baby mice help

i have a female that had 15 babies today i feel like it's too many for her to care for. my question is can i take half of those baby mice and let another female mice raise them?

Definitely not....not unless that mother has been in with the first mother, and even then she'll probably eat the other one's offspring. Mice are very colonial. Believe it or not, the mother will have no problem handling 15 kits, as long as she is receiving proper nutrition and can make enough milk. I have had mice in the past that have had even larger litters than that and did just fine by themselves. I would say unless you plan on euthanizing/freezing the babies you take away from her, don't bother...as you're more likely to lose them by moving them to another mother, than if you leave them with their original mom. ;)

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Originally Posted by JaGv

i have a female that had 15 babies today i feel like it's too many for her to care for. my question is can i take half of those baby mice and let another female mice raise them?

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15 babies will be fine for mama. Make sure mama has food and water, and shell be fine. My mouse had a litter of 12, and had no problems. Some mice have more than 15 in a litter.

Your mouse should be able to handle 15 babies. You're risking the second mother killing them because they are unfamiliar to her. 15 was an AVERAGE size litter when I raised mice and rats, meaning some had larger litters! They had no problems caring for that number.

both of the famales had been in the same tub but i separated them because one had babies 3 weeks ago and now my second female had the 15. but if its fine i will leave her with the momma and just keep watching. thanks

One of mine has 17 and is doing fine!

Those that are saying you can't foster babies to a different mother are absolutely wrong. I do it all the time, and believe it's pretty common. I've raised mice on ASF mothers, ASF's on mouse mothers, and have handed off babies from mouse to mouse dozens of times without ever having an issue. Babies that can't do anything for themselves are completely non-threatening, so females will accept them and raise them up as her own. But, I would only switch babies to females that are a day or 2 from giving birth, have their own litters, or have literally just had a litter weaned off of them, I wouldn't risk it any other time in or with a mature female that hasn't bred at all.

That being said, unless you have a really young, immature female mouse, she should handle 15 babies no problem.

this is the 1st time she has babies thats why i asked

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Originally Posted by RobNJ

Those that are saying you can't foster babies to a different mother are absolutely wrong. I do it all the time, and believe it's pretty common. I've raised mice on ASF mothers, ASF's on mouse mothers, and have handed off babies from mouse to mouse dozens of times without ever having an issue. Babies that can't do anything for themselves are completely non-threatening, so females will accept them and raise them up as her own. But, I would only switch babies to females that are a day or 2 from giving birth, have their own litters, or have literally just had a litter weaned off of them, I wouldn't risk it any other time in or with a mature female that hasn't bred at all.

That being said, unless you have a really young, immature female mouse, she should handle 15 babies no problem.

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Then you must be the luckiest guy on the planet. In my earlier years of breeding mice, I tried this. I learned very quickly that mice are evil to each other and any of the offspring that I tried to "save" by putting with other mothers were either kicked out of the nest or eaten. The only time (and I mean ONLY) that I got lucky was when I had a breeding trio that had been established for a year. Both mothers had their own nests, but for some reason one mom refused to take care of her current litter. Out of desperation to save them I lumped them all in with the other mother (who had given birth a few days previous to this) and she took care of them all. I can hardly believe that an ASF mother would take care of a mouse kit...but hey...stranger things have happened. I still stand by what I said....it would be the best to leave all of the babies alone with their original mother. She can definitely handle fifteen (even young and immature), so long as you are feeding her properly and giving her all the nutrition she needs. If she should happen to dry up and the babies die, I'd feed that mother off first thing...because it will only continue to happen (some mouse mom's just can't hold to producing milk and are useless as breeders).

well after the mother ate 3 babies i decided to give the baby mice to another mother who is taking care of them just fine

To the ASF comment. ASF wont harm babies unless they are without water or food. They will raise mice, and even regular Norway rats. I recently gave someone two starter colonies of ASF. 3 females to a male each colony. They were about a month away from breeding age. I put a young hopper sized baby in with them because he needed it for a snake he has. He got them home and ended up putting that baby in with 2 spare adult males he already had in a separate tank and they huddled over it to keep it warm the entire day.

ASF are actually much less likely to ever harm a baby rodent than any other rodent.