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I have a litter of mice that I am wanting to grow up to be added to my current colony as extra breeders. I'm worried about weaning them though when the next litter arrives as they are so tiny. I was going to wean them on Sunday or Monday, which would make them 3 weeks old, but I've only seen them sniff at foods and they definitely can't reach the water yet (as I mentioned they are very tiny still, they look like young hoppers).

Would it be bad to leave them with their mom when she has her next litter? I don't want the current babies starving the new arrivals if they are still nursing. I'm thinking that the best thing to do would be to remove and freeze/feed off all the new pinkies, but I've heard you shouldn't take 100% away from the mom all at one time.

Can someone give me advise?

>>I have a litter of mice that I am wanting to grow up to be added to my current colony as extra breeders. I'm worried about weaning them though when the next litter arrives as they are so tiny. I was going to wean them on Sunday or Monday, which would make them 3 weeks old, but I've only seen them sniff at foods and they definitely can't reach the water yet (as I mentioned they are very tiny still, they look like young hoppers).
>>
>>Would it be bad to leave them with their mom when she has her next litter? I don't want the current babies starving the new arrivals if they are still nursing. I'm thinking that the best thing to do would be to remove and freeze/feed off all the new pinkies, but I've heard you shouldn't take 100% away from the mom all at one time.
>>
>>Can someone give me advise?

I would leave them in with mom. Weaning them "artificially" may make them stunted and they won't learn all the parenting skills you want them to have so that they will be good parents. I don't have nearly the cannabalizm with mice raised up in the colony. Unless there is a huge pile of fuzzys in with newborns I have not had troubles with newborns getting enough to eat.
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Sonya

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

I'm raising the entire litter up so it would be 7 weanlings plus however many babies she has in the next few days and she looks as if there are going to be about 14 new babies.

I agree with Sonya (imagine that~ if your the same Sonya I'm remembering you taught me most of what I now know about breeding feeders back in 01!!)

Anyway~ leave the weanlings in with mom and dad for a few more weeks. If your raising them up as future breeders then the extra time in the parent colony will only be helpfull. You'll enjoy watching them as well~ as the weanlings get a little older you will actually see them taking turns taking care of the pinkies and fuzzies in future litters~ pretty cute and actually teaches them how to care for pups before they have any of their own. You do want to be sure to seperate before your Male desides any male offspring in the tub are a threat~ but if the tubs are large enough and the weanlings have always been in it you can usually get 6 to 8 weeks before the Male gets aggressive with his own offspring.

Good luck!
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Cheryl Marchek
AKA JM
Check out my website at:
The Red Dragons Den

You shouldn't have any troubles with keeping the weanings with the newborns. Mom usually makes sure everybody gets enough to eat and she does have alot of teets to offer them. It's kind of funny watching a female mouse nurse her babies...she looks like she is at a rave..where the crowd holds a person up over their heads.

I have had some pink losses with large groups of hoppers but this is with colonies of 3 or more females and a male and one female has babies while the other 2 or 3 have hoppers/weanings. It would not be a problem if the mothers could keep their babies in individual nests..but they always communial reared..so I have a huge pile of hoppers/weanings stock piled ontop of the new group of pinks...they typically died as they just couldn't fight their way through the mass. With your group though, you won't have this problem. My mice had large litters often 10-14 per mouse..so when there are 36 hoppers in with 10 pinks...you kind of knew the pinks won't last. I always tried to foster out the pink into colonies with less nearly weaned babies.

I just had the same thing happen and i also happen to feed off another moms pinkies and end up giving the care to her of the almost weaned babies as the expectant popped. It worked! If i had one mom with two batches at different ages, i feel safe enough that i could seperate the older from the mom and then bring mom back and forth until the one group weans, but most ppl say don't do that cause it stresses mom out and she could very easily eat one group out. I find the ways that work for me and that is how i do it. Good luck. Older babies like that can also be fooled into having another mom take over, I seperate the mom to be in this case, add the babies, cover with the substrate to get the smell and then add mom again, all smell the same. If the mouse is freaky natured i would leave well enough alone it wouldn't work and that's how i know my mice and who i can do that too.
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