First batch of eaten babies

[CookieCutter]

I have quite a few pregnant females and last night one of them gave birth (for the first time as far as I know). This morning I went in to change her water and saw blood on the bedding in the tub. Then I noticed there were little body parts everywhere. She has one baby left.
Has anyone had this happen and had the one (or how ever many babies) live and thrive?

[Homegrownscales]

I had a friend that had that happen. Except it was all the females doing it. He culled them all and started over. I'd say cull her and get a different female. Petstore mice females are notorious for having issues like this.

[wendhend]

Mice are pretty high-strung, and mothers will do that when they are stressed, which is very likely if she delivered in a cage where other mice were present. Her cage mates might have also eaten them. It's best just to eliminate as much stress for pregnant females as possible. Once you know a mouse is close to delivering, place her in her own private cage where she can raise her babies, and she will be very unlikely to cannibalize them.

[CookieCutter]

She was in her own cage, but I'm thinking because she was in a tank right by the drier that she was stressed from the noise/vibration.

I just don't seem to have luck with babies this time around. A day later two more litters were born. One of them got their tank flooded 'cause the mom pushed the bedding up against the water bottle. No one died, thankfully, but the mom was sooooooo stressed out when we were changing the bedding.

[musicalKeyes]

The only time I have a problem is if a water bottle empties or the ball in it gets stuck and they don't have water for a few hours. Otherwise, I have one male to five females who all stay together and raise each others babies and their cages get cleaned every day or every other day whether there're babies or not, no one seems to mind. If a mom eats babies and they're aren't any obvious things wrong, she gets fed off and replaced, but I haven't had to do that in a long time. Good luck

[RichsBallPythons]

Lack of fresh water and food is the most casue for mice to eat. i keep 2.6 in tubs and females only eat their young for me on first time mothers. After that they all pitch in to help one another.

Do not need to cull her off after first litter.

[jasbus]

Like Rich said....
Start a colony, once you find the right combination of females that are compatible and a male or sometimes two, leave them, never remove even one female. they will produce better in a colony.
If you lose a breeder along the way, grow one of the babies up in the tub to replace.

Good luck! the first couple of months are the toughest for mice, they're a royal pain...

[CookieCutter]

Thanks everyone!
We have a tub of 4, 3 females and a male and I've had zero issues with them. There are two litters in there right now and one on the way :3 They're all taking care of the babies and it's going awesome XD

I check their water every day so I don't think it was lack of water. It may have just been a first time issue. If she does it again she's gone.

I've finally got rats so I'm gonna start breeding rats instead. They're easier! And they're so cute and fun to play with XD

[MoshBalls]

I bought 3 pregnant mice and I put them in together. One was huge. She gave birth that night and the next morning it was just like you said. bloody and body parts everywhere. None were left alive.

I now have one alone in a 10 gallon tank about to give birth again. I really hope this one works out.

[TacoTheFaco]

I had two mice give birth on the same day, at least 17 babies total (I didn't touch them so some could have been hiding). In the course of 4-5 days, there were 10 babies left. They seemed to have stopped culling them off, but when I checked again a day or so later there were more body parts and blood everywhere. The remaining 7 were put in with an ASF colony, and are thriving. I'm hoping it was a first time mother thing, because I paid $5 each for two pregnant mice!

There were 1.5 mice living in a 20g long tank, with wheels, and a nest box.