immaculate conception????

[JasonBrennan]

First off, don't laugh!! I know this may sound weird and unbelievable, but I swear it is true!!

I have around 30 or so breeder mice. I keep them all seperated into groups of one male and 4 females (sometimes a few more females, depends on the number of adults I have at any given time).

Now, I have one paticular black female mouse that seems to get herself pregnant with out a male. She is on her third litter without being with a male. She has been in a seperate cage, with her babies, and no other mice. She has a litter, and by the time that litter is 3 to 4 weeks old, she is dropping another litter. She has about 12 babies right now, and they are 2 weeks old (just turned two weeks today), and she looks like she is about to burst. She has done this everytime.

Is it possible for her male babies to impregnant her before they are weaned?? I have never seen another mouse that produces like this one does. She always has around 12 babies or so, and she never looses any (so far). I wanted to give her a break, but I don't seem to have any say in the matter. Is it possible for a mouse to retain sperm??

Out of all the mice I have, she is the ONLY one that does this. Anyone have any feed back for me?? I swear, she has not had a male in with her for the last 3 litters, never even left the cage she is in!! This one has me stumped!!

Jason Brennan

[Pythonian]

Oedipus Rex ;)

[JasonBrennan]

Say what??

Oedipus Rex ???

[Pythonian]

it's a play/book with A LOT of incest in it.. just a bad joke.. hehe

[JasonBrennan]

Oh, Ok. I get it now, lol.

That was part of my question, thou. I don't think it is possible for her babies to get her pregnant. However, I don't know what else it could be.

Jason Brennan

[reverendsterlin]

sperm retention is probably the case

[Lisa]

i hope this happens with our mice, we still need a male (we bought pregnant mice)

[sparkon16]

its a cartmans mom...lol she is a man and a woman u never know?!?!?!?!

Deuce.

[Quakezombie]

Hermorphodyte HAHAHHAHHAHAHHA

[Linds]

It's definitely possible that she is being reimpregnated by her offspring before she is weaned. You'd be surprised how early those lil guys can start functioning! :p

[Shane Tesser]

Im not sure about mice..but i do know that there is several species of animals that can as the Rev pointed out retain sperm....you would have to research this i dont know for sure...im a big fish guy and in the world or fish this is extrememly common

[AymKing]

Well I've heard of female guppies retaining sperm but not in mammals, I think it would die within days to be used again. What could have happened and this is just a thought is, when a female mouse or rat is done giving birth immediatley following she can breed. Maybe by accident a male was with her for just a moment and did the deed. So even if she had one litter bred right after they were born another litter would follow, it just takes a little longer for gestation because the embryos take a little longer to attach to the uterine wall. But I think that's what happened is that some way some how she bred right after a litter was born. Hope this helped!!

[Gorelith]

Sound like she may be (as Quakezombie pointed out) a hermaphrodite.

[JasonBrennan]

I know about them breeding agian the same day them give birth. That was part of my question (and point). She has been in her own cage (no other mice) and this is her third litter with out a male present. I am guessing that one of the baby males MUST get her, that is the only thing I can figure, but she is having babies so quickly, I just don't understand it. I think I am going to change her name to Mary (right now her name is "The Black Female", lol.

Thanks for all the opinions, thou. I just didn't think it was possible for a baby male to reproduce before it was weaned. Oh well, so much for theroy's!!

[vanderkm]

Mice are theoretically able to breed by 3 weeks of age, but usually baby males are too intimidated by the moms to get much action. It is possible that this is a particularly submissive female and if you are not weaning until 4 weeks or later, then some of the male babies may well be responsible. I know some of my female baby mice have become pregnant at between 3-4 weeks of age from either siblings or sires - especially from the larger, fast growing lines of mice.

Mary v.