when to wean?

[daniel1983]

well...one litter is 2 weeks old(eyes just opened)....the other 1 week old.

my 2 female mice are champs. I lifted the hide box today and counted somewhere around 22-25 baby mice! I have them all in one enclosure right now, but I was wondering when it would be ok to move some of the babies over to a different enclosure w/out mom. I have read 3 weeks and I have read 4 weeks. Also, is there anything special you should do when you seperate the little ones from mom?

Thanks in advance Becky and the rest of you guys

[Brandon.O]

i separated my fisrt group at around 3 weeks when i saw them eating real food.

I left them in the tank they were born in and i put mom back with dad in the 95 quart. The babies did fine ........until i dropped them off at my friends house to become snake food

[SatanicIntention]

Jeezus! 25 beebees! What'choo feedin' those guys?


Well, if you've read 3 weeks and you've read 4 weeks, how about we go straight down the middle and wean at 3.5 weeks? I think they will do fine and the moms will definately be happy that all of that mess is over with. You sure won't have to breed them again for a little while. I still can't get over that they had about 12 babies each. Good producers

[daniel1983]

definately good producers. I was not really expecting good producers either...ha. These two are going to get a break for a few weeks after the babies are weaned. I was kinda worried at first because one of the mothers looked very sickly after she had given birth(extreamly skinny)....the other female looked normal. She looks alot better now. The first bunch of little ones are hitting the hopper stage (which i completely understand why they are called hoppers now) and are wandering out every now and then or they get dragged out of the hide attached to the mom. I have to say having mice and breeding them is kinda fun

[justcage]

I will usually wait until I see them drinking on their own. Eating on thir own will come first but they will still nurse as well... Then I will separate the males out and hold back 3 or so females for breeders and then the rest go into the growing bins... Then they get wacked in the head and put in the freezer..lol

[daniel1983]

do I need to put small water dishes in or will they drink from the regular bottle?

[Ginevive]

I second Justcage's statement. When I see that the babies have mastered the fine art of drinking out of the waterbottle, I consider them weaned.
To answer your question daniel; they will drink out of the water bottles, but the bottle's nozzle has to be low enough so that they can reach it comfortably. Piling the bedding up works if your bottle is small, but I would rather get a bigger bottle because the ebdding can move resulting in no way for them to reach the water!