babies! and questions

I checked on my feeder tank this morning and saw the big fat girl had a nice little litter of about 7 or 8. Immediately I took out the male and the other feeders so shes by herself with her baby pinks now. I have been keeping an eye on them and I want to make sure they all stay healthy.

Is there anything I can do to help the mother while she's nursing?
Is there anything I need to do to help the pinks so they can grow up healthy?


The mom was carrying one of them in her mouth earlier but it didnt look like she was eating it. To my understanding mothers eat their young if they are stressed. I want to do everything I can to make sure mum's not stressed so these babies can grow big and strong.

Just let her do her thing. With my rats sometimes the moms are pretty rough on the babies, some of them i find have little teeth marks on them from mom moving them around.

Sorry, probably should have mentioned this, but they are mice. Not sure if that makes a difference at all. Thankyou for your help too!

Make sure she's fed well, her water bottle is always full and her enclosure is cleaned regularily....basically anything you'd do for any rat really....just more so with a female nursing a litter. As the pinks become pups in about 15 or so days their eyes will open and they'll start to follow her to her food and water sources. Usually by day 20 they are eating and drinking independent of their mother but will still nurse from her until they are weaned.

Female rats move their young all the time, it's their instincts at work. With larger litters an experienced female rat will often break them into smaller groups, move from group to group nursing them and then pile them up back together on and off for face and butt washing.

ahhh the pitter patter of little feet...

I'm anxiously awaiting my first 2 litters of mice, hoping for them in the next day or two. Something you said, though, I wanted to ask about...

I thought it was a good idea to leave at least the other female in the tank with the new mother? don't they help each other out and stuff?

I'm not sure, this morning when I first checked on all of them, the other female actually had one of the babies in her mouth too. Maybe she was helping? I doubt it could hurt to have her in there too. Does anybody know for sure?

Also, I temporarily put the other mice in one of the bins of my rack. My snakes are goin crazy! They can definately smell them. Is this ok to keep them in my rack? Will my snakes get used to it or should i move them out to somewhere else?

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Originally Posted by CntrlF8

I thought it was a good idea to leave at least the other female in the tank with the new mother? don't they help each other out and stuff?

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It is just a matter of choice. Some see it as a rest time for the female and putting her alone gives her less stress and time away while she deals with the new kids.

Others (like me) leave the females together as they are social animals and I have seen them help each other out.

Neither way is wrong...just a personal choice.

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Originally Posted by amcceney

Also, I temporarily put the other mice in one of the bins of my rack. My snakes are goin crazy! They can definately smell them. Is this ok to keep them in my rack? Will my snakes get used to it or should i move them out to somewhere else?

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The snakes will be fine...many people breed rats in their snake rooms with no reported issues. Since you just moved them in there you are seeing a feeding response (due to the new smell)...but that will go away soon.

Something to keep in mind though, if the female that's supposed to be "assisting" the new mom with females is pregnant at that time, the babies will nurse off her as well, and ( I know in rats) the mother doesn't actually produce milk for a day when she begins to lactate.
It's chocked full of good antibodies to be given to the newborns, you would be taking that away from her own unborn pups, and she would also be nursing and pregnant at the same time. That to me is unfavorable conditions for the assisting female.
I don't know if the same thing is applicable to mice, but it's just something to keep in mind for the future.