Unintentional experiment: 3.1 colony

[Andrew21]

Backstory: When I was weaning a group of mice, I accidentally put 10 or so males with one female. Over time I euthanized 7 of those males. I realized that one of them was a female about 4 days ago when she was the size of a golf ball. My mice have been over producing, and I don't have enough rack space to give her her own tub. So she has been stuck in there with 3 males.

The idea that has been spread for so long is that you shouldn't have more than 1 male in a colony. Reason being because they will fight, and it is said that they will eat the babies if they think they aren't their own. I see no reason to have more than one male, but since I have been put in this predicament I decided to keep this group of mice for a few litters to see what happens.

Well, she dropped her first litter last night. I counted 9 this morning and they are all fed. I watched them for a little while and one male was chasing her around and she let him mate with her. The other males pretty much didn't do anything. I haven't seen the males fight much at all. Just little skirmishes. No blood, let alone deaths. I'm curious to see if the babies will make it to adulthood.

I will update this thread as the weeks go by and when I feel it is neccesary. I'm sure no one really cares that much, but I thought some might be interested.

[jschwe]

Don't quote me on this, but I think a large part of why females should outnumber males has to do with the stress it puts on them. In this case, all of the dudes will be wanting to get with her, and as the only female, she'd get exhausted pretty quick, especially with how fast they reproduce. Mind you, I'm trying to recall this from back in the day when I used to have pet mice, so it might not be entirely accurate..

[Andrew21]

What I have observed with mice in general, is that when the female is not in heat, the males leave her alone. Right now all three males are in one corner chilling, while she is nursing. But I have also seen them laying with the pile of babies. I do think that the females should outnumber the males. If I had started this intentionally, I probably would have had 2 males and 3 females. But this is how it ended up so I took it a step further. She is doing a good job so far!

[aldebono]

What I have been observing in my rats when I raise a hold back male in with his dad and harem, the dominant male is the only one to breed and father young. I also notice that in grow out groups that I hold onto for longer than expected, there will still be one male that breeds the females. Still, no fighting or baby eating and the other males act as "uncles".

[Andrew21]

What I have been observing in my rats when I raise a hold back male in with his dad and harem, the dominant male is the only one to breed and father young. I also notice that in grow out groups that I hold onto for longer than expected, there will still be one male that breeds the females. Still, no fighting or baby eating and the other males act as "uncles".

That is pretty much what I'm expecting. But I have always heard that there will be a lot of baby-eating. I'm assuming that the dominant male will have to put the others in their place every now and then.

[aldebono]

I would think it depends on the hierarchy of the bin and the type of male the alpha male is. I think there is a range of different personalities that come into play.
I don't think I have ever had male on male fighting that have grown up in a bin together, same as females growing up together. There definitely would be a scuffle if I put a strange adult male in with a male and his harem, but just like some of the girls will bully a new adult girl.