Reptile shop dividend in your favor!

[cassandra]

One of the feeder mice I bought last week turned out to be an extremely preggers female (I didn't see her until I opened the bag when I got home), so I thought, what the heck, let's see if she'll drop babies and make lotsa food for Jenson. =)

Babies were born this morning! *squeak!* I can't tell how many as the mother made quite a cocoon of a nest from aspen and shredded paper towels and I don't want to mess with her - but it's kinda cool and I wanted to share. =)

[ZEKESMOM]

oohhhh babies Need pics

[rabernet]

That's how I got started in my interest in breeding actually. Had a female that didn't get eaten and before the next feeding day had babies (on Memorial Day actually). I didn't even know she was pregnant. I was like - cool! Free food!

After that, each week I'd buy one extra mouse than I needed and looked for an obviously pregnant female. Did that for a few months and then decided to start breeding rats.

[markface]

rodent breeding can be addictive . it starts with a pregnent female and escalates from there . i enjoy breeding my ratties as much as i enjoy my snakes . oh and congrats on the freebies

[cassandra]

Since this thread is worthless without pictures...



Still didn't get a count, but looks like a "goodly number". I swear she was the size of a whiffle ball yesterday, hehe...



I think the flash freaked her out a bit and she was covering her babies (good mommy)...you can see a bit of blood on the paper towel shred in the background. I'm guessing/hoping that's from the birthing and not a post-birth snack on one of them.

[tigerlily]

Are they squeaky? I know the rat pinkies are very vocal, and I was wondering if mice are the same. I hope she's a good mom, and you end up with a monopoly of babies.

[cassandra]

They squeak a bit - but I'm guessing not as much as rat babies...they are very VERY tiny (for now, hehe). =)

But they were just born this morning or last night, so maybe they'll get louder as they get bigger.

Needless to say, Jenson is quite keen on their advancement.

[tigerlily]

With my rats, I know I have a new litter by the sound alone. LOTS of squeaks. I can hear them from two rooms away. lol

I can't wait to see pics as they get bigger, and then to see pics of Jenson as he gets bigger too.

[Alice]

Conrats! I can't wait to see them growing up. When I go to the pet store looking for new female rats for breeders I always look to see if any appear to be preggers. I hit the jackpot about 5 times, latest was the cutest little dumbo I bought.

Alice

[frankykeno]

Oh I see visible milkbands, always a good thing! LOL Congrats on the litter, hope she does well with it.

I'm the opposite about finding preggie rodents in pet shops. I've never seen a big benefit to it as you often get females so underfed and stressed from overcrowded housing that they drop poor litters or don't do as well as they should. I tend to get younger females and let them grow up with me for a month or so then breed them to one of my own colony males or just avoid the whole thing and breed my own next gen momma's.