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EvilTrailMix View Profile |
Rotten luck. Help raising orphans!
I just moved my mouse tanks upstairs because we’re having work done on the garage door and they needed to be out of the way. My mama mouse was fine until I set the tank down on a table upstairs. Then, she completely freaked out and zipped back and forth a couple times, faster than I’d have imagined possible, and then dropped like a rock. She’s dead. I put her in with her babies so they can get the last of her milk, but I really don’t know what to do next. I want to try to care for them, rather than freeze them and feed them by the handful to my snakes, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to. Puppy/kitten formula is not something I have access to... I’d really hate to just have them die and have all my time and effort wasted. They’re a day shy of 2 weeks, so they’re not ready to be weaned yet. Help?? 
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| 04/13/09 11:18pm |
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EvilTrailMix View Profile |
Message To: EvilTrailMix In reference to Message Id: 1985532 Rotten luck. Help raising orphans!
What are my chances of keeping them alive until next week when they can start being weaned? |
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| 04/14/09 01:15am |
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Rebecca Wright View Profile |
Message To: EvilTrailMix In reference to Message Id: 1985559 Rotten luck. Help raising orphans!
GL! |
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| 04/14/09 12:26pm |
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EvilTrailMix View Profile |
Message To: Rebecca Wright In reference to Message Id: 1985747 Rotten luck. Help raising orphans!
I really wish I had another mom I could hand them off to; I did that with hamsters before. Unfortunately, my two other females have never had babies and are not pregnant, so I put the babies’ dad in with them. (I watched him for about 20 minutes) I’ve heard dad mice make good parents, and I don’t trust the two females not to kill the babies. The dad sniffed them but is pretty much indifferent and is running around the cage. Perhaps when he settles down he’ll go lay with them and clean them up a bit... I used a syringe with a tiny nozzle to feed the mice today. They weren’t all too interested in it, but I made sure they all got a few good swallows and went to the bathroom. I guess I’ll keep this up at about 4 hour intervals and see how things go. I’m not too sure of how much to feed them at once and I’m pretty sure my mixing of the milk and water is not correct, so if you know how or know of a good website, please send it my way! If I can just get them through this week they should start being able to eat solid foods. Thanks! |
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| 04/14/09 12:53pm |
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Greatballzofire View Profile |
Message To: EvilTrailMix In reference to Message Id: 1985760 Rotten luck. Help raising orphans!
Link Link Three good links to sites about raising orphan mice. How odd that the mama just up and died in such a weird way. I have had two female mice die (although they did not have nursing young) for no discernible reason since I started with my mouse colony last summer. Since I have almost 60 females and 9 males in my adult population, that is not too bad of a record. I also have had juveniles die for no reason I could figure. I had one little almost weaned female actually seem to have a heart attack and die right before my eyes! A little male from Petco never grew and finally died. I have had some casualties from respiratory ailments (animals I bought, not my second generation home bred stock), but those I have euthanized. Its been months since I have lost anybody to anything known or unknown. I hate when something dies and I don’t know what caused it, and so don’t know what to do about it. |
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| 04/14/09 04:40pm |
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EvilTrailMix View Profile |
Message To: Greatballzofire In reference to Message Id: 1985861 Rotten luck. Help raising orphans!
So will watered down condensed milk do? They’ve had 2 feedings of it today. I don’t have kitten or puppy formula and someone on a forum suggested trying condensed milk. Will this be enough to get them old enough to be weaned? And most of them won’t suck on the syringe. I don’t want to shove it down their throats and drown them, so I’ve just been trying to get as much in them as I can. It takes about 15 minutes per mouse. I can see the white spots on some of them, but not on others, so I feel like these ones are not getting enough to eat... |
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| 04/14/09 04:52pm |
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Jynxer50 View Profile |
Message To: EvilTrailMix In reference to Message Id: 1985867 Rotten luck. Help raising orphans!
Good Luck!! jake |
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| 04/14/09 09:28pm |
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EvilTrailMix View Profile |
Message To: Jynxer50 In reference to Message Id: 1986016 Rotten luck. Help raising orphans!
Is it possible that a female mouse could nurse the babies even if they didn’t have any of their own? I’ve heard of things like this happening before. I just don’t feel like I’m doing a good enough job and I don’t want them to slowly starve because I can’t get food into them. The worst part is that the day after the mama died I found out that the garage door isn’t going to be fixed until Friday, so I could have waited a week to move the tank. :( |
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| 04/16/09 04:16am |
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Greatballzofire View Profile |
Message To: EvilTrailMix In reference to Message Id: 1986797 Rotten luck. Help raising orphans!
