My first litter

[Ranegyr]

So, my first litter was a disaster. I have read the caresheet and followed it to a T. 10 gal tank. 75-80 degrees, always food(mazuri) /water, 1.1 albino asf apx 2.5 mos i believe at time of preggo. 3 inches of aspen so they can burrow, although i have never seen them do that. tubes to play/hide/chew.

then one day i come home and BOOM, there is a little pinky. i was so excited. i watched for a bit, and about 45 min later, here is number 2. i am ecstatic. i waited, and waited, and waited more. that was all she had. okay, i am not thrilled about that, but it's her first litter, mine too. who knows? well, everything was great so i went to bed. the next morning, mommy and daddy were chilling on the other side of the tank while the babies were all alone inthe opposite corner. i didn't know what to do so i just left them alone. by the time i got home from work that day, the babies were dead. now it's been 2-3 weeks since this occured. everything seems to be back to normal and i am waiting for her to get preggo again.

what happened? i do record the weights of all of my animals so i have that at home... but i think she was small (young). i got them both at the tampa show back in mid march. so my calculations would be that she was 2.5 mos. but i dont know for sure. maybe i am just used to rats being much larger and breeding so my opinion is skewed. help ya'll!

[llovelace]

New mommies will do that sometimes, hopefully she will do better with the second litter. just curious, but why only 1 female?

[Jason Bowden]

My first litter of mice only produced one baby. I wasn't impressed with my snake food producing mice. The single baby mouse grew up into a nice breeding female for me and her mom had 12 babies in her second litter.
Sorry to hear that your babies didn't make it. Don't let this discourage you. I'm sure you will have better luck next time. Jason

[Ranegyr]

thanks guys. i am not discouraged. i am eagerly awaiting the next litter.

only 1 female b/c i only have 3 BP's and figured 1.2 would overrun me.