how many babies do moms usually kill.

first litter for the mom, she killed 2 out of 7

i wanna hear others and know if this is extreme, should she be culled. give her another chance?

Mice are skiddish creatures to begin with, she may have culled them due to some deformity, or they may have died, then she ate them, who knows. If she is doing well with the others, keep her. Is she a first time mom?

I feed any mouse that eats babies. I've just recently began successfully having moms that raise litters. I just fed off 20 adults that I raised myself. It took three groups of mice to get that far. Just my $.02...

Regards,

B

she is a first time mom, yes

Try not to disturb her at all, not even to change litter, for at least a couple of weeks.

I have found that if you leave the female babies with their mothers longer than the tradional 21-24 days they tend to be better mothers themselves. Now that I practice this I very very rarely have babies eaten. I leave 1:3 throughout and never separate them.

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Originally Posted by llovelace

Mice are skiddish creatures to begin with, she may have culled them due to some deformity, or they may have died, then she ate them, who knows. If she is doing well with the others, keep her. Is she a first time mom?

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I agree with this. Sometimes up to the entire first litter doesn't make it for whatever reason. I give them one more chance. Usually a baby eater eating them just for the sake of eating them will eat/kill the entire litter and not just a couple. If she kills them all a second time, into a snake tub she goes.

I forgot to add that the females may eat the young if they are deprived of water or food for any length of time. I agree with what others have posted as well. Each scenario can be different. some females just are good mothers and should be culled.

i had a couple of mice that just slaughtered every single baby but my last 3 that i had about 3 months ago i had them in my grooming shop where they were being moved constantly or saw lots of traffic and didnt have one mouse killed coz the moms were used to having us in there with them.

Eating 2 babies is completely normal. There is nothing wrong if she raises the rest of the litter. She may have known there was something wrong with the 2 babies, they may have been still born, there may have been too many babies for her to take care of properly, etc.

The mother's diet, or water needs may have also not been properly met.

2 babies is no big deal out of a litter that size. I would keep her around.