Mice are fighting pretty bad, is it OK?

[cchardwick]

I just had my first litter of mice that are weaned from the mom, one of the babies was sitting in the food bowl eating and mom was sitting all by herself in the corner of the tank, not in the hide with the babies, so I figured it was time to move her back in with the male. There was already one female in there with the male and she started fighting really bad with the mom that I just took from her young. It was pretty violent for several minutes, the male kept trying to check on each one kind of like a moderator trying to smooth things over LOL. I figure if things get real bad where she is all beat up and bloody I can just feed her off, but I'm not sure it will come to that, will it? Or I can move out the other pregnant female, but I'm short of empty tanks at the moment...

I really like the idea of moving females into and out of a colony breeding tank with just one male, move them out when they are ready to pop from having babies. Not only does it give the mom some alone time with her babies to raise them in peace (no cannibalism) but I can also control the breeding rate by choosing when to move them back in with the male. That's the idea anyway, I didn't expect all the fighting when I moved them back. The good thing about feeder mice is that if there are ever any problems you can always feed them off LOL. I actually bought seven feeder mice last week and had an extra one so decided to keep the smallest youngest female to add some variety to my mouse bloodline. Lots of fighting at first but they finally settled down, she was really young though, not sure about an adult mouse that has just finished weaning young...

I just bought a baby ball python, only had three meals so far, so these new baby mice will be a perfect meal for her for the next few weeks. I also have more baby mice on the way!

[paulh]

[QUOTE].... There was already one female in there with the male and she started fighting really bad with the mom that I just took from her young. ....[QUOTE]
That's pretty common. You are likely to have better luck moving the male from one cage to the next. Or just leaving the male and 2-3 females together and pulling weanlings out.

Good luck.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

That's pretty common. You are likely to have better luck moving the male from one cage to the next. Or just leaving the male and 2-3 females together and pulling weanlings out.

Good luck.

^This^

I prefer to move the male and leave 3 females together at all time, I chose not to leave the male at all time because I don't want back to back breeding but harems are also a viable option.

[Asherah]

I have an established colony that I move the females out of to give birth alone. I actually have 2-3 mature males with 10-15 mature females at a time. I rarely (never say never) have fights or scuffling issues. The trick is a large amount of space. Plenty of hides (can be as simple as tp rolls) and never move a female/new male in without doing a complete scrub down and change of the bedding. For me, it's a good system and works like a dream.

Edited to add: if they are fighting you need to do something different. Especially if it's getting bloody. They can kill each other.

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[cchardwick]

Well I'm finally starting to get some good production, I have six separate tanks with females +babies and a few other dedicated mating tanks, finally have some young that are old enough to feed this week. I moved the female back in with the male and a couple females and there was some fighting, well I think it was actually the male trying to mate with the new female, not really fighting per se. And I didn't do the scrub down thing either, maybe I'll try that in the future. Maybe I'll also try a few more females in there and more hides. I kind of like moving the females out to give birth and back in for breeding, keeps the batches of babies separate and easy to keep track of. There's a lot of chasing and squeaking, sounds more like the male is mating with the females, no blood to speak of or beat up mice, just a really horny male LOL I have one more male / female pair in a separate tank that I think is a bit too much for my system so I'll probably feed them off this weekend and just keep one adult male in my breeding program. I'd keep the female but she seems a bit 'off', not sure what is wrong with her, maybe she is just a bit old.

[voodoolamb]

When actively breeding mice for my Ts and Beardies I ended up with this set up:

20 gallon long tanks with a screen mesh divider separating 1/4 of the tank. The male lived on the small side. On the big side I housed 3 females. Lots of hides and 2 levels. It was the best compromise I could make between meeting the social needs of the male while controlling breeding. Anywho. With lots of hides and space there was little cannibalism. I had some sister wife moms who raised litters together in the same hide and some who preferred to stake out their own little corner. Once the kits were weaned they were sexed and went into grow out tubs until feeding or freezer camp time. I made a point to feed off the males first. Keeping the boys over crowded in the tubs helped a lot with reducing fighting as well.

If any time I had to remove a mouse from the set up for any length of time a good scrub out of the tanks, redecorating, and a dab of vanilla extract on everybody (so they all smelled like the same colony) kept fighting at bay.