What is happening to my daughter's baby mice?

Question

2 weeks ago I bought my daughter 2 female mice. On Friday to our surprise 1 of the mice had babies. Every time we check on the mice there seems to be less babies. There were about 12 now 3 days later, there are only 4. Is one of the mice eating these babies? There is no sign of remains of these babies. How can we keep the remaining living babies safe?

Answer 1

Yes, the babies are probably being eaten. As disturbing as this is to us, it is NORMAL to the mice. As many of the others have said, there are several reasons for this. Sometimes the mother will do this with the first litter, especially if she is young. There could have been something wrong with the babies. But the most likely reason is that the mother is stressed. She will not raise her babies in an unsafe situation.

It might be too late to save the babies. If you take them away from Mom, you are committing yourself to a LOT of work, with no guarantee that the babies will live. Hand raising tiny mice babies is NOT easy. So leaving them with Mom might be best, in spite of everything.

I don't know whether or not you should remove the non-mom. It seems to me that removing a pal would just cause Mom to be more stressed -- but if you see that the two adults aren't getting along, then separate them -- as long as you know which one is Mom.

Then give Mom some sort of house or box where she can go to feel safe and LOTS of nesting material -- paper towels or tissues will do. Put plenty of food and water into the cage, then put the cage into a darkened, quiet room (even a closet will do as long as there is air) and leave them totally alone for a couple of days. You can check on them, of course, but as quietly as possible. Mom needs to de-stress and feel safe.

After a couple of days, start to gradually get them used to you. Be gentle and quiet, of course, but if any babies survive they SHOULD be handled. Handling a baby is the only way to socialize it and make it tame.

It is a MYTH that mothers will reject their babies if they smell human scent on them. Even wild animals won't do this. The mothering instinct is much stronger than that!

Please not to judge the mice -- mice don't live by human standards. They are only doing what is natural. I hope you and your daughter can understand that.

When this is all over, I hope you both can really enjoy your pets!

BTW, if any babies survive, you need to separate the boys from their moms at 4 weeks -- otherwise you will have MORE babies!

Good luck.

Answer 2

The mouse might be eating the babies here is why: Animals know if their babies are healthy or not and a mouse will eat her young if she feels it's not healthy. Many times this will happen to the runt of the litter. If this happens with your mice keep in mind that nature works in strange ways and mom knows best. There is usually a reason she kills a baby. Animals don't like to see suffering, especially their own babies. They would rather take them out of their misery. You also have to keep in mind "survival of the fittest". In order for a species to survive, only the strong can live. With domestic mice this isn't as critical but it is with wild mice.
Sometimes a first time mom will eat or kill her entire litter. No one is positive why this happens but it is not uncommon. It might be because she doesn't know what to do with the babies. If you have a first time mom who has killed her babies, don't hesitate to breed her again when it's time. She will probably be a great mom the second time around.
Cannibalism also happens after a mouse had died. Some people find one of their mice eating the other and assume that one killed the other. This is not usually the case. If 2 mice have been together for a long time then I would be willing to bet about anything that the mouse was dead first. Mice are very clean animals. When one mouse dies they feel the need to clean up after it. A mouse's way of "disposing" of the body is to eat it. If they don't eat it, then they will often burry it. I know it's hard but try not to let it disturb you if you see it happen.
Also they could be so small they could be hiding in the cage or maybe they could of gotten out.

Answer 3

Mice,gerbils,rats and hamsters will eat their young if the babies are dead or sickly.
They will also eat their babies if they are nervous. . . continually looking at them esp since they were just getting settled into new surroundings when the blessed event took place will encourage the feasting.
If you have 2 females together you need to remove the Non Mom mouse who may very well be eating the babies and this too is because she is fretting over all of the new excitement of settling in AND the new arrivals.
Be sure that the room they are kept in is a comfortable temp.If the babies are getting too cold and are dying because of it,the mother mouse will eat the babies so as to not leave a smell that in the wild would encourage predators.

Answer 4

Mice and their litters shouldn't be disturbed for the first few days...don't peek, don't touch. That's likely what went wrong, at least, one of the reasons. Does she have a house or nest box? That helps, a lot. Also, this happens to some first time mothers. It can also be because something was wrong w/them. It doesn't help that you have another female in with her. Some mice do fine with (& even prefer) a "nanny mouse", but other times, it can cause problems. If you're certain who the mother is, remove the other one and leave them alone for a couple more days.

Typically, you can begin handling after three days of age, but only if you remove the mother first (don't reach into the nest, lure her out instead) and rub your hands in the bedding to help cover your scent...not always needed, but doesn't hurt to do it. Since there have been problems, I'd give them more time before handling.

Answer 5

keep the baby mice away from the others. Maybe One of the the other mice are eating the babies. Good Luck

Answer 6

honestly yes it sounds like one of the mice is eating the babies and it could easily be the mother or her cage mate...mothers eat their babies for several reasons:
1) baby is sick, small, or has a low chance of survival
2) mom is stressed, maybe from the move, maybe something else
3) the mom is too young to breed, it happens sometimes when animals rape each other, pregnancy results and the mom kills the babies
call your vet and call the pet store where the mice came from explain everything to both of them and see what they say

Answer 7

I hate to say it, but you probably guess right. Our both female mice in the same cage. If so, you need to seperate them and keep only the mom and babies together. The mom could be the one eating them, but my guess is that it is the other adult. Good luck.

Answer 8

Put one of the adults in a separate cage. Do you know which one is the mother? Is there enough food for both the adults? Keep the babies with the mother (unless she's the one eating them). Give them some cotton balls or old flannel to make a nest.

Answer 9

Yes Mice will eat their young especially if you have left the two adult mice in there with the babies. You can separate the infants from the others and feed with can of baby formula and eyedropper.

Answer 10

Peroxide doesn't kill bacteria. Most bacteria actually have peroxidases (enzymes that break down peroxide) and can actually tolerate living in peroxide. I would use some alcohol--yes I know it stings, or some Bacitracin. Washing with an antibacterial soap and water would be a good idea. And the biggest worry is probably tetanus.