You may be best off feeding these orphans to one of your snakes, which would ultimately be more humane than having them slowly starve. I feel for you in your frustration with mouse husbandry. But eventually it will all work out, maybe even better than anticipated. |
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| 04/16/09 10:13am |
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EvilTrailMix View Profile |
Message To: Greatballzofire In reference to Message Id: 1986888 Rotten luck. Help raising orphans!
They’re very active, running all around the tank, and they go to the bathroom, so I must be getting at least some food in them. It’s just really hard. It takes about 15 minutes per mouse to feed, go to the bathroom, and clean off after feeding, so that totals at about 2 hours. And then I’m supposed to feed them every 4 hours. So I pretty much can’t do anything else with my day. Or sleep... |
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| 04/16/09 12:10pm |
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Jynxer50 View Profile |
Message To: EvilTrailMix In reference to Message Id: 1986965 Rotten luck. Help raising orphans!
jake |
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| 04/16/09 08:49pm |
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Fairy Frog Mother View Profile |
Message To: Jynxer50 In reference to Message Id: 1987275 Rotten luck. Help raising orphans!
Sounds like your female got really spooked, fliped out, then had a heart attack from your description. It is really really really hard to keep rodent babies alive. KMR cat milk replacement mixed 4 to 1 ( 4 water- body temperature, to 1 part KMR. Get the powder, it keeps better) Most pet stores have it. Condensed milk has sugar in it doesnt it? Evaporated is just plain. Or do I have it backwards) If you keep one alive you will be sucessful. Anything smaller than a squirrel is really hard to get to feed. Then you have to very lightly massage their little tummies and wipe their butts to get them to pee and poo. I hate to say it, but it is easier to give em up to the snake to eat. If it eats adults you can give it 2-3 of em easily. Just take each of these experiences and chalk them up to learning. In the wild mortality is extremely high for mice. Thats why they breed so fast. Im sorry youre having suck bad luck. One of these days youre going to post and say OMG!! Finally!! They all made it to adulthood and now Im feeding most to my snake. |
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| 04/17/09 03:04pm |
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EvilTrailMix View Profile |
Message To: Fairy Frog Mother In reference to Message Id: 1987717 Rotten luck. Help raising orphans!
I wasn’t having much luck with the syringe feeding because the babies wouldn’t suck on it and when I stuck it in their mouths they spit it back out. They were looking pretty skinny last night, so I decided to try a different way of feeding them. I got the tiniest paintbrush from my oil set and dipped it in the milk and then stuck it by the mouse. They were all quite happy to suck on it, and quickly got noticeably fuller. I could see a white spot on their bellies that I hadn’t seen since I’d been trying to feed them. Now several of them at a time eat from a bigger paintbrush. Some of them need more encouragement than others, so I put their dad in with them so they start looking for food and then they eat nicely. They go to the bathroom too. I’m really excited about this. I think they’re going to make it. :) Two of them have their eyes open. At what point should I start introducing soft food? Can I give them cream of wheat? I did that with some of my hamster babies, but they weren’t orphaned. I’m just really pleased that they’re finally eating for me, and they look so much better.  |
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| 04/17/09 03:40pm |
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EvilTrailMix View Profile |
Message To: EvilTrailMix In reference to Message Id: 1987729 Rotten luck. Help raising orphans!
I’ve scrapped the idea of putting the babies in with my girls. I just don’t want to risk them getting killed now that I seem to have gotten things under control. They’re still in with their dad, and he cleans them and sleeps with them, and I’ve gotten the feeding time down to about 15-30 minutes now that they’re eating well from the paintbrushes. :) |
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| 04/17/09 03:54pm |
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Greatballzofire View Profile |
Message To: EvilTrailMix In reference to Message Id: 1987738 Rotten luck. Help raising orphans!
They are weaned at about three weeks. As weaning time approaches put some dry food within their reach. When my young are near weaning age I put a few rodent blocks in the nest, to help them get started on solid food. |
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| 04/17/09 09:04pm |
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EvilTrailMix View Profile |
Message To: Greatballzofire In reference to Message Id: 1987883 Rotten luck. Help raising orphans!
I will keep you guys updated. Thanks so much! :) |
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| 04/17/09 10:40pm |
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Fairy Frog Mother View Profile |
Message To: EvilTrailMix In reference to Message Id: 1987922 Rotten luck. Help raising orphans!
One smart mother you have there. |
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| 04/23/09 04:50am |
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EvilTrailMix View Profile |
Message To: Fairy Frog Mother In reference to Message Id: 1991404 Rotten luck. Help raising orphans!
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| 04/23/09 01:31pm |
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Greatballzofire View Profile |
Message To: EvilTrailMix In reference to Message Id: 1991663 Rotten luck. Help raising orphans!
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| 04/23/09 10:04pm |
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