mice and pinkt rats

[corn_breeder]

hey i just started a colony, and i'm having problems getting my mice to start breeding, someone told me that if you put pinkies from other mice they might take care of them and start breeding. i put in some big old pinkie rats and they started to clean them lick them al over, i was wondering if they will take cae of them.

 

[rockmonky]

If the mice are not close to having babys they will not produce milk for the rats and they will die. I dont even know how well they would take care of rats if they were lactating

 

[Ssthisto]

From what I understand, mice can start lactating without having pups - for this reason, you can't always tell which mouse in a colony is the one who's had the babies, because ALL of the females will lactate to feed them.

It's entirely possible that your girls will start lactating and feeding the baby rats - but it's not amazingly conducive to them being pregnant and having their own babies, because their bodies will be working so hard to feed growing rats.

 

[simple_minded]

How long have your mice been together? I could take a while, like a couple of months, for them to have their first litter. Unless maybe the male's infertile, which could.. not likely.. happen.

 

[corn_breeder]

i had the first male and female for about a month and i just added another female this monday

 

[Flagg]

a month is too soon to expect much. Every colony I've started has taken at least 6-8 weeks.

 

[corn_breeder]

oh ok then i will wait, i was wondering if i moved would they get stressed out