rodent advice

[junglemad]

Hi everyone. I have a couple of questions.
1. Has anyone had problems with snakes not eating brown fuzzies?Mine seem to prefer the white
2. Does anyone use different substrates in their rats and mice enclosures besides shredded paper and wood shavings?
3. Is it common for mother mice to eat their young? she was well fed, alone in a fresh cage with food and water but decided to eat her babies..i salvaged 4 and a half from ten.

That was a good idea from an earlier forum post about giving chop bones to rats. Mine loved them.

cheers all

[longtom]

ive had a few female mice do it i was told it could be a mineral deficency but you should ask pike he knows heaps about mice and rats

[childreni_440]

2: I use grass hay for mine its much warmer than paper and it makes good mulch when finished.

Can the bones be raw or do they have to be cooked?

[nuthn2do]

1 - not used to eating brown mice, same as you would be suss of a blue sausage
2 - nope
3 - Don't touch them for the first week, make sure she's got somewhere to hide the young and give her some dog kibble for extra protien. If this fails she's toast

[dee4]

1. nope
2. nope
3. They will do that if they are annoyed to much, it might be a strees thing. Or they might feel threatened by the male or another female, is there a male or other females in with her? Is he the father of the youngens?If he's the not the father, he may eat them. If he starts to eat them, the mum might protect her young by eating them 1st. Is she to cold or to much condesation in the box? If they are sick from being to cold they will kill off their young as well.

[childreni 440 wrote]
Can the bones be raw or do they have to be cooked?

Doesn't matter, they love them anyway they can get them.

[pike1]

Junglemad, there are too many reasons to list why mice do this, how long was she in the cage alone for? Most likely stress, maybe a deficiency or some are just bad mothers.

[rodentrancher]

All of the above

[junglemad]

I will seem rude but i replied to these replies at work..our system must have blocked my reply. They have evidently blocked my bludging on aussiepythons and ebay...cunning buggers!
Thanks for your advice all.