Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Everthing was fine until I cleaned the cage and re-introduced the colony and offspring. They immediately started killing all the babies. Any input as to why?? I use a common tub to hold the mice while changeing bedding. Could foreign smell of other mice trigger this response??

>>Everthing was fine until I cleaned the cage and re-introduced the colony and offspring. They immediately started killing all the babies. Any input as to why?? I use a common tub to hold the mice while changeing bedding. Could foreign smell of other mice trigger this response??

I am thinking it is a first time mom thing. If not but this is the first killing I would let them try again. If they have done it before I would freezer the ones doing the killing. I use a five gallon pail to hold mice while cleaning their tub but if there are fuzzys or smaller they go in a separate cup during cleaning. Then I clean the cage and put everyone back at once.
-----
Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

Don't clean the tub until the babies are at least a few days old. The stress of birth and moving them around while cleaning may be enough to make an inexperienced mommy kill the babies.

good luck

I had that happen right after I cleaned cages and a group of three first time moms all popped at the same time. What a disaster. Over 35 baby bodies strewn all over the cage partically eaten... some still alive in spite of faces and legs missing, with the three moms laying on top of each other in a pile as if they had just had a big party or something. Grrrrr.

I clean out my 28 cages on cleaning day whether they have just popped or not, but most of mine are used to my being around them a lot and it doesn't seem to matter. Sometimes I've even had moms popping the day I cleaned and they merely stopped, and then commenced once I put them back in their cage. But nothings perfect... like with what I mentioned above.

Anyway... what I do is, I have double tubs so that I can clean all the cages out a head of time and put the shavings in a few days before I make the switch so they can air/dry out... then, come cleaning day I just pop them in the clean cage and while they are checking things out, or eating the handful of seeds I left them in the corner, I count babies and remove what I need to, and then I put the babies that are left back in the same area the mom had their nest along with some of the old nesting material. This seems to keep them from rushing around the cage with their babies in their mouths looking for their scent/nest. Before I started doing it this way I'd often see them try to stuff the babies in the feeder because that was where the scent was the strongest. This method has worked best for me with my circumstances. Just thought I'd share. Good luck.

MissHisssss.

A Woman Professor for the university of georgia had a little trick she used and I use it with mice and young rabbit mothers. Inexperienced mothers are often fractious and ill at ease. Take some of the bedding with the pinks to keep some of the FAMILIAR scent to it. The odor contained in a small amount could soothe the moms. If that doesnt work then you freeze them.
-----
Always be safe.
Doyle T. Barkley I