Some questions about and annoying unintended litter

[gaitedappy]

A few weeks ago my male bp decided to go off food halfway through a meal, leaving me with 3 mice. Turns out 2 males and one female. Well tonight the female just popped out a litter. Right now all three and the babies are in one enclosure though I do have plans to separate mom an the litter if they make it through 24hrs. Since I got them I have been feeding them a commercial rodent diet with no dyes and almost all natural ingredients, well until I ran out and had to go with next best as of the past couple of days. This food has yellow and green dyes so I have a couple of questions.

1) If I grow up the babies to feed off should I switch back to the other food?
2) Will mom be okay to feed off in the end?
3) Will the mice that have been fed this food be unhealthy for my snakes? (I agreed to let my mom keep the two males)
4) Would it be a better option to just cull the litter now if the food the mom has been eating will be unsafe for my snakes?


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[gaitedappy]

Another note I should add is that I can buy another bag of the better food in the morning and probably get the babies mostly fed off before they even leave hopper hood. I can use fuzzies for my BRB that I'll be getting next Saturday and the hoppers I can give a couple to my baby bp who is about 188g as of today's weigh in.


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[John1982]

I don't know what the next best is but you ought to be fine feeding them off to your snakes. Basically, if it isn't killing the mice, it shouldn't harm the snake that's indirectly ingesting. A lot of folk raise rodents on dog food and most of that stuff is absolute crap - haven't yet heard of a snake dying as a result.

The babies are safe to feed, the adults are safe to feed, the lactating female is safe to feed. If you want to raise the babies up a bit, I'd pull the males sooner rather than later - reverse trios in rodents usually end in disaster.

[gaitedappy]

I don't know what the next best is but you ought to be fine feeding them off to your snakes. Basically, if it isn't killing the mice, it shouldn't harm the snake that's indirectly ingesting. A lot of folk raise rodents on dog food and most of that stuff is absolute crap - haven't yet heard of a snake dying as a result.

The babies are safe to feed, the adults are safe to feed, the lactating female is safe to feed. If you want to raise the babies up a bit, I'd pull the males sooner rather than later - reverse trios in rodents usually end in disaster.

Thank you for the peace of mind, that's pretty much what I thought. And I am definitely separating everyone today it is cage cleaning day anyway so mommy and babies should be all settled and alone in a few hours.


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[Caspian]

If the female just had the litter, I'd wait longer before cleaning the cage. If you disturb them too soon after they give birth, they may kill the offspring as a result - or abandon them.

[gaitedappy]

If the female just had the litter, I'd wait longer before cleaning the cage. If you disturb them too soon after they give birth, they may kill the offspring as a result - or abandon them.

Everyone is all separated and the little family is doing good. To be honest I didn't really care is the litter survived or not, I know that's cold but I am not happy about having the mice in general. The good news is once the babies are big enough I have a few meals for the noodles. Breeding mice in the future, however is not in my plan, though this litter will be a learning experience for me.


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