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I brought home a black broken marked female a few days ago. She had babies yesterday. I know raising mice is a lot like raising rats (which I have much experience breeding), but I have a question, can you hold mice babies daily from birth like with rats? Is there anything else about raising mice that's nothing like raising rats? I also have another female, I don't know what color she is...she's all white, satin with pink eyes, except her rump looks like a mix between (american colors) champagne and fawn...it looks like maybe it's brindle, but it's such little color it's hard to tell. I think she's pregnant as well, so if I get some brindle babies (which I'd love) then I might know what she is. Well speaking of, any color her babies are will probably help me to figure out what she is. Anyways my only question was the one above. Thanks!

I have raised a few mice babys and I take them out every so often without any problems. But for the most part I leave my mice alone. I usually take the pinkies out right away to count them, and then every few days I will take them out to count again, because sometimes they kill or eat one. I dont really know but the numbers have usually gone from about 11 to 10 or 9 by the time they are big enouph to use them as feeders.

I've held all my babies from day one, and haven't ever had a problem. Of course, it depends on your female and how skittish she can be, but female mice usually won't eat their babies unless there's something wrong with the baby, or she is a new mother and doesn't know what to do.

Good luck!

Since she is a new female to you I would recommend leaving the babies along for the first 3-5 days. After this time the mother is much less likely to eat them should she feel stressed. Also, by this age, the darker pigmented babies are more pronounced and it is a bit easier to determine what their original sex is.

I am assuming you don't know who the father is for these babies or the pregnant female you still have. This being the case there is no real way to know what colourations you can get in the babies. Thyis is really true with petstore purchased mice or mice from any non breeder. (by breeder I mean people who breed for very specific colour and traits). I had solid parents produce nothing but broken babies (pattern is splotches, spots etc.) with a wide range of colours. I had litters with black and white, solid greys, white and grey, white and brown, broken agouti or brindle and white, the combinations are almost endless. I have been able to breed some nice black mice with white bellies (I think it's called a 'fox') and this trait I can get a few per litter if I breed them with solid males. (at least that is what I have been doing so far).

Back to your original question, the care of mice is pretty much the same as rats, just reduced. For the first three weeks of life, the babies reply exclusively on their mother for food but are weaned betwween 3-4 weeks of age. The mothers should get higher protein/fat bearing foods during nursing so she can produce milk for her babies. A great site for information about mouse nutrician and the stages of life is listed below:

http://www.horns.freeserve.co.uk/mousenew.htm

All the babies are doing great, I haven't lost any and they're 4 days old today. It looks like 2 are black broken marked like their mum! And 2 are probably going to be PEW, there's also 1 all black and 1 light colored baby with dark eyes, I'm unsure of it's color but I'll know soon enough. I've never had baby mice so I can't wait til they're 3 weeks old!! The other female lives with the mom and babes, it's so cute to watch her "babysit" I plan on keeping one or two, not sure who yet.

Brittany
Brits Ritzy Rattery
Omaha, NE (soon to be Sioux Falls, SD)
www.geocities.com/brit7241/rattery