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I have a mouse breeding problem, every time when my mice have babies they eat them. How do I stop my mice from eating there babies???. Thanks Scott

Reduce their stress levels. Maybe they're too hot, too crowded, or even hungry.

Their not hungry I feed them every day. Today I put 3 females and 1 male in every 10 gallon tank. Is 85-90 degrees to hot for them???. Thanks Scott

I was raising mice for a few monitor lizards in college and had this same problem. I met with a biology professor who challenged his research team to figure out the problem and publish a simple paper. Here's the answer:

It is hypothesized that mice have a special gene that helps them identify their own offspring. If a momma mouse doesn't know exactly which other mouse is the father, they will kill their offspring since they can't be certain that their offspring have "strong" or "good" genes worthy of being passed along. When you have a bunch of mice mixed together, they mate so many times that momma mice can't be sure which male actually impregnated them. So the solution is to have only 1 male mouse impregnating a bunch of female mice. I had separate tubs with 2 female mice in each and had one male that knocked all of them up (I would leave the male in the tub for two or three days, then move him to the next tub. When he was done with all of the tubs, I moved him to a separate area.) The female mice in the tubs were from the same litters (i.e., they were sisters) which may have prevented them from killing each other's litters. The interesting thing was that the sister females ended up putting all of their babies in a single pile and took turns nursing each other's babies, which ended up making bigger hoppers. Once the babies are weaned (I think it was 3 weeks), you can move them into one cage to give the moms a break. You can feed the male mice to your snakes first if you want to replcate the process.

Btw, the optimal breeding temp of the cages was around 71*.

Hope this helps...you should have a population explosion in no time!

bruce

PS. If you want to dork out about this stuff, try doing a google search on "mouse recognition allele."

Thanks, I had 7 females and 1 male in a ten gallon tank and today when I was putting 3 females in a ten gallon tank I noticed that I had another male. a woman at a petshop I bought my mice from said to put 1 male and 6 females in one 10 gal.tank
and to leave the male in with the females even if the females had babies. Thanks Again

yes let male in all the time

1 and 10 is ok too if you got it all right
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OK, I can understand momma knowing the difference between her young and anothers. I don't believe the killing has anything to do with "only he strong survive". It's more related to stress, either from overcrowding, to many males in with the females or to high of temps. I do agree that low 70s is better than 85-90. My set up, although rather primitive, is simply this............I have two tanks, both 30 gallon, one for the breeders and a nursery tank for the pregnant ones. Breeder tank has equal amounts of males and females. When I notice a female plumin' up I place her in the nursery where I usually have 3 to 5 litters going at any one time. I don't have a problem with the females eating the babys in the nursery, but if left in the breeder tank the males will eat them. as soon as the young become fuzzy size I freeze them for future use, I have 2 Calabars and 3 Muellers Sand Boas that only eat young mice. Although I don't have a problem with the young in the nursery being eaten, the females will steal each others young until they all give up and nurse them as a group. OMHO but it works fer me

Quig

you don't have "colony" atmosphere..you have confused mothers.......you are lucky they don't fight all the time in the nursery(like humans)

........2 30 gallon tanks..1 male each and 14 females and let them alone like that and you will "UP" the numbers....

trust me.....I have 56 tanks and I get thousands of mice a month.....from 56 tanks *(kitty pans actually in a rack)

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First off,I'm not interested in 'uppin' the numbers. I'm only feedin' five small snakes with the fuzzies. Secondly, I didn't say I had a colony, and thirdly, the ladys git along just fine, thank you very much.

Quig

just giving you info.........go ahead and breed for no return I do not care.

my colonies pay for themselves and then some..my goal

you do it your way.I'll do it the correct way......

don't matter to me.....but the rest of the reading public in here may give a crap hole about numbers......

K?

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You're right in that the mice do not consciously kill their babies so that the strong young survive. Rather, they have a gene/allele that allows them to recognize their kin, which means that mice have a predisposition to let "known" offspring survive over offspring that they cannot confirm are from their own colony. That's why keeping sisters together usually results in a decrease in the % of eaten babies. Also, female mice kill their babies less frequently when the male is more dominant (which also follows survival of the fittest instincts). So get your biggest, baddest male with sister females and you should have good results, assuming that the mice are in a relatively stress free environment.

