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Tim_Cranwill
09-07-02, 10:27 PM
Can they be kept together, or will they eat each others babies?

aaron
09-07-02, 10:35 PM
I was in a pet store today and they had several cages with 3 or more females and babies of various ages all together!

aaron

reverendsterlin
09-07-02, 10:43 PM
It depends, alot of time 1st time mothers will eat their own anyway. Sometimes others will. Sometimes it is just a constant swapping of the babies. Just for breeding purposes if they are 1st timers I would I would keep seperate to see if any mother cannablizes her own, any that did I would notate on and repeat for the second litter with seperate nursery, If it repeats the behavior remove all the babies to another mother and feed off the bad mother. Mostly though with non-new mothers it is just swapping back and fourth though sometimes that could cause damage if two mothers struggle with the same baby. hope this helped

Tim_Cranwill
09-07-02, 11:23 PM
thanks rev. and aaron.

josefg
09-08-02, 02:29 AM
Put the male away as they are the ones that usually eat the young, at least that's what hamsters do.

Josef

Syst3m
09-08-02, 03:42 AM
I don't think mice and rats do that, In rats its common for them males to help stash the babys away when you go into the cage.
that thing you wont find them.

Linds
09-08-02, 07:17 AM
I run my mice 1 male to 4 females. I do not remove the male nor any of the females since cannibalism happens when you add to a colony that already has young. It is extremely inefficient to remove any members of an actively reproducing colony of mice. Mice will eat their young if there are a) any new members added to the colony b) feel stressed out c) first litter d) no food is available. Hope this helped ;)

Tim_Cranwill
09-08-02, 08:21 AM
That helps a lot. I have two colonies of 1 male to 4 females and even seperating that many prenent females was a drag.

Thanks to all who replied.