Paw Talk - Pet Forums banner

I have a question

1030 Views 1 Reply 2 Participants Last post by  Storyseeker
Hey there! I just ha my first litter of baby mice. The male is in the cage with the mother and litter. I saw him fixing up the nest and cleaning the babies. Is this normal or should I be concerned? I am getting a cage today for the male mouse. This picture is of the litter. She had 5 pups.

Attachments

See less See more
1 - 2 of 2 Posts
Hey there. :)

Welcome aboard.

Mice will come into heat within 24 hours of birth. So, the father in the cage with a newborn litter means that chances are very high your mother mouse is already pregnant again. I would remove him asap, as there is a small chance she may not be pregnant. I'm assuming you don't intend to have a second litter, but either way a second litter so close behind the first may be very physically stressful on the mother mouse. Make sure she has plenty of healthy food available to her as she is going to need it with two litters back to back.

Typically, professional breeders who know what they're doing keep their male mice alone in individual cages as males kept together get territorial and will often kill each other as they hit sexual maturity, while male/female combos, obviously, will result in uncontrolled breeding. Females can of course be kept in same sex female colonies and will often help each other with rearing if one is more experienced.

Good luck to you and your new colony. :)

Edit: The babies look like they're well taken care of by mom. I love pinkies. :D But just now looking at the picture, it looks like your bedding is pine? That's hard on little rodent respiratory systems. Don't mess with it right now as it will stress mom too much and she might kill the babies (more common with mice than rats), but when they get bigger and it becomes safe to mess with the cage/bedding, then if it is pine, go ahead and change it out to something less irritating like aspen. For now, just keep her in a warm quiet area so she can settle in calmly.
See less See more
1 - 2 of 2 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top