• 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.

Question about taking pinkies from their mom

Dustilyn

Dustilyn

Hopeless Addict
I allowed my pet mice to have a litter of pinkies that I intend to feed to some hatchlings i'm working with. The babies were born last night. I'm having this twinge of guilt about taking the babies from their mom. Im sure im assigning human emotions to the mice, but just worry that she will be really upset to lose her babies. Has anyone found this to be the case? Is there something I can do to minimize the upset? I was thinking a full cage clean and rearrange might be a good distraction. Should I let her keep a baby to raise? This is her first litter. Thanks!
 
just worry that she will be really upset to lose her babies. Has anyone found this to be the case?
Click to expand...
NO

Is there something I can do to minimize the upset?
Click to expand...
Yes, feed her off to a snake.

Should I let her keep a baby to raise?
Click to expand...
You need to answer that question yourself because to me feeder mice are like meat cows your raise them to slaughter them.

Fatman
 
Taking the pinkies away will not hurt the mother.

If you leave the male in with the mother, chances are high that she is already knocked up again. (It really doesnt matter if you have taken the one or all the pinkies) Often the night after birthing of the litter. Mice have a 5 day cycle, when they can get preggo. So it doesnt take long to hear the sqeaking of mice foreplay.

If you plan on building another colony (or raising some for larger meals). I suggest you leave 4 pinkies in with mom. I found if I leave 4 in with each mother, that the babies are healthier looking and tend to grow faster. They almost always have full bellies.

Like Fatman said, You have to look at them like cattle. They are somebodies hamburger. In this case Snake hamburger.
 
I would just take them all. They'll reproduce A LOT sooner for you if you do that. Mine stopped reproducing when I let my hoppers grow, I was worried I'd have to kill them off and start over. However, now that the hopper is weaned, I have two healthy litters (well, I did. I took over half of each litter for a baby corn I'll be getting soon). If you want them to grow though, I'd still take all but about 4 pinkies so that the mom can nurse them without taking a huge toll on her. But that's just me. Taking all of them isn't going to hurt.
 
Ok. Guess I was just being a sissy. I went ahead and pulled them all and the mice didn't even seem to notice. Thanks!
 
no, they really don't. Depending on my need, I may take 2 of my rats pinkies, then another 3 when they are fuzzy's, and then another 5 when they are hoppers, and once they are weanlings, mamma goes back into the colony cage. I give her a kick cookie while I am "emptying her out" She doesn't sem to care.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top