Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I think our mouse is in labor... she reminds me alot of myself when I had my two kids...lol. She is lying in a "nest" with her back legs spread apart, ever so offend she lifts her tail end up like she is pushing. During that her breathing gets heavy and you can see her body contracting for a few seconds then she relaxes... While her body contracts you can see small bumps along her sides and belly... Our other females have brought her food and one is staying with her almost all the time... Is this normal? How long on average are mice in labor? Is there anything else we should watch for? Thanks for any help.

Venus

It can take 12 hours or so for a mouse to have all her babies. I haven't actually witness the early stages of labour so not sure if what you described is normal or not. If this is her first litter, I would just leave her alone in a quiet area and not check on her for awhile. She may be holding back because you are watching. I wuold recommend just leaving her be over night then check the next day to see if she is still in labour or having any other problems. If she is still straining and no visable change in her size, may have to take her to a vet for a C-section.

I've had a number of experiences of mice in labor... But I've never seen a mouse from the actual onset of labor pains. I found one mouse who had given birth to one baby, and I put her on observation since the one baby was cannabalized... eight hours later I left her alone and went to sleep... the next morning she had ten more babies.

Just the other day I thought I was perhaps seeing the first stages of labor. The EXACT behaviour you describe, except that after a couple of hours (I was cleaning mouse, rat, and gerbil cages so I watched her while busy in the "mouse house" I finally left her be. The next morning there were no babies. By that afternoon there were about 12 sad little mousey corpses and two live babies. later in the day all the babies were gone.

Another mouse I had was huge enough to have a large litter a week ago. five days ago I thought she would explode. Yesterday I thought that no mouse in creation could be that fat. This morning, she had 21 live babies and one pathetic stillbirth.

Mouse labor and the birthing process are mostly something they keep from our view. If you want to see a photo page I created on one mouse who allowed me to watch, you can visit my site below. I don't know the exact link, but the link is accessible at the bottom of the main page.
Mousedom Mousery