Anyone one know how to breed mice?

Question

I have 1 male and 3 females in a large tank, 1 of my females gave birth 2 weeks ago, she had 10 babies.(all is good) yesterday mouse #2 gave birth to six, and they starting eating them, ( I saved 3) does anyone know why this happened? The male is still in there and he let the first 10 live. Any help apperciated!

Answer 1

Mice can start reproducing at an early age. Both sexes can start breeding at 6 weeks of age and continue until they are about 12 months old. A females first litter often produces a smaller number of babies, as do those from female over 9 months of age. Breeding mice is an easy business as long as you remember one simple rule. That is ONLY ONE MALE TO A CAGE. Multiple males will fight and can kill each other. Multiple males cause damage to females and often kill the babies that are produced. Having multiple males also results in the males producing more scent.
If you have a single male and a few females, in a cage, they should produce babies every 18 - 28 days. Producing large number of mice is best done with the harem method. (One male to several females). I have found that 2 to 4 females to one male in a standard mouse cage works fine. How many young they produce depends on their environment and breed of mice. Most "pet shop" mice produce small litters of about 3 to 12 babies. There are some laboratory breeds of mice that produce litters of up to 25 babies every 28 days. However these laboratory mice can be very difficult to obtain.

Answer 2

Separate the male and each pregnant female, if they feel there isn't enough room, or food they will eat the young. Also then you won't have 500 babies in 2 months, the male will breed with any female offspring, and the males will breed with their mothers, and siblings.

Answer 3

Like everyone else said, separate them out. One tank is not big enough to house all those critters. They eat their young when they are hungry, sometimes, but mostly they eat them when stressed, or they feel like there's a good chance someone else might eat them first. Try not to handle the baby mice till they're eating solid foods, or the mother might just decide to eat them before you get a chance to (that's how she thinks).

Answer 4

They eat babies because they are stressed & unless you REALLY want a TON of mice really quick please seperate them into same sex groups & give the mom's a lot of protein like peanut butter or plain unseasoned chicken or tofu!!!
Good luck!!

Answer 5

Seperate them all!!! They ones that were eattin... the one who ate it felt threatened! Itd rather eat her baby then put it through danger... i know its messede up but...

Answer 6

Separate them...

Answer 7

A MIDGET