Momma mouse ate a couple of her babies....

What would cause this to happen. This is the first time I've had this happen. She had food/water available. She did have a huge litter of 23 babies - could this be her way of saying I can't take care of this many??

Please advise. I've decided that once these babies are weaned - I won't breed her again.

Thanks

I think that just like snakes sometimes kick out bad eggs. Mice know when something is wrong with new born babies and will eat any that are unhealthy. I would not worry to much about her eating a few. And with litters that big I would probably go ahead and breed her again. :twocents:

It can be so many things with mice

#1 they are very prone to stress and that often lead to cannibalism, providing security is essential.

#2 Inadequate food or lack of water, make sure they have access to water that the bottle or watering system if used are not clogged up, and feed quality food with at least 18% protein (no pet store junk)

#3 Lactating problem which would lead the female to cull her litter.

# 4 Issue with the babies themselves leading to culling as well.

etc

Getting a mince colony started is not as easy as rats it can take time and it all about security, selective breeding and proper diet.

I've started this breeding project completely on accident and out of 4 litters - this is the first loss I've had.

I feed them primarily a quality rodent block that I purchase from the Reptile Show but I do add a little bit of rat/mice food mix from the petstore also.

I keep their cages very clean and check their water/food supplies every morning and night.

I'm hoping it was just a matter of her detecting an issue with a couple of the babies and did what she felt she had to do.

On a side note: can I house females together while they are not being bred??

Thanks for the help everyone.

Deborah's advice was spot on. Mice are quite a bit different than rats. Rats typically don't mind being moved around and can adapt pretty easily with other cage mates, however mice seem to do better with a stable colony where they have established their roles within that colony, and that can take some time. My advice would be to leave them alone as much as possible without handling them or moving them around to different cages. Remove the young ones after they are weened to a different cage to raise them up to size, but keep the same breeding adults together.

Just to make sure I am doing this correctly - I can house like 3 females together but once they become pregnant I need to move them to their own tub to give birth - correct??? Then after babies are weaned - that female can be returned to the tub with the other females.

I hope I got this right.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by L.West

Just to make sure I am doing this correctly - I can house like 3 females together but once they become pregnant I need to move them to their own tub to give birth - correct??? Then after babies are weaned - that female can be returned to the tub with the other females.

I hope I got this right.

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I can't speak for others, but what works best for me is just leaving the colony alone and taking out the weaned mice to grow on their own. The other females will help out mothers, and it doesn't disrupt the colony.

So, you leave the mothers in the same tub as the others while she gives birth and then let her raise them in there also??

Oh, I've been putting the female or possibly two pregnant onces together in a separate tank to give birth and to raise their young - once the babies are weaned - I remove the moms and put them back into the female breeder tank again.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by L.West

So, you leave the mothers in the same tub as the others while she gives birth and then let her raise them in there also??

Oh, I've been putting the female or possibly two pregnant onces together in a separate tank to give birth and to raise their young - once the babies are weaned - I remove the moms and put them back into the female breeder tank again.

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Yep, I just leave the established colony completely alone and take out the weaned mice as needed. If taking out the pregnant ones works for you, then there's nothing wrong with that. Although it might explain why she ate some babies if she was stressed by the move. :confused:

In continuation of this issue - the two females that delivered their babies together in the same tank and basically in the same spot.

Since I last posted - I noticed that the mommas had been fighting and babies are continuing to dissappear. I removed the one momma who didn't seem to do much with the babies as far as nursing them. I left only one momma in with the remaining babies but still had another death this morning - although this baby wasn't eaten it just looked squished to death. There is only 9 babies left out of 23.

What is up with these two females.

Can I euthanize them using the dry ice method like I do rats??

Thanks everyone.