Another mouse Q

[mebebrian]

Just wondering how many ppl seperate the pregnant mice from the rest of the colony? Ive been setting up individual tubs for the pregnant ones. Cause i heard that the other females may kill the baby's.
Then one popped out a batch by surprise and they were fine, no casualties.
Am i just making extra work for myself?

[mckellar007]

mice seem to share the mothering, ive had males that have eaten the babies, but the females all looK after the babies together. i did have one female that ate most of her own litter, but she was a nutter and ended up as snaKe food!

[redbellybite]

lol......"but she was a nutter ...."you get that in the human world too thats when big rock or reticulated pythons would come in handy feed the human nutters to them ....... i agree though you should only take the males away ,females seem to group and even to the point feed who evers babies they are near at the time ......

[mebebrian]

Ok so, ive just got a small colony so far 1m 3f, should i wait till they are all showing then remove the male and let the mothers mother? cheers

[redbellybite]

yep he wont be a threat but as soon as the girls look big and bulky take him away

[ANTARESIA1]

i keep about 12 females 2 males in a 45 litre tub together. could have up to 60 pinkies -weaners . i never take males or females out . i think as long as you got clean well feed rodents its all good .

[Kimbully]

You may get the odd female who doesn't want to share babies but most of the time, they will live happily together. If the male is the daddy to all the babies and no other males are in the same tub(there should never be more than one male with females in the same tub), 99% of the time he won't kill his own offspring. They will (mum or dad) eat their pups if they die/stillborn as they are opportunistic.

Kim

[Kimbully]

Antaresia1 I am suprised the males don't try and kill each other? Male mice are very aggressive when it comes to having females to themselves. Are the two males related or were they brought up together?
Kim

[ANTARESIA1]

theres over 70 fuzzies in this tub

[redbellybite]

i have found that the males actually do the deed in a violent way too thats why i never have 2 males together .......

[beeman]

We run 6 females in a tub and cycle the males through once the litter is weaned,
The males can become agressive toward the pinkies and kill them.
Anteresia if you are only getting 60 pinkies out of 12 females in a tub they need replacing
our smalest litters are in the 50 to 55 per tub of 6 females!

[ANTARESIA1]

Originally Posted by Kimbully

Antaresia1 I am suprised the males don't try and kill each other? Male mice are very aggressive when it comes to having females to themselves. Are the two males related or were they brought up together?
Kim

i breed about 1000 mice a week . so when i set up a tub i will put my 12-15 females 1-2 males all in together at the same time seem to get along just fine . i dont have the time to seperate any of themwhen pregnate . ive had a heap of fuzzies already in the tub then pulled out the old male put a new just weaned male in and got away with that also . maybe im just lucky ?

[ANTARESIA1]

Originally Posted by beeman

We run 6 females in a tub and cycle the males through once the litter is weaned,
The males can become agressive toward the pinkies and kill them.
Anteresia if you are only getting 60 pinkies out of 12 females in a tub they need replacing
our smalest litters are in the 50 to 55 per tub of 6 females!

you are right beeman ....my females seem to have about 8- 15 pinkies .just on average there is about 60 pinkies -fuzzies per tub in 1 -2 nests at any one time . but there is always a few still pregnet females . few weaners running around . i end up pulling half my fuzzies out when things look a bit crouded but .

[Clitybangspython]

male mice dont need to be removed thats just creating work put 3 females with 1 male in a 400mm x 200mm x 120 mm box add water food and shavings and you will have a constant cycle

i swear my females fall pregnant half way through birth and the male sits on the nest keeping babys warm hes more usefull than you think.

[Kimbully]

Clitybangspython they can fall pregnant shortly after birth. Your method is good if you want constant babies and should get about a years worth of breeding from each female (if started at 8 weeks old and healthy) or about 8 litters before the numbers start to drop.

Antaresia1 if the just weaned male was under 6-7 weeks old then you could get away with that but you must be lucky when you put your two boys in together :-)

Kim