When mice can be taken away from their mother...

[Batdad]

New to feeder raising, the first litter, two left, have their eyes open and are wandering around container. Can they be separated into a different container to be grown into more breeders or should I wait? When do they start the solid food thing? They are three weeks old. More litters coming up behind them and I want to keep some of these first litters as breeders because the original mice were all pregnant when I bought them so these will have different blood lines than the later generations to come.;)
Also they are sexually mature at what six weeks? Going to have to watch that:D

Thanks for any help
Bruce

[reptilesalonica]

If i have to remove pinkies, i wait 2 days and i remove the half babies of the litter of any mother. This way the mother instinct remains, otherwise the females could feel depression and not breed for the next few months.
If i have to remove the new litter to start a new colony, i wait until they grown into hoppers (fully opened eyes, jumping around like...hoppers :D).
~Greg~

[Linds]

Generally mice can be weaned at 3-4 weeks of age.

Originally posted by reptilesalonica
If i have to remove pinkies, i wait 2 days and i remove the half babies of the litter of any mother. This way the mother instinct remains, otherwise the females could feel depression and not breed for the next few months.


What do you do for animals that cannot feed on anything larger than day old pinks??? I'll remove pinkies a few hours old and have never had any problems with delayed reproduction :) Your right in that the entire litter should not be removed, its good to leave 3-4 if you can.