Babies !

One of my momma mousies gave birth this morning ! :) :)

It was so exiting.I was cleaning my room and heard some faint squeaks and i peeked in her hide and saw all these wierd pink bodies squirming around.

I dont know exactly how many babies thier are, i havent disturbed her much exept to peek in.

Everything is A O K right now exept for the fact its been a whole week since ive cleaned her cage ( due to walmart not wanting to restock thier shelfs ) .

Could i move her and her babies while i clean the cage really really fast ??

I would say yes you can, because i breed mice and they always seem to have babies right before i clean, so i am forced to move the babies. I have never had mice or rats kill any babies after i have handled them, and i have had a lot of different mothers and litters. I am not saying you should, because it really all depends on how much your mouse seems to trust you. My mice trust me very well because they were born and raised here, so they are very used to me. I think it is pretty safe, but i am not guaranteeing anything. tell me if this helps!

Abby

Ok, thanks for the reply Abby.

I havent had my mice for long but they are pretty docile and let me handle them......well....all exept for one.

I could always just clean around them.

all the babies are in a hide, it isnt one of those kind of hides like a half log where you can just lift it up and they are out in the openon the substrate, its more like a tunnel and a hut, and so when you pick up the hides the mom and the babies all go with it and thats what i wanted to clean the most becuase thats what the babies are laying on/in. but i cant get in there and pull them all out.

I just noticed somthing that was really really wierd, she took a cheerio from her bowl and went ito her tunnel to eat it and then while she was in the she left a little turd. Then she picked it up and took a bite of it....whats up with that ?

As I told you before, mice are gross... :) Horses do the same, they go around eating bits and pieces of manure. Might be picking up trace minerals, who knows. Sometimes dogs do it because they are lacking in nutrition, but some just do because they are nasty... Mmm, crunchy cat litter covered poo... Beats the heck out of Wendy's ;)

remind me not to eat at Wendy's any time soon!

Hey hey, I didn't say Wendy's was crunchy. Now McDonald's, I don't know where they get their hamburgers. ;)

congrats on the mouselings.
When my mice have babies, I just clean the tank around the nest and leave the nest intact (I use upside down rubbermaid type bowls for nests.) The mothers are actually pretty clean in my experience; they exit the nest to defecate. So the inner part of the nest really doesn't have a huge fecal buildup. Once the babies have opened their eyes, everything gets cleaned as they're transferred into a bucket with mama.

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Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

Hey hey, I didn't say Wendy's was crunchy. Now McDonald's, I don't know where they get their hamburgers. ;)

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Actually, you may find some comfort in the fact that McDonalds "ham"burgers are actually mostly made of soy. The true testament to their organization is how they end up with burgers, being mostly soy, having more fat than 80% lean ground beef from a grocery store! Amazing!

the meat in the jack in the box tacos is 100 percent soy product not one piece of meat

Hey guys, sorry i havent posted in this thread for awhile....

So heres an update on the mice.

The first batch just turned 1 week today and they are getting HUGE !

My other cute little young female gave birth two days after her and her babies (whats left of them) are doing well.She ate about three and kept 8 babies.

Ived moved them from the garage/pantry to my room, i made a shelf for the 3 ten gallon tanks and have been cleaning about every 4 days.

So, i guess thats all exept......some people found out that im breeding and they wanted to know if i could sell them some pinkies for thier.....well....i forgot exactly what kind of reptile it was, and then this other lady who my mom knows is a teacher and thought it would be cool to have a class pet.

Im letting these babies grow up so i can take one female from each litter, get a new male and breed them again so maybe ill put up a flyer for pet mice/feeders at her boarding kennel....maybe ill make a little money.

How young can male mice breed ?

Today i took out all the 8 day old babies to see if i could tell the sexes (i couldent figure out who was female and who was male anyway though) and i noticed one of the babies is about half the size of his/her siblings.Im concerned that she isnt getting enough nurtrition and might die.The other babies are growing hair (like actual hair) where as she just has a little peach fuzz.

I have another female who has babies just a tiny tiny bit smaller than her, should i put the baby with her and her own babies ??

Would she eat him/her if she finds out that is isnt one of her own ??

What should i do ?

Heres a picture

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...1/DCP06567.JPG

He/She is the little pink one with the two black "eye brow" looking markings on her/his head at the bottom of the picture to the right side.

I really don't know much about mice, but I'll tell you that when I was breeding hamsters, if I saw a runt that was looking like it needed a little help, I'd get kitty formula and an eye dropper and feed him/her...

She looks a little runty, but they usually do alright. Since it's the mother's first time having babies, she may not have enough milk, not know how to take care of them at first, etc. The second litter should be bigger and better cared for. You can put the runt in with the other litter, but it's not necessary. If you want to ensure it getting enough milk, you can take the other 3 away for an hour or so so it can nurse and not get pushed out of the way. You can keep the other 3 in a box or something with a heat pad underneath part of it. Make sure they don't get too hot though.

Hope this helps a bit. How many babies are in the other litter?

Thanks becky, that sounds like a great idea, i will try that. :)

There is 8 babies in each litter.

Oh wow! I didn't realize there were that many. Way to go Moms! :) Good numbers for first timers. Let me know how it goes with the lil' one. It may just need some extra attention from mom. I like the colors of the ones in the picture. They look like little cows :) The small baby has especially cute markings.

If you need help identifying male from female, it's not too difficult. They are at a good age to start looking. The females usually have nipple spots, so that should be the main indicator. If you can't see those yet, then females have the urethra, the vagina and then the anus. Males only have the urethra and anus. Females = ._ . Males . . LoL, Hopefully that helps a bit. The males testicles will start to descend pretty early, I think it may be around 3-4 weeks, if not sooner. Just make sure they all(males) have two testicles, and if not, just feed him, and don't use for breeding. The monorchidism(one testicle undescended) and cryptorchidism(both undescended) is genetic and can lead to cancer if not dealt with soon.

Good luck with all the little boogers. :)

Ok thanks.

I noticed nipples on only two from that litter.

The one i really wanted to keep is actually a male....so i wont be keeping him now, i have no use for another male...ohh well.

The runt is doing alot better, she is catching up with the others and is now coverd in nice soft white hair :)

These guys are coming up on three weeks now in a few days.

Once they are weaned im putting them in another 95 quart rubermaid until i get rid of them, are they going to be alright in there ? will they breed with eachother ?

They can breed at about 4 1/2 to 5 weeks from what I have been told.

Anyways, if you are planning on feeding them to your snakes, why does it matter if they breed? I dont mind feeding a fat pregnant female mouse to one of my snakes as a meal

Brandon, here's some information I found that might be useful to you:

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Rats and mice have a gestation period of 21 days. They wean their young in 21 days and immediately produce another litter. Rats and mice can be mated at 10 weeks of age and should be retired from breeding at six months. Replacement breeders should be obtained from the third or fourth litters and can be mated brother to sister. A ratio of 1:2 males to females per container is ideal.

Male and female weaners (three weeks old) should be kept apart to prevent breeding. Mice can become pregnant at five weeks, although they may not have a large enough pelvis to give birth.

You should keep a breeding record, which will tell you breeding performances and the age of the offspring.

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Hey, thanks for that info smynx But what does it mean they will imediatly reproduce ? They will have to be with a male to do that right ? they just dont get pregnant by themselves do they ?

The reason why i dont want any of the females getting pregnant is becuase once they are weaned i will be giving them away to a few diffent friends who were interested in them and i dont want them to be pregnant at such a young age.