Baby mice... who eats who?

Question

I have two mice, the petshop said they were probably male.

Well, one has now had babies... but...
There is one who is fat and one who seems to have lost a lot of weight.
I assume that the one who lost weight is the mother... but...
The fat one is nursing, although I could swear I saw the skinny one nursing too...
The skinny one ate a baby though.

It is possible that the two mice are female, and that they were impregnated by a "visitor" (wild mouse) that I found in their cage a few weeks ago.

The question then, is this: Would a mother eat her own babies?
Or, would a female eat another female's babies?

I'm trying to figure out who's male, who's female and what i'm going to have to do with these mice!

Answer 1

From what I understand, any mouse could eat babies. Here is a website with more info for you

http://ko.cwru.edu/services/musfrming.html

Answer 2

Yes, a mother mouse would definitely eat her own baies if she felt threatened by, say, the other female mouse. I'd go ahead and assume that the skinny one is the mother of the babies and that the fat ones babies are on the way! If possible, you could call the petstore and see if they'll sell your babies as pets (handle the youngsters often starting from when they are 3 weeks old and try to give them away when they are 5 weeks old). If not, they might take them as feeder mice. Feed both mothers lots of proteins, remembering that they are feeding more than just themselves now. Google "mouse care" and you'll find some very good advice there, too.
Happy to help, good luck!

Answer 3

If the mice felt that their babies were threatened by an outside predator then yes, they would eat their own babies.
It sounds sick to us, but for mice, it makes more sense for the adult mice to get the nutrients from the baby mice by eating them than too let the baby mice be eaten by an outside treat.

Did you touch the babies? If the mom or dad mouse does not recognise its own smell on the babies then it may reject the babies as its own and then eat them for survival.

It shoud be obvious who is the mother and father mouse. The father mouse often takes care of the mom during pregnancy and brings her food then brings food to the mom when they are first born. The mom will eat a lot during and after pregnancy.

Is one mouse making a clicking noise when she walks away from the babies? Then this is the mom.
When the babies have their eyes still closed the mom will sometimes go to get food or water but will make a special click noise when she is away so the babies know where she is.

Answer 4

I have had this happen to me years ago, my kids had two mice, spose to be both female and all of a sudden they had babies and then every morning I would find a bloody massacre had occured overnight. Really upset the kids.
I couldnt understand what was going on until it came down to two mice and then I noticed the littlest mouse was doing this strange bouncing in the corner of the cage to get away from me and it dawned on me that this mouse was not a baby and it was not one of the originals purchased, it was wild.
check out the smaller mouse and see if it is yours or wild.
Someone told me that males will often kill babies if they are not theirs also.

Answer 5

that's totally uncommon for mouse dad's to consume their very own childrens and mothers in straightforward terms tend to consume them in the event that they're "defective" (injured or broken, as an occasion). As for the little one mice, do no longer sparkling the bedding as many times because of fact it scares the mother into no longer feeding them each so often. supply them loads of warmth, comfortable bedding (tissue is super! Cotton wool isn't lots as some mice consume it and can choke) yet placed it interior the direction of their cage so the father and mom can organize it. :) save them out of direct photograph voltaic too. Separate the lads from the mother at 6 weeks previous so as that they won't breed extra with their sisters and at 6 weeks they might desire to have stopped feeding from their mum. Feed the mousies bread with (low fat) milk to maintain the mother reliable and supply her with extra effective protein. in case you supply her too lots, she might get an allergic reaction so make certain you supply different meals for her too! you may many times cope with little one mice from day a million besides the shown fact that in case you have a skittish or nervous discern, you would be terrific leaving them a week :) at this point, it relatively is ok to handle them. yet be careful as they have a tendency to roll around unexpectedly and fall off the sting of your hand! that's probably the biggest disadvantages to them at this point. At approximately 3-4 weeks previous they're going to get to "flea" or "popcorn" point the place they bounce around like loopy and that they are very nearly impossible to capture. that's somewhat prevalent as they're in basic terms learning to administration their motor purposes yet they are going to escape genuinely once you open their cage. As for the cage, with little one mice, in case you have a cage with bars, they might desire to be decrease than 10mm aside, if it relatively is a vivarium, it would be high quality :) stable success on your mice! wish they strengthen as much as be truly amazing! :)

Answer 6

sounds loke the other female has taken over the situation!

Answer 7

their cannibals!!! wow. this is strange. but i think that their both females, and they just eat their babies for no reason