Btw, I'm no expert...this is just what the Berkeley biology folks concluded when pressed for an explanation. Other big breeders with lots of experience may have better real life tactics.

Good luck,
Bruce

female mice hve the "motherly" instict in them right after giving birth and yes will kill other females offspring or kids that are not from "their colony"........usually

usually the motherly instict is strong enough that they will kill NO babies after giving birth or still nursing....

males ahve a thing-- that after the females have babies they won't kill any of them because they cannot tell if they are actually their kids or not so they don't kill any of them just in case and they let the females do the bickering (*just like humans).

females at times are bad mothers and kill or ignore all kids

females at times will be stressed and eat kids

females at times will just be crazy

MICE SHOULD NEVER BE TAKEN APART AFTER A COLONY IS STARTED OR ANY NEW MICE REINTRODUCED TO A STARTED COLONY.....THEY WIL FIGHT AND KILL ANY NE MEMBERS TO THE ESTABLISHED COLONY *(JUST LIKE HUMANS).......

10 gallon tanks.I used 1 male and 10 females for 15 years......I kill off all the tank after 6 months of breeding.......

........I use lab chow,whole corn,and dog food all the time and oats at times as well as seed.....

........and yes....85 is too hot........mine are at 75 and a little mad about it....

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I personally will transfer babies from any tank to any other in my colonies and have no problems unless they are at least 2 weeks old.which is almost weaned......(weaned is 17 days)...do not try this at home..

have fun.....
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thats even too hot for rats!.. :|

they wont breed WELL in anything over the mid 70's to be honest.. reduce the temps about 20 degrees and watch what happens

Is 60-63 degrees to cold for mice and rats to breed??? Our house is stays around 80-85 degrees and my bedroom is around 85-90 degrees, but our basement is 60-63 degrees. Thanks Scott

sounds good for me and the mice.....65........aaaaaaaa
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You definitely have one problem and possibly two.
First, your temperature is definitely too hot.
Bring the temp down to 70-75 degrees.
I personally don't think your overcrowded as described especially if you are cleaning the cage/shavings appropriately. However, if you are mixing several adult rats that haven't been raised together and trying to breed communally this could definitely be the problem.
If your colony is established (raised together) and you have sufficient shavings, water and food, you should not have a problem with the ratio's you have.
I have 20 females and 2 males in a large tub (the tub is about 18" x 30" and is in a home made rack system. These mice breed like crazy and raise all the babies communally. All the babies (5-6 litters) are together in one pile and the mothers take turn nursing all of the babies. I am still amazed at how many mice this tub puts out every week!
Grant Whitmer

in my experience stress is the #1 reason pinkies get eaten and the #2 reason is young mothers. When I set up my breeding colonies which consist of 1.4 or 1.5 about a quarter of the first litters were eaten. Since then I have had no litters get eaten even when I've cleaned cages and had to remove the babies by hand. My rodents are kept inside with a temp of about 75 degrees. If you are getting babies at 85-90 that is very surprising as mice are very sensitve to temps and usually start to shut down breeding over 82 degrees. Try moving your mice inside and placing them in a very low traffic area to see if that helps. Also try keeping them on a diet that has between 16-18% protein. by the way, i have 5 colonies of mice and produce over 150 mice a month. hope this helps, Josh Hutto
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1.0 het albino (ben siegel)
1.0 het citrus hypo(gulf coast line)
1.6 05 normal bp's
0.6 04 normal bp's
2.5 adult normal bp's (some need breeding to see if norm)
6 white eggs from pastel to norm breeding
4 various corns
0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (alan bosch)
1.0 american pit bull terrior
1.1 taco dogs (ankle biters)
1.0 grey cat
1.1 bearded dragons

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrior as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!

I am breeding mice and rats in my garage and I live in Florida the temps are in the 90's.I have a rack built with auto watering and and use Mazuri feed available to them 24/7.I have multiple males in each tub with at least 12-15 females,I almost have more mice than I know what to do with.I have not seen any difference in breeding whether it's 50 degrees or 90 and have never had problems with mice or rats eating their young.This has just been my experiences.Jeremy

they are too young
they are too stupid
they aren't getting enough proteins....check the food value of what you are feeding them.......

