My mice are eating their babies before my snakes can =(

[Scribble_pants]

I bought 4 mice to breed for my snakes because mice are $5 each now! when one of the mice got pregnant I left it in the communal cage for a while and it gave birth in there. all but one of the babies got eatten and that one a carefully moved our with her mum without touching the baby. she was totally uninterested in it and ended up killing it. So though anger I fed her to a hungry snake. the next time I saw one pregnant I moved it to a seperate cage all by her self. she gave birth and that day ate the chests of her babies. my third female is pregnant and I really want this to work! how do I stop her from eating her babies and make her have a joyful little family???? how did these creatures multiple so fast in the wild if they eat juviniles before reaching sexual maturity?!

Ellie.

 

[sarah_m]

Eating the young can be a sign that the mother is stressed, so seperating her from other mice is the right thing to do. If she feels her babies are threatened in some way she may 'protect' them by eating them. Do not handle the mother while pregnant or after babies are born, and try not to disturb her by checking on the litter too often. Make sure she has plenty of places to hide and just incase it is hunger, make sure she has lots of food.

 

[nagini-baby]

give her a balanced diet and seperate her. if it doesnt work. get better mice. lol

 

[CHEWY]

I have found rats that eat babies (male or female) tend to always do it. Whether they are the mother or not.
When I ID a baby killer, I euth them straight away. It sets you back a bit when you are starting out, but I find it the best way to move forward.

 

[MrBredli]

What are you feeding your mice? It's likely diet related.

 

[veenarm]

I had great luck, bought 3 females and 1 male from pet store and they bred instantly... had 30 babies in the 1 cage for some time, I only removed the babies when they were a few weeks old into a new tub to sort through...

As long as you've only got 1 male and rest female you should be able to leave them all together with out handling them (removing them) -- its mostly if 2 males together they feel threatened, also the other females can care for her babies if needed....

Only slaughter I've ever had was when I accidently under-fed them for a week of the good diet they require (I think its protein, but I honestly can't remember) as soon as i started that back up they were fine...

Worst mascacre I had was i had 25 babies in the tank, but we had a scorcher of a day so i think temps >40 in the shed with them and they all went mentally insane and just started eating everything and throwing them around the cage, and tried to claw out... that was horrible, but If I was to re-breed them I would know for next time (never put them in a shed with out cooling...) (outside is fine on a thermostat though )...

Good Luck!!

What are you feeding your mice? It's likely diet related.

^^ Diet is most likely the cause (or stress as previously mentioned)

 

[FAY]

We have never had problems with handling the babies etc
I always do as I have to clean the tubs.
I feel it is diet related as said by MrBredli. They must have a lot of protein in their diet or they will eat their babies.
We have 40 females with 10 males. When the females are bulging, we put them in with other bulging females to give birth. This works very well for us. It is like a huge creche. The females are much happier without the males annoying them.

 

[Aussie-Pride]

I've been looking into breeding mice/rats for my snakes for a couple of weeks now and decided to go with rats for this exact reason, Iv'e been told that rat mothers are alot better with the young also I have jungles and diamonds so theres not much point breeding mice in the long run.. As Fay and others have said it could be a lack of protein in there diets, feed them with dog biscuits to up there protein..

 

[Scribble_pants]

they are eating just grains and stuff, what can I feed them with protein in it? surely not meat. Is packet mouse mix any good?? They apear to like cerial and rabbit food and carrots. lol, I just now that I look at it like that, I'm sure I shouldnt be feeding them like rabbits. But what can I use for protein or is that in the packet food too?
thanks guys for all the help and sugestions.

 

[Leasha91]

I breed my mice as well I have about 60 in one tank and they do fine. I feed my mice Coles brand dog food they love it and sometimes to mix it Up I just get some mice seed from the pet shop

 

[Kyro]

Get yourself some good quality rodent pellets and give them vegies every couple of days as well as the pellets. Most produce stores sell pellets and they are far cheaper than buying them from a pet shop.

 

[Scribble_pants]

Thank you so much everyone and thank you Kyro, I will have a look for them at the produce place up the road, I hope your right!

 

[Kyro]

No worries, not sure about your local produce store but I pay $24 for a 40kg bag compared to $8 for 1 kilo at the pet shop so it's definately cheaper to buy it bulk.

 

[CHEWY]

Rat and mice are omnivores. My rodents get table scraps as well as veg to supplement their pellets.
This week they all shared the spoils of the remains of the ham leg (after we made ham and pea soup of course)
Even with my rodents on a high protein diet, sometimes you just get a homocidal bugger.

You shouldn't have any problems with handling the babies.

As for who are better mothers, again it differs. I've had better luck with rats, but I have lab mice now, and they litter sizes are amazing and you don't get a better mother than them.

 

[ingie]

I would get rid of those mice and purchase some live ones from another reptile keeper who has a successful breeding colony. Once mice start eating their babies I have found they will always do it.

Feeding a diet of rat and mouse cubes/pellets + veggie scraps is the best diet you can give them, as it has been developed to be a perfectly balanced food for rodents used in labs. Then any other problems you have you will know are due to something other than diet, and you are giving the mice the best chance to raise lots of healthy babies.

A lot of mothering behaviours and reproductive success is genetic so you don't want to be persisting with any rodents that are bad mothers, have small litters, eat babies, get stressed or aggressive when you touch the babies etc. Any surviving offspring will likely have the same floors.

I can do anything to my rats and mice and they never eat their babies or try to bite me. I can reach in and grab pinkies while they are feeding and they don't care at all. I can only do that because I selected for mothers like that, and culled any that weren't like that.

Good luck!

 

[mysnakesau]

I breed my mice as well I have about 60 in one tank and they do fine. I feed my mice Coles brand dog food they love it and sometimes to mix it Up I just get some mice seed from the pet shop

I found dog biscuits was very un-nutritious for them. I tried and tested it twice over the period of twelve months and found that my rats (mice were fine, though) were losing weight and not thriving. They were skin and bone. I switched them over to rat and mouse pellets and watched the weight come back on them. Of course they always got treats of baby food, vege/fruit scraps but dog biscuits just didn't work for me.

To scribblepants ( :lol: what a name), I too am inclined to believe its diet related that the females would eat the babies. Not sure what it is but I believe they must be missing something in their diet. I have had the same problem with a new lot I just got. But it could also be other factors involved there. Do they have hay, or grass to make nests - they may feel insecure. Are they living in a cold, draughty spot - the cold doesn't go well with mice. Do you have their food inside the cage or on top and they have to eat it from the wire - it has been suggested to me that either my wire is too fine and they aren't getting enough, or chewing at the wire means they are taking in zinc from the galvanised wire. Not sure what zinc poisoning does but I have watched my mouses waste away till they die and I now feed them biomare pellets and they get wildbird mix with weetbix broken up and mixed through. The death rates seem to be slowing since I started putting food inside their tub and not making them chew through the too-fine wire, but I am still losing at least one or two each day. My next step is getting them into a draught free zone which is nearly complete, for them.