nibby died :(

well here's a problem. nibby, the mother of my 11 mice, died last night. i have no idea why, i just found her dead. the babies are only 2 weeks old, and i'm almost positive they're not weaned. i tried feeding them myself with the milk stuff i got from the pet store, and they're not buying it. what am i going to do??? is there anyway they will learn to eat regular food on their own, before they die?? :(:(:(:( i'm devastated, they were my little babies too... :(

Wow I am sorry to read that. I had a female mom rat who died once, and I just put her babies in with another nursing rat I had, and she accepted them.
But that might be tough in your situation, since there are so many babies, and no mom rat on hand. Are you sure they won't drink the milk from you?
Maybe someone else has some advice...

To be honest, mice are very hard to hand raise, and it often does not turn out as we hope for it to. I would suggest keeping them warm and continue to try and feed them the milk you purchased, maybe offer it on your fingers, it may be the little bottle (if thats that you bought to feed them) they wont take- it dont smell like thier Mom or feel like her, the other thing you can do, is to get a small syringe and try feding that way, worse case senario- tube feedings, but you have to be very very careful, and really, if you have never done it is hard to explain to you how, if you have anyone that knows how, that is willing to show you, ask them... if we were close, I would show ya. Also, maybe try letting a piece of bread soak in it to soften, and see if they take any interest in it. Chances are, they were not weaned, and were in the process of being weaned.

http://www.rmca.org/Articles/orphans.htm
http://www.ratfanclub.org/orphans.html
http://www.afrma.org/rminfo8.htm This is the best one IMO, tells you everything step-by-step, and even though they are all for rats, mice are pretty much the same. You should be able to do it, there aren't too many babies. People have done it with 20 baby rats, so 12 is nothin :)

If you have any other questions, just ask, and I can either email the breeder I know, or ask questions here: http://forum.the-real-rat-community.com/index.php
Those are really nice people and will be able to help.
Good luck with them. You should do fine :)

I'm sorry Nibby died, Angela.

Geez.. that's awful. I wonder what happened to her.. good luck with hand raising them.

Im sorry she died...
I would go to the pet store and see if they have any 'wet nurses' so to speak...

thanks everyone.... i actually tried putting the milk in a little dish, and some of them crawled up and started drinking. they all have their eyes open now, so they're constantly wandering around the cage. it just so happens Penny, my other female mouse, had babies about 5 days ago. i stuck her in there with Nibby's babies for a few, and she took to them. i tried doing that a few times tonight, but i don't want to dry her out or anything. she has 7 babies of her own. :)

for now, the milk in the dish seems to work. we'll see, a few have started nibbling on hard food!!

also, as far as Nibby's mystery death goes, i think she had something wrong with her after she had the babies. Penny is already back to her normal size, but Nibby never thinned out. she was still poofy 2 weeks after having the babies, and she didn't look healthy. i think something went wrong after she had the babies. :(

Glad to hear they are eating! Once the eyes open, they rapidly become more independent.

Still big after having the babies, huh? Strange.

Maybe she had some babies left in there that died ??

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Originally Posted by Brandon.O

Maybe she had some babies left in there that died ??

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Hmm.. possible, but normally they'd come out too. And she'd (uncharmingly) eat them. Though, there may have been something wrong, maybe one was too big or something, and couldn't come out. Ooh.. siamese mouse twins perhaps?

She might have hemorrhaged, which might have caused her to stay bloated. Man, what's happening to these mice lately... First Angela's and then Shelby's... Weird...

There's no need to worry about her taking care of such a large litter. Maybe trade out a few every so often so they can get a chance at nursing. If they are eating solid food, that's a great sign. Try putting the food in the formula so it gets all mushy and easier to eat. Just make sure the new babies have the milk band(you can see through their tummy wall into their stomach) and they are getting enough milk from mom.

I would just put the older babies in with the other mom every 3-4 hours, and just make sure mom is getting enough to eat(cooked chicken-good protein source, fruits and veggies, though nothing citrus) as well as her normal mousie food. Hope that helps a little bit :)

Try Tofu. We use that for weaning hamsters because it is soft and healthy. Get the firm or extra firm variety and put it on a dish. Just be sure to keep the bedding clean since the moisture from it can sour the nest.