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feeder mouse miscarriage?

P

Pygora

New member
I looked into my feeders cage this morning and found 1 pregnant female not looking very good. She had small dead (miscarried?) babies (really really small) around her not concentrated in 1 spot just all over. I decided to put the female out of her misery she just did not look too good. (Not going into gross detail. It's even debatable if I want to even use her as food. I'm not even sure about that. Probably not.) Since this is the first one to happen like this for me I'd like to know if anyone has an idea what could've happened???

This is the 2nd female to have died in this setup. The 1st had also bred to this male but died 3-4 days after giving birth but some of the pups that she birthed lived. Even though they were really really small also. (The male had done his best to keep 3-4 warm and those were the ones I think lived after I fostered them out to another mom.) This setup happens to be the regular critter trail with just 1male & 1female in it with the tube up the side to a small plastic house at the top. I'm also wondering if it could be the setup??? I'm definitely not using this setup with a pregnant mouse again just in case. I was probably a fool to use it this time but I hadn't had a chance to switch it out. I thought they'd be ok til pinks then switch so pinks/adults would have more room.

Could it be the male? That is also a possibility because he is new to my feeders. He doesn't seem mean in any way and the last batch he even helped some of them live by keeping them warm. He even seemed disappointed when I took them away but there was no way he could feed them being all by himself.

Any ideas/info on this would be greatly appreciated so that it doesn't happen again.
 
pheonix said:
I think you just have some bad mice. Get a new male and female and try again!
Click to expand...

The male is new. The female's I've had for about 3-4 months.

I had a baby die in 1 of the other boxes. 1 that's been ok for 2-3 wks. (It was a rescue from the 1st female that died though so maybe it was to be expected. The others that got rescued seem ok still.) I'm almost wondering if it's the cold now! It's been really cold the last few days. The 1st female that I'd had with that male it had been really cold that night too. I didn't think it was that bad because the boxes are nice and toasty but maybe it is. But I'm also going to try switching out that stupid critter trail cage to a regular box before breeding again and giving more than 1 female so he doesn't bug the crap out of just the one.

With the new death I'm really starting to wonder now. The others seem good and bedding/food etc was changed 1-2 days ago so that should be ok. Maybe it being so young it couldn't handle chill too well? If it is the cold I'm right along with my mice WARM the heck up already! So Cal is just not supposed to be this cold! :-D

I will really be watching these guys to see if they're doing ok or what now. I don't like this death factor going on.
 
I doubt it is the cold. I have mine in the garage year round. The heat is more dangerous, so they get ice blocks everyday. When they have little babies, I will place them all in a cardboard box with bedding to stay warm. I mean like a tiny box. I had a few dead litters when I first started but then they did better after, though I had one female that never had babies again.
 
I'm almost wondering if I should just grow up the ones in this box and feed them off. Not sure what to do with the male. I think I may try 1 more time with him but not sure whether to go buy him a female. I just got him a little bit ago so I don't even know if he's a good breeder yet. They come so small from the store and he is super huge. I love the fur texture and coloring on him though. (Yeah I've gotten tired of having just one colored mice (black) and am now playing with coloring so maybe I'm paying the price for that.) Or maybe try another adult female that I have. I'd feel kind of bad if the 3rd one died though he's had such bad luck with his female companions so far.

The ones I've had so far have been good since I got them going but maybe they're getting wore out. Not really sure. I've only started since July and I didn't think it was really that long but in mouse years maybe it is. The female that I had gotten first just recently died.

For quite awhile I had 2 boxes sitting kind of dormant and didn't really know why but then my daughter figured out they were all female (she has better eyesight) so we got them a couple males and they're now working out. I'm kind of new and haven't quite figured out the sure fire tried and true results yet. So I'm on the growing and having fun end and she's on the feeding end.

I guess I'm kind of trying to throw out questions to the forum to see what others more experienced think since I'm coming up at a loss right now.

I'm definitely getting a new box for my male today before I do anything though. I'm not positive but I almost feel the cage is wrong for breeding. Too hard on the pregnant mouse to go up and down that dumb tube and of course that is where they both wanted to be is in that hut at the top and the food/water is in the bottom. So once I rule out the cage then I will really wonder but on the other hand if there's no more problems after changing out the cage I will know for sure. He is definitely very lonely though so I really have to work on fixing that too when I figure out what I'm going to try next. Plus it will have way way more room than that dumb cage too.
 
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