[daisy]

i have a mumma with a 3 week old litter at the moment, she's on her own with them, and Dad was seperated from her about a week before birth, i SWEAR she looks pregnant, i thought she was just getting podgy on her protein diet but i swear those are babies in there, how is this possible. ALL babies are only 3 weeks old and also ALL does!!!!!!!!! what??? I think i should name her mary or something!!

 

[Angelmouse]

I have heard that they can hold on to sperm for a later date?

 

[ian]

Really?

Some of my does just cant lose the baby weight, they sometimes bloat up a bit too while lactating from time to time. Is it a first litter? Most of my first litter does tend to slim right down after giving birth.
Recently I had two does who had their second litters and I didnt realise they had given birth because they were both so huge, and its never gone down. They are in with a buck now to have their 3rd litters, I'm worried I wont be able to tell when they are actually pregnant.

Mice have an amazing ability to get pregnant, but only if you dont want them to.

 

[daisy]

it is her first litter but since slimming down after birth shes getting bigger and bigger!

 

[daisy]

i wasnt going to post a pic, as i know she is pregnant but here she is, may i introduce the virgin mary herself:

and her current litter:

 

[ian]

AAAh its the rumpwhite! How bizaare, maybe one of those baby does is hiding something? Or possibly there is something behind this sperm storage thing?

The babies are looking lovely and glossy, the colour is good too, much deeper than most of my choc/cinns.

I wouldn't know what the best thing to do is because I've not experienced this but I would imagine removing the 1st litter earlier than you probably would normally and then loading the doe up with lactol to cope with the 2nd litter. Or maybe just culling the 2nd litter as soon as they arrive. What are you thinking?

 

[Cait]

I have chocolate rws who look like that all the time and aren't pregnant. I'd say don't count your litters until they arrive If the situation is as you say then the only culprit could be a wild mouse. I am going to say she's not pregnant, just fat (I don't believe that 'holding on to sperm' thing).

 

[daisy]

if she is just fat then she is such a bloater!! very impressive! i dont think it can be a wild mouse, they are indoors in our living room and my mesh is pretty small.... ah, who knows, all babies are definately girls, i took out the bucks as pinkies and was pleased to see at nipple age that i had all girls left,

i'll give it a few weeks and see what happens!! i guess if she does have babies it will be more obvious whose the culprit when they get colours

 

[Cait]

If her babies are 3 weeks old then there's an absolute maximum of a week to go (if she delays birth of the second litter due to stress on her body). I would think you will know pretty soon!

 

[ian]

It will be really interesting to see if anything happens (although prob best if nothing does.)

 

[daisy]

heres the answer to that,

I have taken out her older litter and fostered them over to a mum with 3 babies same age and all seems fine, might wait on markings before i make a descision about these guys, or i might just snake them all... shes not the biggest doe either so is pretty tired i'd wager.

 

[ian]

Oh my god..... I wonder what happened then, that is very odd!!

Good luck with them all, see how it goes obviously but it would be interesting to see what they develop into you might be able to tell who the dad is.

 

[Angelmouse]

WOW! Well it will be worth seeing how they turn out, I'm not sure about the holding onto sperm theory I talked about earlier but you never know it might be true!

 

[dangermouse]

WOW THats amazing

 

[lindberg4220]

Wow, that was odd :shock:

How are the mummy and the babies doing now?

 

[Cait]

What colour did the babies turn out Daisy? That will give a clue as to the father

 

[daisy]

choc and cinnamon with a few rumpwhites, same set of colours as before, so i have to assume same dad, (i said before one was looking black but its a very dark choc) so that throws the other theory off!! still dont understand it tho as she was seperated from buck before her first litter was born!! :? will get some new pics of the litter soon

 

[Cait]

Maybe he can get out of his tank and into hers? Or maybe someone put him in with her by accident and won't tell you lol! Had any young visitors or well meaning 'helpers' who were curious when you weren't about?...

 

[daisy]

no thats the weird thing, totally know what you mean tho. its just me and my otherhalf who are here and he knows better :lol:
the only other thing is that i left him in too long and have compleatelty erased the memory from my mind - i'm about 99% sure i took him out tho, as i always seperate the bucks when the gals lool bigger. :?

now i am having visions of this supermouse who can open RUB lids... AND close them afterwards!

 

[Marjolijn]

I just had the same thing! I had a litter of almost 5 weeks old and when I cleaned out the cage, I found 1 pinky. I didn't even know that she was pregant again!
I also removed dad from her tank about 1 week before she gave birth and her one litter couldn't have done it, since the males were just 12 days old around the time. No wild mouse or mistake either, I can't explain it!

Her is her first litter at 2 weeks old:

And one of the girls at 5 weeks:

That pinky is a male and 3 weeks old at the moment, doing great. I removed the males from the first litter the day I discovered he was born, but left the females in.