I use 18 /6 18 % protein and 6% fat....

they make others..(Zeiglers I use makes 19 -11 too)..

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young mice are too stupid to take care of the kids so they get confused and eat them.should not happen after the first month ....

some breeds just suck and do this...get new line if needed.......

hard to tell from here...

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Also, you don't want to introduce new males to a colony if you have pregnant females. Females that are recently pregnant (I'm not sure what day of gestation they stop) will abort their babies if a new male enters their territory. I've heard of studies where just the smell of an unknown male mouse will cause females to abort.

mice fight........

rats dont't

chinese hamsters. yes fight
russians yes fight
pygmy I guess fight too unless there is just one mouse left.and even then alot of species fight.even though it means their demise

most animals fight if put together after they establish teritories......

just like that one little fuzzy hamster in a cage.he'll bite you when you reach in but not when he is out.(his territory)....
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You're right...

I was just mentioning the abortion thing since he said he accidentally got a male in with all the new females he brought home. A new male in the house could mean another 2-3 weeks to wait for pinkies, and that would definately suck.

I set them up as pulls [babies] from my original breeders.
You should have no problems once you set them up.
NEVER add any females or males to the group......
This is what I do with mice only.
Rats you can change.
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RicK @ BbI

Ball Boutique,Inc.
Proud sponsor of this forum

Not to jack this thread but...

All my mice died off I think due to RI. I had them in the laundry room in the basement where the temps were about 72. Anyway they all one by one strted coughing and then got skinny and were dead the next day.

I am wondering if rats are more hardy. I really hate rats but my mice got me nowhere.

you got mice that were bred in sterile or near sterile conditions.......if you put a mouse that was living in regulated air temps,humidity,and all germ free more or less.....into a normal basement.they get sick and die....colds,flu,pneumonia....takes about 2 weeks to 2 months and most mice will die off..not all....

get mice from someone with "mutts" that live in the same conditions.......

.......mine are at least 4 American lines x at least 3 English lines x other stuff bred into them over the last 15 years...lots of color and hair length and curl have all been bred together.....

do not get rhino mice into your colonies.....(*sharpei,,hairless,naked...call them what you want.)......they are weak in basements,weak genes,and have no teats.....
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They were from Petco. I don't know anyone with mice or rats. I'll have to do some searching. So what you are saying basically is they are pansy mice and can't live without the same environment? I never knew all this about mice. It's not going to be as eay as I once thought to do. Thanks, I won't quit trying.

pansy mice .........LOL...actually they are probably very good mice...they bred very well....might even be swiss or something good (genes).......but with hot air...germs........humidity.....mold spores....etc etc etc.....they will die.....I think the humidity and heat make the germs settle in and they get sick after that....

.........people don't usually listen to me.but today I have typing alot more than normal......and telling some things I usually don't bother.....I usually let you people all go on your own way to learn........

I been doing mice for 15 years.......and before around 1979 I did them and studied them and did tests for a few years.I also attended lectures/mini-comferences with a proff from Penn State Univerity .....the guy that does rodents and all./.....

see......... even a guy I know here with 1500 cages....the cages are washed and cleaned every week..bottles washed every week or more........shelves are metal and cleaned floors swept clean all the time.........all mice are from his own stock started in another barn.......all openings are shut...air is pumped in and there are commercial air conditioners and heaters (2 each)......and NOONE gets into the nouse building.....just him and the 3 boys......(one little note......?DO they change shoes before they go in themselves....I think they don't .oops).......

those mice don't last in humid hot air or cold air.......I setup 100 females and in 4 weeks I kiled what was left and started over......I think I had 3 good cages 3 half and half and at least 4 that most died or were sick......sad

anyways........keep trying and keep your own babies for new stock..they'll do better
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Interestingly enough, I went to the same Petco I got my mice at yesterday and their entire rodent inventory is either wiped out or not looking good and not for sale. Perhaps I just got some sick mice after all.