mom eat litters

[doronxl7]

Hey,
I've had a breeding group before they all were hand tame, gave them to a friend a few months ago.
Right now I have brought 4 females and 1 male, 1 of the female gave birth without me noticing and they ate the litters. the second female I have notice the moment she gave her first litter birth and the other female's ate it so I separated them.
After 2 weeks I changed the female cage to a bigger one and she ate the 2 week old litters.

Why they eating their litters? got food and water on a daily basic.
The new breeding group are non-tame mice unlike the other group I had, maybe because of that?
Right now I separated the male (all 4 female pregnant), what to do so they won't eat the litters?

[Albert Clark]

Well, i would double check their water bottles and food dishes bc that's the number one reason for infanticide in mice and rats. Especially not enough water. After giving birth, and to adequately produce milk, the mother needs more food than usual and probably a variety of different foods would help. Protein and calcium stores need to be replenished and kept at higher than normal levels to support the babies health as well as her own. I actually instill multivitamin drops into the water for mine. Make sure all the females and their babies all have separate enclosures. In other words, don't keep multiple litters and the mothers all together.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

There are several reasons

Poor nutrition, having food is not all that is required having food that meets their need is.

Stress (very common with mice)

Lactation issues, the babies will either die or be culled by the mother.

Babies died mother clean up (that's what they do they clean their dead)

Bad females.

I can take time to build a good colony and cannibalism can be avoided but you may need to start from scratch with a new group if their is no good explanation.

[breederfeeder]

Sometimes get bad mice, so far females I have go beyond to help each other out. I make sure I dump more food than they can eat even if some of the veggies goes bad to avoid problems.

[PitOnTheProwl]

Comfort...... If rodents don't feel safe they wont keep the litter either.

[doronxl7]

There are several reasons

Poor nutrition, having food is not all that is required having food that meets their need is.

Stress (very common with mice)

Lactation issues, the babies will either die or be culled by the mother.

Babies died mother clean up (that's what they do they clean their dead)

Bad females.

I can take time to build a good colony and cannibalism can be avoided but you may need to start from scratch with a new group if their is no good explanation.

Thanks to all but I think its because the food.
Gave them cheaper rabbit \ hamstring food instead of mice with protein etc' as my breeder friend told me before to do.
The store seller said they will breed with every food ill bring them..

[breederfeeder]

Thanks to all but I think its because the food.
Gave them cheaper rabbit \ hamstring food instead of mice with protein etc' as my breeder friend told me before to do.
The store seller said they will breed with every food ill bring them..

I gave expecting moms cheese and tofu to boost up the protein just in case. If they lack in protein they try to .... get it back.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Thanks to all but I think its because the food.
Gave them cheaper rabbit \ hamstring food instead of mice with protein etc' as my breeder friend told me before to do.
The store seller said they will breed with every food ill bring them..

While you do not need to give cheese,veggies or toffu or any supplements (I would not give those to feeders only pets and as a treat not a staple diet, remember cheese is mainly fat), you do however need a food with 18% protein at all time (breeding and nursing as a feeder breeder takes it's toll quickly and requires energy not found in you store bought mice food or rabbit food.
You do not want to go below or too much higher ince high protein diet can cause health issues as well.

A simple bag of Doggy Bag from tractor supply will do the trick over Mazuri. Since using it it the amount of mammoth tumors in both rats and mice as drop to almost zero which was a big improvement.

[breederfeeder]

While you do not need to give cheese,veggies or toffu or any supplements (I would not give those to feeders only pets and as a treat not a staple diet, remember cheese is mainly fat), you do however need a food with 18% protein at all time (breeding and nursing as a feeder breeder takes it's toll quickly and requires energy not found in you store bought mice food or rabbit food.
You do not want to go below or too much higher ince high protein diet can cause health issues as well.

A simple bag of Doggy Bag from tractor supply will do the trick over Mazuri. Since using it it the amount of mammoth tumors in both rats and mice as drop to almost zero which was a big improvement.

You noticed Doggy Bag created less tumors than Mazuri? I read in another forum something similar.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

You noticed Doggy Bag created less tumors than Mazuri? I read in another forum something similar.

Yes back when I was feeding Mazuri 8/10 years ago I had animals every other weeks that had to be retired due to mammary tumor.

I decided to switch food and do a side by side comparison with half of my colony on mazuri the other half on doggy bags and the results were very significant enough that I made a complete switch, this year I have retired 3 rats and 2 mice with mammary tumor (I used to retire that many every other weeks) and I have about 15.72 rats and 5.20 to 10.80 mice in breeding rotation (not including holdbacks or feeders)