Bad Mouse Mother

[Auskan]

I have two female mice & the first gave birth to 8 pups last night but had killed 5 by the time I woke up. I removed the last 3 since I'm sure they were going to meet the same fate. The killed ones were lying around in various partially eaten states. I have seen threads relating to rats that are bad mothers but had not thought about the mice being just as bad. The second female is due any day so I removed both the bad mother & the male from the cage & will hope that she is a better mother than the first one (who will now become food herself!) Any thoughts on whether the second mother will follow her friend's example, or is it still possible she will be a good mother? Also, I had not thought to remove the male prior to the births, but is he a bad influence? (I know that it was the female who was killing, not the male, as I caught her red-handed - literally).

[themangler]

i had the same problem ,i know they eat there first litter and they did and then they had more babies and they became fuzzies and she started eating them made me sick so i co2 them all and that cured the problem! my rats never had this problem.

[vanderkm]

If anything, mice are worse than rats - in fact mice can be one of the hardest rodents to get established in good colonies, especially if they are not from a strain that has good maternal abilities. Killing babies is not uncommon with first time moms, males are not usually the problem unless they are introduced once there are babies around and then they will systematically kill them all (so that the females will cycle and the male can breed them). While you may choose to kill off the female that killed her young, you would actually be better off to leave the male with the female who is about to pup. Everything you can do to contribute to a stable colony is a help with mice. It is possible that both females would be good moms the next time around - often they just need to get throught their first litter to figure it out. If you keep the male out and want to introduce him at a later time, wait until all the pups have been weaned or removed.

mary v.

[Auskan]

Wow. Glad I didn't wack her immediately, which was my first inclination. I guess lucky for her I had to get ready for work, huh? Ok, I'll try to give her the benefit of the doubt & give her another chance. But that's all she gets LOL.