Reptile & Amphibian Forums

ok well heres the deal

I have been breeding rats for several months and was going to breed some mice . W3ell after 2 months the mice just werent doing anything so i feed them all off but one which happened to be a female .Ok at this point she had been with no male mice for atleast 1 1/2 months.She did have a few young male rats with her though. Well last week i went to pull her to send her into the belly of a snake when to my surprise she was VERY FAT . so i held off to see what was going on .now mind you only male had been a rat with her .Well yesterday she gave birth to 3 HUGE babies these babies are approx. 1" long and even though its been yrs since i have seen any mouse pinkies im thinking there WAY to large for mouse pinkies .At the present my A drive is crashed but i did take pictures of these babies and will post them soon for people to make there on conclusions on . Are ther a hybrid ? i dont know ... but time will tell i will follow these closely rest assured .
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I wonder if they will be sterile. Like a Mule since you breed a horse and a donkey together.
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0.1 Rubber Boa
1.0 Eastern Hognose 2003 super red
0.2 Eastern Hognose Snakes
3.3 Western Hognose Snakes
1.0 Durango Mountain Kingsnake
1.1 Woma's (new!)
Spadefoot
Black Knobbed Sawback
Northern Diamondback
Florida Redbellied Slider
Western Painted
Southern Painted
1.0 African Hedgehog
1.0 Sulcata
1.1
1 Pleco
2 Silver Dollars
3 Bosemian Rainbows
1 Cory Cat
1 Upside Down Catfish
2.0 Fire Guramis

uhh... I think that is it.

I have seen 1" long pinkies before from my mice so I don't think that's an unusual size for pinky mice, especially in a small litter. The fact you had your female mouse away from all male mice for 6 weeks is puzzling though. Wasn't aware if mice and rats could interbreed but I suppose it could be possible since there doesn't appear to be alot of differences between the two species. Will be interesting to see if these baby mats (rices? races? mits? what would you call them anyway? LOL), reach maturity and if they can breed. Maybe this is how those special hybrid mice that have litters of 25 babies came from?

Mice and rats cannot interbreed... What you're probably seeing is a case of delayed implantation of fertalized ova... You see it in gerbils all the time.. and most other rodents. They have the ability to delay the implantation of their fertalized eggs to the uterine wall until conditions are favorable.. IE. a previous litter is weaned.. a dry spell ends.. a famine ends.. etc... It isn't that uncommon and indeed, having a mouse among rats would have caused her to delay implantation as long as she could. In the wild, rats will prey on mice and other smaller rodents... being opportunistic feeders, as well as fruits, grains and greens. The instincts that protect mice from rats and other predators are still very active... even among generations of "deomsticated" rodents.
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Lucien

1.0 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)
2.1 Leopard geckos (2 Blizzard and 1 het Blizzard)
0.1 Savannah Monitor
13 rats
12 Gerbils
2 Dogs
3 cats
1 Albino Corey (fish)

wow I was unaware that was possible. Isn't nature amazing!
does anyone know of any other animals that can do that???
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Girlfriend: Your room smells like reptiles!
Me: Are you saying that my Balls smell?

Yeah.. alot of animals can.. Kangaroo's... rabbits... most rodents as a matter of fact.... some reptiles especially those that give birth to live young... a few species of live bearing sharks... some whales... Its a fairly common phenomenon but isn't brought to bear very often by people wondering how their animal, who hasn't been with a male in several weeks, can become pregnant.. well.. she was already pregnant its just the fertalized Ova hadn't adhered to the uterine wall and divided yet.
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Lucien

1.0 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)
2.1 Leopard geckos (2 Blizzard and 1 het Blizzard)
0.1 Savannah Monitor
13 rats
12 Gerbils
2 Dogs
3 cats
1 Albino Corey (fish)

.
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Girlfriend: Your room smells like reptiles!
Me: Are you saying that my Balls smell?