help with breeding mice

[7niteshades]

i started breeding mice for my snakes and various other reptiles that eat pinkies i have four females and one male one of my females had her first litter and she killed all of them can someone help with any pointers to get them to not eat their babies?

[jhinton6932]

im sorry i can be of no help but lulz@eating babies. what type of set up do you have? someone who breeds mice will chime in soon im guessing.

[7niteshades]

i have them in a ten gallon tank at the moment

[KORBIN5895]

Feed that female off of she does it again.

Try giving them some more room and make sure they have plenty of food and water. Are you positive that the mother ate them and not one of the others?

[7niteshades]

i'm not exactly sure should i try putting them in another tank when they show signs of pregnancy?

[KORBIN5895]

Mice are very communal and will kill outsiders. If you separate the pregnant females you may not be able to reintroduce her.

You will need to keep a close eye on them the next time they give birth.

[7niteshades]

kk thank you

[KORBIN5895]

Good luck and try a little bigger area.

[7niteshades]

should i try two females and a male? then have two tens like that?

[KORBIN5895]

That would probably work great. It will also be easier to figure out who the baby muncher is.

[Revenant]

We got 'mad mommies' when our colonies were too crowded.Too many other mice involved, possibly stressing the mom out, or deciding another mom's babies looked tasty.

I also think a trio to a ten would give you much better results. Sometimes, you just get one that is wack-a-doo, though. Make sure she's got plenty of access to a well-balanced diet, too. If an animal like that feels like she's not got the resources to raise a litter, she may recycle and try again.

[rmfsnakes32]

If you have a muncher as soon as you know they are visibly pregnant move them separetely and figure out who the muncher is once you know feed it off because it is not a productive breeder

[September]

I'm going to chime in, even though I'm new :)

Can I see a pic of the tank please? That might help me-and others more knowledgeable-to provide you with advice :)

Secondly-you should absolutely separate a female you think is pregnant, as other mice might eat the babies, or the mother might because she's stressed. You can't know for sure that she's a muncher without having her by herself. A good rule of thumb is that if she looks like she swallowed a ping-pong ball, she's pregnant.

Reintroducing her-after the babies are born and fed, you can reintroduce her into the colony. You have to thoroughly clean out the tank, so that it becomes a 'neutral' zone. Then you can put them all back in. There will be some squabbles and fights, but the general rule is no blood, no foul. Let them fight it out, so they can re-establish a hierarchy that includes the 'new' girl.

Just a note, I would personally recommend keeping your male separate, and putting him in with one girl at a time, for a few days at a time (the gestation period of female mice ranges from 16-23 days, with the average being 21, so less than that) so that you have a supply of pinkies all at different times, without taxing the health of your girls with back to back pregnancies.

If you have any other questions, I'd be happy to offer the best answer I can :)

[KORBIN5895]

The problem with removing and reintroducing mice is you will have some mice that get maimed or killed.

[September]

That's actually really rare, if you do it right. Neutral territory and all that. Alternately, you could start mixing their beddings (taking a handful out of one tank and mixing it into the substrate of the other and vice versa) before you feed the babies and reintroduce, and interchanging toys, so the mice are accustomed to each others smells before the introduction. But still, 'neutral territory' is key for introduction. Be it a completely clean tank or a bath tub or a travel container, it's important that it smells like none of the mice.