Mice of different genders living together

Question
Hi,

I am currently an owner of four lovely little mice, given to me by a friend a couple of weeks ago. The problem is, there are three males (Gandie da Grey, Golden Sr., and Golden Jr.) and one female (Saki). I've been told by the previous owner not to worry about babies because they have been together  for quite a while and she has never gotten pregnant. However, I woke up this morning and saw some very strange behavior. All three males were fighting to smell the Saki's underside while the poor she-mouse was trying to run away. I think that they were trying to get her pregnant, but I'm not completely sure. After taking Saki out to play with her (she seems most comfortable with me) for a while and feeding all four some treats, the behavior seemed to stop. Should I separate Saki from the males to completely reduce the chance of pregnancy? I know males and females shouldn't be kept together in the first place but I would feel really bad to separate her after keeping them together for so long. Oh, and I think it is worth noting that Saki, Gandie da Grey, and Golden Jr. are littermates and Golden Sr. is their father.

Thank you, and any help is appreciated :)

Answer
Hi,

Ahh, the mice don't care what their family relationship is when choosing mates! I think gerbils do. But mice are not picky.

Yes please separate them now and get a couple of girlfriends for Saki. She will certainly be lonely. If she has a litter the 'aunties' will help, too.

Give her some extra protein just in case-- scrambled egg, liquefied peanut butter, nuts.. and weigh her every day if you have a small enough scale.  If she does balloon out then you can join the Facebook group I have to help with unintended litters ('oops babies'). You will need to friend me and pm me to tell me who you are and that you want to be in Oh, No, Babies!

https://www.facebook.com/natasha.millikan

If you would like to be in my rats and mouse group you can john anytime:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/RatsandMiceareAwesome/

Best of luck and I hope she isn't pregnant-- there are too many randomly bred mice in the world!

Squeaks n giggles,

Natasha