Too many mommas?

[merrill924]

I noticed when my last litter was born, it seemed the female mice were fighting over the babies- even the ones who had never been pregnant. Each one would move the babies to her designated space. The real mother didn't seem too interested, and when I returned home, the two babies I hadn't culled were dead. They were warm and laying under a huddle of mice. Any idea what kind of behavior that is? It's the first time in 5 litters.

 

[Joejr14]

easy answer, you should never have nursing females with other females, they will fightover the rights to the babies and often in the attempts at kidnapping babies can get killed. Babies that are not culled should be in their own enclosure with their mom till they are atleast 2 weeks old and getting furry. Plus most tired moms will give up after fighting to keep babies in the nest and just let the other females have them and often these females wont lactate.

Again, everyone on here that raises feeders will disagree with you. I respect the fact that you raise your own mice and rats or what have you, but your advice directly conflicts with theirs. When you remove a part of a mouse colony, you're then making that mouse go through the whole 'getting used to' the colony again, and imo, that makes no sense.

I have NEVER heard a breeder of mouse feeder raiser seperating mice that have just had babies or that are pregnant and most keep mice in large colonies 1.6-1.10 and dont have problems.

 

[princess]

Merrill, I agree with Joejr14,

You might need to look at other factors such as food supply, water, how recently you set up the colony.... Having a multigenerational group of females is usually very stable and you'll find the mothers help each other out with babysitting so another can get a break and that they all feed each others babies. The older females are a great support to the first timers. I lost only one litter and that was right at the beginning when I was setting up the colony. I had bought the female when she was already 2 weeks pregnant and I don't think she had time to adjust to her new home before the babies came. All other litters went without a hitch....

Good luck with your colony,
Adèle

 

[merrill924]

There may be no explanation

Before this last litter, I had three females give birth within 48 hours. There was no problem raising those 36 babies. That's why this last situation confused me. The only thing I can think is that I haven't been putting nesting material in the cages since it's been warm. Maybe each female thought they had a better hiding place.

 

[oreo1700]

many female mamels are genetically designed to want to reproduce/want babies. motherless females will always be jelous and run around new borns or do exactly what ur describing. im writing a paper about it for school- very interesting stuff.

 

[Joejr14]

many female mamels are genetically designed to want to reproduce/want babies. motherless females will always be jelous and run around new borns or do exactly what ur describing. im writing a paper about it for school- very interesting stuff.

Uh, yes. All animals are genetically designed to spread their genes and are programmed to mate. That is the biological purpose of everything on the earth---to reproduce.