doe. She has attacked every other mouse in the colony, including the buck. I just caught her attacking one of the pregger does. Coincidence that this female is the one who ate her entire litter before I got a chance to see them?
 
FWIW...I don't believe in THAT MUCH coincidence. I think you have a "Jackie the ripper" on your hands...or perhaps you prefer "Hannah Lechter"?
 
Sounds like she is the cannibal. You might want to at lest separate her from the others if you don't want to feed her off.
 
Do you think there is a chance of her stopping? I really would like to keep her. Maybe if she has babies again and they survive, I could keep a few females and start a seperate colony.
I noticed lately that she is eating alot, always first to the food dish and begs for food when ever I check on everyone.
 
Do you keep a constant supply of food? If not you should keep the bowl or hopper filled at all times.
 
waldo said:
Do you think there is a chance of her stopping? I really would like to keep her. Maybe if she has babies again and they survive, I could keep a few females and start a seperate colony.
I noticed lately that she is eating alot, always first to the food dish and begs for food when ever I check on everyone.
Depends on the mouse. With some it appears to be a matter of jealousy or hunger. With others, it almost seems like a psychosis. Considering she was the first to give birth, I wouldn't count on jealousy as an issue.

Keep your food bowl full, keep your bedding very clean, and be sure to clean any and all blood and afterbirth immediately following the birth of any future litters. If you can do that and keep an eye on them...it may stop. But if it doesn't you'll have no choice but to lose your litters, or cull her out...

If it does prove to be of a psychotic nature, and she is really your favorite, you could always keep her as a solitary pet, instead of a breeder. It's not a "cost-effective" solution, but it is an emotional option. It is what I would do if one of my females proved psychotic, if only because my daughter made me promise that the snake's wouldn't eat the big ones. Even if one of my adults dies of natural causes...we have to give it a proper burial... :rolleyes: ...but she is my kid, and I made a promise...
 
I checked on my remaining 4 babies to find there was only 3 left, I went ahead and fed them off instead of loose any more.

I did some switching between colonies. My Lizzy Borden is now is a smaller cage with a different male and the one female she gets along with. If I have any more cannibalism from her I will feed her off to. Even though I do really like her, I don't have the room or desire to keep a cage with one mouse.

I do keep food avaliable at all times. I'm going to try giving them some hard boiled egg a couple times a week and supplement her with some extra vitamins.
 
If your goal is mice for food there is only one thing to do...get rid of that female. sounds like you have more females so just keep a couple of females from another litter and go on.

I keep 10 to 15 females and 2 males in one cage and harvest a litter almost every day for weeks then wait for the next round. ( I only use pinks for babies, by the time they are 8-10 months old they eat rats.)
 
My big black female had a litter of 13 tonight, I heard some squeaking so I went to check on them and I saw ANOTHER female killing the babies.
I lost 2 of the babies and looks like another 3-4 won't make it, I'll check them in a couple hours.
I got mad enough that the two baby eaters are now together, not getting along very well but at this point I don't care if they fight. They will be given 1 more chance before going in the freezer.
I just hope there aren't any problems when the next mom gives birth, she should be due in a couple days.
Something else I was thinking about, both the killers are broken marked, the good moms are solid except for 1 brindle. Maybe the line of marked mice mine came from are just nasty? I hate mice...
 
waldo said:
They are getting a high protien, high quality dog food in addition to their regular food. I'll the kitty food and see if it is better. Anyone ever feed insects? Sometimes I give them mealworms or crickets.

What is their "regular food", if I may ask? lab block? Seed Mix? What brand?
 
Its a seed mix by kaytee. I'm alsmost out and will be buying more in a couple days, what brand do you recommend? I would like to switch to lab block but no place sells it around here. I'm going to the reptile show in Seattle later this month and will try to find some there.
 
Not sure if that's the cause, but it very well could be. I'd avoid Kaytee food of any kind. The best is Mazuri or Harlan lab blocks. Or Purina LabDiet.
Check a local feed store for lab blocks, its MUCH cheaper that way than buying from a pet store. A good feed store if they stock them should also sell out of a big bag in smaller quantities, like 5 or 10 lbs. Most pet stores sell Kaytee lab blocks which are very poor quality and they use a cancer causing preservative. Plus at pet stores lab blocks are like 1.50 to 2.00 a lb or even worse. Petsmart wants like 3.00 a lb for mazuri. At a feed store or reptile show it's more like .40 a lb if you get a whole bag or maybe .75 per lb if you buy smaller quantities. Mazuri has a shelf life of 9 months and Harlan 6 months. You can freeze it and it will last another 6 months or so.
Seed mixes don't really have the proper nutrition, especially for breeding mice, plus they pick and choose only the bits that they want and don't get the nutrition they need.

If you don't see it out for sale at the reptile show ask the feeder breeders, somebody should have it. If you have a choice get Harlan 2018 or 8604, if not then Mazuri 6F or 9F breeder block are good as well.

Mazuri has a lower protein content than the Harlan formulas I listed. Mazuri 6f is 16% protein 6% fat. 9F is 16%/9%. Harlan 2018 is 18%/5% and 8604 is 22%/5%.

If this is solely for mice then the best is probably 8604, for rats 2018 is better. All of them are good though, and any would be much better than any Kaytee food.

It's really a shame that pretty much every pet store sells Kaytee food when it is of such poor quality.

Until you can get the lab blocks you might want to feed more of the dog kibble than the seed mix.
 
I'll try to find some lab block ASAP. I really doubt the feed store sells any brand of block, they feed there own breeders a seed mix, so dos the pet store.
The closest petco is over a hour away, I can always check there next time I'm in town.
Thanks for all your advice, I hope I can get this mess sorted out.

I still have 7 babies this morning, heres hoping I manage to get a couple to survive to adulthood.
 
Back
Top