babies? BABIES?!? How the heck.....

[Ladydragon]

back in august I posted a thread of a fancy mouse I bought as a pet that we named Ginger. Sometime in late Sept. I purchased a second fancy mouse we named Roxanne. Both mice were purchased shortly after they were weaned.

Well, last night, I'm cleaning the cage and I go to take apart their house (its a throw away food storage container, but they love it) and I hear squeaking. I'm thinking I'm not hearing right and go to open the box and I hear it again. so I stop and hold the container over my head and what do I see,..... pinkies!! I think that there are only four, but we'll see if there are more. So now I'm wondering if either a) I purchased an already preggo Roxanne or b) she is actually a Rocky. This would not have happened if I was trying to breed them on purpose!

So, needless to say, I quickly cleaned their cage, put everything and everyone back and have left them alone. But here is a pic of the babies....





will try to get a pic of both mice and better pics of the babies. its kind of exciting..

[Ginevive]

Wow! Are you definately sure that your second addition was female?
If so: maybe retained sperm from before?

[recycling goddess]

congrats. remember, mice can be very finicky so it's best to leave them completely alone (pic and touching wise) for a few days.

[joepythons]

Lots of snakey food Congrats

[Ladydragon]

Jenn.. Mice can retain sperm? O.o if so, that would have explained it. But as it is, when I was adding more food for them, Roxanne/Rocky was out and I quickly scooped it up to see and well, yep. its Rocky now. Guess was purchased young enough to not be able to make a definite sex purchase. But its all good for now.

Aleesha.. yeah, I panicked at first, cause I was trying to open the box to clean house when I realized there were babies in their. Luckily, they are used to me constantlly being in their house, so it wasn't too shocking for them, but yeah I have left them alone since the discovery. I only opened to put more food in.

Joe.. heh, actually those were the first words out of my mouth after.. huh? babies?

well, here are a few pics. first one is the parents. ginger is on the right, Rocky is on the left


and this is rocky, well, from behind at least

[Ginevive]

I will admit that the sperm-retention theory, is not something that I am sure if it can happen or not. But I am glad that you solved your mystery!

[Ladydragon]

well, an update, the babies are about 2 weeks old and there definitely are four of them. I cleaned their cage today and opened the box to clean their little house and to peak at the babies (I couldn't help myself ). There is a runt in the litter and its white with light blonde areas. Two are dark grey/black with white, and one looks just like Ginger, the mom.

I picked up all four at the same time so that they all would smell like me when I put them back, but since my hand is always in the cage to feed/water and spot clean I'm not too worried about them killing their babies at this point. The larger sized babies I think are satins because their fur is so short and it has a glowing sheen to it, the runt I'm still not sure of. anywhoo enough rambling. enjoy the pics. more will come as they grow.

sorry so blurry was trying to be fast. but you get the size differ. and colors.


the runt is direct center of the photo! and the one that looks like mom is hiding under the bedding, its tail is sticking out between the two dark ones.

[Ginevive]

They have some neat coloration! I like the white/marmaladey ones the best.

[Ladydragon]

yeah me too.. thats the runt. one of the black/grey ones has a stripe down the side of its one face going across its eye, almost looking like a scar. If any of them are keepers it may get that name. For now though, they are future food. Im sure my son may have something to say about that, we'll see what happens.

[recycling goddess]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh