Prego Mouse?

I've been keeping a 1.3 mouse group together for about 3 weeks now and I noticed 1-2 of the females are already showing signs of being pregnant. You know that swollen, I just swallowed a golf ball look!

My question is, should I separate the prego female from the group or should I remove the male from the group?

They are in a 10gln tank, screen lid, water bottle, they are fed Kaytee Diet and Mazuri pellets and are kept on 2" of Aspen.

Oh I wish Daniel (one of the other Mods) was around Gerry. He's my hero when it comes to mouse breeding LOL. I can get my rats to breed like errr bunnies but dang if I could ever get one successful mouse litter when I tried mice breeding awhile back. Hopefully Daniel or one of the other mouse breeding folks (Becky gets a lot of good big healthy mice litters) will log on and advise you.



~~Jo~~

From my experience, the males will help the females with the litters. All of my males lay on top of the babies to keep them warm when momma eats, and helps make a nest, and they def. guard them from harm (my wandering hands)! *I* suggest leaving them together, unless you get 3 litters all at once. I'm pretty sure 3 litters and 4 mice in a 10 gallon is too much going on, but i could be wrong.


Sometimes, the female or the male will eath the babies, and usually for a reason. If mom is stressed, or if its her first litter, she may eat them. If the house is too crowded, or there is competition for food or water, she may eat them. Sometimes just one or 2 will be eating because of illness or general weakness.

Thanks for the advise, I think I may remove the male just to be on the safe side. I'm just not sure about removing the other females, this will be the first litter for all 4 mice.

You may find that the females are more vicious than the males ;) But the real key is finding out what works for YOU, and what you're comfortable with. Taking out the male shoudn't do harm, and could save some babies, so i say go for it if it makes you feel comfortable :)

Most of what I have read for mice breeding is to leave them all together. I heard people saying that trying to reintroduce mice back into the group the others will try to kill them. I am just starting to breed mice, my female are also getting the "golf ball" appearance. I plan on leaving mine together, so I hope that info was correct. LOL!!!

*shrug* I've never had any of my mice kill eachother. I've added, subtracted, divided them lol. I dunno, maybe i have super docile mice.

So, all of you feel I should just take my chances and leave them all together and see what happens? I just want to avoid coming home one day to a massacre and find all the mice eating intestines like spaghetti!

If you mean all as in me and Wild Bill, than yeah, leave em together.. lol :P

I think you should do whats comfortable. I don't think it'll hurt either way, unless you have ruthless, cold-hearted mice.:stab:
Okay:
senerio 1- you leave em all together.
they could a) all live happily ever after
b) feel crowded and eat babies (which wont leave a mess)
Senerio 2- you take male out
they could a.) be fine raise babies, and you introduce male back and all is well
b.) be fine, raise babies, and you introduce male back and they go on a murderous rampage on male
c.) eat babies, put male back, and they make more babies.
d.) eat babies, and you put the male back in and there is STILL a murdereous rampage.

As far as Im aware, the eating of babies is a maternal instinct, not a faternal one. *shrug* I still certainly say try what makes you feel more comfortable.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ssscales

So, all of you feel I should just take my chances and leave them all together and see what happens? I just want to avoid coming home one day to a massacre and find all the mice eating intestines like spaghetti!

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I am goin to try to leave mine together, if you want to seperate and try that we can report what we find out to each other for future reference. LOL!! We can call it "Mice Science"!!

I would take the male out, as he WILL get your females pregnant IMMEDIATELY after they give birth.. not good on a nursing mother, stressful trying to raise babies, and grow a litter in her while caring for herself too.

Also, you may want to consider getting a bigger enclosure for those mice, a 10 gallon is really not big enough when you consider as it is now, you have 4 adults living together and IMO a 10 gal. is even a bit small for them, once you add babies to the mix, you will risk them killing babies b/c of lack of sufficient space, stress, etc.

Generally, males wont eat "thier own babies", but it does not mean it is not impossible, as I have seen it happen in my own colonies when I bred mice, some males are worse than others about that. I have never had any issues when taking males out, and reintroducing them to the females later.... when I did it, I would do it right after a cage cleaning so it does not smell totally like home to the females, and it feels like a new environment to them all.

You could get a 50qt rubber maid and modify that for use for max of 2 females with babies, 3 maybe... but be prepared to separate babies out rather quickly, so you dont have males and females impregnating eachother. You really want to keep a control on your breeding. To get healthier babies you never want to encourage them to breed with thier own brothers/sisters.

Im not gonna say its the best way, but here is what do. I work for my college's biology department, and we have alot of snakes and raise a LOT of mice and rats. We never separate any of them untill the young are able to survive on their own, then they go in the "feeder" tubs and out of the "breeder" tubs. We keep a male and 2 or 3 females in a tub about the size of a small shoebox. We use corn cob bedding, changed about once a week (about every 4 or 5 days would be better). In my experience as long as they have plenty of food and water they will be fine. We do occasionally lose some babies and the rare adult there and there, but usually from running out of water(not many people around during the summer and some times water gets low). Generally it all works out just fine.

I've been breeding mice for about 6 months, and have always left them all in with the babies - I do 1.2 mice per 10 gallon breeding tank, and the dad's have always helped out with the babies - I've had 1 psycho mom who killed some of the other females, than she was moved to one of the feeder tanks.

For the most part, the females will take care of each others litters as well - One of my breeder groups just recently gave birth to 2 litters in about 3 days of each other, and the females combined the litter into one and both take care feeding the babies...

As said befor you should take the male out as he WILL get the mom pregnant again. This will be very hard on her body and will take away nutrients and energy that she needs to raise her babies.

Also, to help curb the eating of the babies dont peak or bother the mom too much they are first born ( in ow its hard not to want to mess with them).. Let her be for a couple of days especially if she is a new mother. They can get stressed quick and then she will take it out on the babies.

good luck.