Breeding mice

Well, in the last month, my females have had 30+ pinkies and I only have 3 fuzzies right now to show for it... They ate the rest of them except for a couple I took from them that they had injured and went ahead and fed them to my snakes... I am not too sure how to ensure that I get better results so I am willing to take suggestions...

Two of the females are about to have more babies...

John,
How do you have them set up?
Cage
Number of animals

It's been a long time since I raised mice myself, but here are some suggestions.

Make sure that there is only one male in the group. Male mice will often kill offspring produced by another male.

Some females seem predisposed to killing their young. I always fed off those females and replaced them. Eventually, you will have a breeding group without these issues.

Good luck

I have one male and four females... I was wondering about that momma murderer thingy... I really think that may be what is going on... I am going to watch the new ones really close and deligate some serious eye for eye thing lol... Thanks for the info...

How long have you had these setup? Are these their first litters? I noticed in my breeding groups that the first litters are usually lost to inexperience of the mothers etc. By the time have their second litters they have a higher survival rate.

I have had the male and two of the females going on three months and the other 2 females were introduced about 2 months ago... It was a month after introducing the two new females that I got my first litter... They were to a new mother and then another new mother gave birth... Then the oldest female (which I think was a retired breeder by her size and motherly instinct to even the litters that were not hers) gave birth...

None of the first survived, two of the second litter survived mainly because the oldest female took care of them while she was pregnant and the the oldest one gave birth but only one has survived...

I think I have a murderous momma but not sure which one it is... I am gonna see how these new ones go and if I catch an eater, her fate is not a good one...

It may be a space issue. what are the dementions of your breeding bins. I had this same problem until i gave them a little more space. Also, mice do not like to be bothered... ( well mine dont anyways) i know it hard not to peek or look around but just feed and water them and that is it if they have little pinkies..once the babies get alittle older you can poke around some more

hope this helps these are just my observations with my mice.

Cannibalism

I have found that mice that are used to being handled dont eat their babies. Also another crucial element that can cause it is food that doesnt have the proper amounts and ratio of calcium to fat. Mice breeders should be fed a diet consisting of high teens to maybe 22-23 percent protein to 7-9% fat. Also the ability to get out of the open is good. I use something that looks like an upside down bowl with a satellite dish on it at a 45 degree angle. it doubles as a hide and an exercise wheel. You want your mice to exercise it relieves stress and makes them more developed with muscle as opposed to fat. Amother thing that helps is to have experienced mother in there also because the babies learn also from other mothers how to be a mother. If you incorporate these things in your regimen as well as make sure they have room you will see vastly improved production.

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