[spazzy_sparx]

I had 22 pups born over a week ago. When I cleaned the cages 5 days ago and moved the babies, the 2 mothers had no problem. I handled them yesterday and about 10 minutes ago I found them ALL dead. It was a massacre.

The two mothers live together with one male. This male does not change when they have pups or are pregnant. They have also never eaten their pups. I don't get it! 22 of them, all gone! Any ideas why? Please help. I am truly upset!

A few notes: one mother had her first litter August 19 and the other September 26. Could it be possible that it is time to retire them? These 2 particular mice have about 10 pups per litter and they grow up SUPER fast. I could totally wean the pups at 3 - 3 1/2 weeks, but I really try not too. Sometimes I have to get them out of there really early though. Oh, and they did have a break in between litters!

 

[spazzy_sparx]

Well, I figured it out. It wasn't my females at all! I opened one of my cages yesterday and somehow a wild mouse got in. I have seen him before, but he never bothered my mice and I can't catch him! He is too frickin smart! He killed another dozen pups last night. I am super bummed. He also killed one of my prized bucks. ...This is ridiculous!! I am having a war with a mouse!

 

[spazzy_sparx]

I do have a cat, but this bugger is smart. There is only one of him and my three cats can't seem to get him.

I agree though. I want revenge!

 

[spazzy_sparx]

I FINALLY GOT HIM! I had to use a sticky trap though. He walked right onto it! Then I cleaned him all up and now I'm going to let him recover before I let him go. I think he hurt himself trying to escape. Thanks for everyone's help! No more dead babies or bucks! YAY! ...what a relief since I have 30 more, and two new bucks.

 

[spazzy_sparx]

Congrats! I'm happy for you. Did he breed with your females?

I don't know. We will found out though because he is the only brown mouse. All of mine are black, white, gray, and a tiny bit of tan all mixed together.

 

[spazzy_sparx]

Woohoo!! Good work, and let's hope that is the end of it. I know that it was the wild mice that spurred me to install better tops and latches on my tanks and that's an added benefit as I rarely have any escapes anymore. The last one was a rider on the underside of a cage top who jumped off and ran right out to the edge of the shelf where I was working so I saw his mischievious little face peeking out at me. Good old Snoot, a true cuddlebuddy! (He has a white spot on his nose.) He was out for all of about 15 seconds or less.

lol! I'm pretty sure it is. He is the only mouse I have seen around and the random mouse droppings have magically stopped appearing! haha! ...he is currently in a bucket though doing FANTASTIC! He is already trying to escape. Sometime soon I will be releasing him somewhere far away from my mice. I'm happy I didn't have to kill him to catch him!