Pregnant Mouse?

[petlover]

My brother and sister got two mice for Christmas, from petsmart, supposedly two males. I've looked atthem of course, but never really paid much attention but today I was watching themand I notice that 1 mouse looks quite plump. It basically looks like s/he blew up over night. I looked up sexing mice, and took a look through the glass and I believe we have 1 pregnant female and a male.

First off, I don't hold the mice (I'm somewhat scared of mice, I could force myself tohold them but right now she's being really aggressive)so I can't really get hands on to look really well, but I'm almost postive it's a girl, and as large as s/he is I'm thinking she's far along in a pregnancy as well. We plan on moving her to a seperate tank asap, but past that we have no idea what to do.

What should we be doing for her? Special diet? Nesting materials? And when/if she has babies what should be prepared on doing for them? I know with baby rats you hold them from the time they're born so should we hold the baby mice as well?

And I also wondered if a 10 gallon tank is large enough for two mice or even one? Obviously we arent putting these two together again if she is a female after all but we'd like to keep them in pairs if babies do come along.

 

[shadowmegs]

Okay, if she's looking heavily pregnant then the babies will likely come within the next week.

You'll want to have her settled on her own as soon as possible, keep the nursing cage one level so the babies can't fall from anything. Give her some sort of house (ones with removable lids are fantastic with babies) fill it with things like newspaper, bits of fleece & hand towels. Don't use toilet paper or anything with loose threads as the babies will stick to things and get their feet etc caught.

The litter size in mice can range from as much as 4-22! But on average 10-15 is about normal.

Can you give me the dimensions of the tank? It should be fine but you will want something separate for dad and you will need individual cages for the males as they will be likely to fight once they mature. Make sure if you use tanks that they have a good mesh (with small spacing!) lid and that it gets cleaned regularly so that no ammonia builds up.

Mum will want peace and quiet, especially when she's giving birth or very close to it, make sure she's not in a busy room of the house. The babies won't be as easily handled as rats, don't disturb the nest until at least 72hrs after birth. But do pop your head in quickly to make sure nothing has gone wrong. When you do handle the babies the best way to do it is to rub your hands in the nesting material first so that you don't smell different and have them out for a maximum of 10mins until they're about 2 weeks old. You can take them out a few times a day, it's important they get enough handling at a young age because handling mice only gets harder as they grow. Be prepared for when they are coming up 2 weeks, they will be crazy, bounce around like nutters, be very demanding of mum (at 2 weeks you might want to hang a hammock for mum that's out of the babies reach so she can have a bit of time out)and eat a LOT. At the 2 weeks stage have a safe handling area where they won't go missing and make sure the cage is mouse-proof (you'll be amazed at the gaps they can squeeze through!).

For food, they will need a LOT! Baby foods are great, so is farex baby cereal (you can mix it with soy milk or water and things like mashed banana) Mum will need lots of foods reasonably high in protein, cooked egg, cooked chicken, tuna, dark leafy greens are good too. As well as those things have a dry mix, most pet shop mixed aren't good for rodents, you can make your own mix or buy lab blocks. Harlan Teklad make good lab blocks, you'll want to look for one high in soy and low in things like corn and animal protein. Stay away from dairy products until the babies are at least 8 weeks old.

Here's a recipe for a great rat and mouse dry mix:

8 crumbled weetbix
1 cp sunflower seeds
1 cup buckwheat (or kibbled wheat as they are much the same thing)
1 cup oats
1 cup puffed rice
1 cup puffed wheat
2 cups dried pasta
1 cup Nutrience or similar dog biscuits
1/2cup cranberries
1/2 cup banana chips crumbled
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 quinoa
2 crushed childrens multi vitamins
1 cup coconut chips

You might not need quite that much, you could halve the mix easily though.

And of course provide the mice with fresh, clean water at all times. Make sure you don;t limit the amount of food the mice get, have food available at all times.

Mice can breed by 5 weeks, sex them and separate sexes by 4 1/2 weeks. You won't need the males separated by then but be prepared that in a few months (sometimes even weeks) they will almost definitely start fighting, it's not uncommon for males to kill each others when their hormones start making their bodies change.

Good luck & I hope this helps!!! Raising mice can be quite a bit of work, but it's also a lot of fun. Feel free to let me know if you need any more advice or if anything goes wrong, I've had quite a lot of experience raising baby rodents and dealing with birth issues etc and also know what it's like having no idea what to expect.