I have a 1.5 group of mice that have all been raised together. I got them when they were a little bigger than hoppers. Kept them all together so that they knew each other. The ones that would get into fights the first few days were fed off so that I had a friendly 1.5 group. As of yesterday 3 looked really pregnant, 1 pregnant, 1 didn't look pregnant, and the 1 male. One of the really pregnant ones gave birth (by my count 20 babies) last night, all of them were killed, not eaten just killed. Any ideas how to straighten this out? We have removed the non pregnant female from the group, she was the only non albino. Don't want this to happen with the other 2 that should give birth today or tomorow. Any help would be apprieciated. Oh I keep them in lab breeding boxes 20"X10" and they are fed harlan food from a hopper and have a water bottle available all the time. this is our first time breeding mice and would like to be successful.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com
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1.5 group of mice 1 had babies over night all were killed
Replies (3)
then its to be expected..
firsttime litters are often eaten by mothers because they simply do not know what to do.. there is NOTHING you can do to prevent this, short of removing the babies one at a time and placing them with a surrogate mother (this rarely works too)..
also STRESS is a major factor in mice cannibalization.. checking in on them constantly has them freaked out.. best bet is to leave them alone for 2-3 days.. that means NO peaking in.. just leave them be for a few days and see what happens
dan
First litters in new groups often get eaten. Don't panic and don't remove ladies etc. Just leave them be and let them go on. The second time around will settle them.....provided you aren't checking them every day twice a day. Mice stress more easily than you think. Ignore that they are pregnant and let them do their thing. Rarely will you get a chronic cannabal. What you may see now is a second litter okay, but then cannabalized when the third is due. Best thing I think is to leave any live ones with them so they can learn to be moms. As I say, don't remove 'offenders'. You will just waste a lot of time juggling mice and upsetting groups.
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Sonya
Failure is not an option. It comes bundled with the software.
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Derek Affonce
DeKeAff Exotics
dekeaffexotics.com
