Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I boughta male femal pair of mice, I am planning on breeding them. Will the male eat the young or only the bos? Will the female eat the young? My daughter wanted these mice, I just want to know what I should do to keep the parents from eating them?

I have had lots of rodents born at my house. My advise is once you know the female is pregnant...remove the male. A mouse only has a 2 week gestation period so you dont have a whole lot of time. But the female should show. One of mine looked like she had swallowed a golfball before she gave birth, no lie, lol. But she ended up having 9 pups so yea, lol. If its their first litter, and im sure you wouldnt know if it was or wasnt since they were store bought, their could be first litter defects. Thats happened with the my mouse who delivered the 9 pups. Anyways, the female should be fine with the babies as long as its a small litter. My mouse that had the 9 pups I think may have suffucated a couple of her babies since she had so many and the cage was so packed. It hurt because one my favorite mice ever was born in that litter. She died on her own but I think that she had some sort of defect. She, and a few other pups from that litter, were unusually small. But every other mouse that has had pups in this house, and even my hamster, did very well with their babies. I was able to interact with the babies within the first week of birth. They can be weaned at 4 weeks. What I do is remove the males once they "drop" and leave the females with their mother as long as possible. That failed with the hamsters and I had to put everyone in their own cage at one point. But mice are way more social and love the company.

Good luck to you! Let me know if you need any more help or advice.

Did you mean whn the babys drop out of mom, or when the boys start dropping their well balls?

When you notice that the males testicles have dropped is when you should remove them from their mother and sisters. If you dont then they can and will mate with them. And it would probably result in a new litter. After responding to your post I have learned that the male can stay with the mother and he will act as a very good father. But this is a huge risk if you dont want another litter. Esspecially so soon. He will mate with the female as soon as she gives birth and she could very easily get pregnant all over again. And this isnt fair to her since she diserves a break. I have also heard that you can leave any females with her and they will help her take care of her pups. I have never taken this chance though. Good luck and let me know if theirs anything else that you need answered.

I think I understood that you said that but I wasn't sure? SO if it is okay and the dad won't eat the babies, then I just seperate them to make sure she doesn't get preggy again right?