Stepmom kills babies ?

[Teiidae]

Some of you know I went from Harem breeding to monogamous due to the fact of fighting females, however went back to harem again due to not producing babies as fast as I need them :P - I went back to 1.2 per breeding tank and things have been going well till today.

One female birthed 11 babies this morning and all was good - This evening while changing food/water in the tanks, I watched the other female run over out of nowhere, pick up a baby, and take off to the other side of the tank - appearing to be cleaning the baby.

Mom ran right over and took the baby back to the nest, than the other female grabbed another - same scenario - Mom to the rescue again, than a 3rd time in which she bit and drew blood from the baby - Mom snatched that one back as well.

By the time I got the lid back on the tank I was working on, the little beotch grabbed a 4th baby and ran into the TP tube - I picked up the tube, and dumped them out in the aspen - another bleeding baby - Mom grabbed the baby and the other female was moved from the breeder tank to the feeder tank :twisted:

Mom tried to clean the babies, but they died so I removed and froze them "Lucky Ameiva's lol".

I've read it's the mom who sometimes kills the babies, however none of mine have - and the surrogate helps with the babies, which they have till today 8O

Topic :?:

[yeaitsdave]

Did she have the babies before you added the other female? That's a bad move if you did. Mice are a pain in the ***, I like keeping the numbers higher to get them to breed better, and I find they dont fight that way either

[Teiidae]

No - Both females have been in there and produced babies together without incident, and have cared for one-anothers babies before...

[Nero557]

I used to breed mice, but since I live with my parents they got mad because I had a ton (smell) even though I cleaned them daily... whatever though, that's besides the point. When I used to do it, I did 1.5 breeding groups... I didn't have problems like that unless I put in a female after the babies were already there... But I am like you, if one pissed me off, to the feeder tank they go... :wink: haha...

[Lord_Duron]

I say never house females together when
one of them have a litter you just never kno
how the other one is going to react. Especially
Mice. >.<

I breed Rats myself.
On thing you could do
to avoid this from happing again is
go to wal mart and pick up Umm let me see about
4 stackable plastic draws. Go to Lowes and pick up some
carpenter cloth a size that your rodents can not
get their heads threw, and some Stik n seal. Cut
the top out and glue the carpenter cloth onto the draw
instant cage. I normally only have 3 females and 1 male
and I give my gals about a 2 months after the newest litters.
Then I start rotating Surge *my male rat* every five days between my females. Then once they are preggo I place Surge back into his cage
which is on the bottom of the 3. Its a cheap way to house them.
Now I even have 2 left over containers to house seperate the females
and males pups from each other. Well atleast the ones that are curly hair.
I love curly hair rats I have 3 so far ^.^

Duron

[Diegar]

When i first started with breeding mice, i had the same problems of moms eating their babies and rival females eating, or at least killing the babies of other moms, and so forth. It was quite irritating. But, out of all the starter mice i bought, about 20 in all, i found that one tank, a male and 2 females were the only truely successful breeders that i had. I killed off the rest and just used those three. From them, i raised all of my new breeders. Some people might not agree with having all one bloodline, but now, i can switch mice from tank to tank on the fly, cause they all share the same scent, or something. I never have any issues with fighting, or dead babies and i now keep one male and seven females in each 10 gallon tank. My freezer is filling up fast and i have babies coming out of my ears.

[jb]

Where do you all keep your rodents? I have a pair of rats that i was going to start breeding on my back porch. I live in Florida where it has been 82*F in the shade in the porch. Will rodents still breed in these temps? We have periodic shortages in July and August b/c of heat and nonbreeding in Florida. Can you house multiple rat females w/ a male? They are in a 20gallon tank.

[Diegar]

I know mice can sometimes be picky about temps and die off easily, but i keep them in the spare room. As for rats, some might not make it, but they make way for heartier ones. I used to successfully breed rats in my garage in Southern California.. The temps in there would have killed me in a day.

But they did fine

[Teiidae]

Mine are bred in the house, room temp in the low to mid 70's...

[Lord_Duron]

I keep mines in my room
its very warm in here lol so warm the turtles water
doesnt need a heater -.-'
so warm all my rodents usually lay on there backs
sometimes you'll see mama rat kickin da pups off her
cause she's soo hot and this litter was quick
they started to walk within 1week and 2 days
started opening their eyes before 2 weeks. and now
is eatting rodent food :S

Duron.

[jb]

if they survive and breed in so cal garage, they should be ok in my garage. i think i'll invest in a colony. i have a lot of 20 gal fish tanks laying around. that would be even easier vs the lanai/porch. how may pups per cycle and how often are the cycles? when i had mice i got 8 to 10 every month from one female. then she ate the male's head ...my gf flipped out and said, "no more mice".