Wild mouse romanced tame fancy mouse girls

Question

Little lilly   QUESTION: Hello, I recently Bought 2 little albino (PEW) mouse girls from Petco on about September 5th. My Dear old Patches' sister had passed after a second stroke followed by a seizure. I Have suspected that my babies Lily, and Eris have become Pregnant. I house 3 female mice (i did a thorough investigation). Well it seems we had a few wild male mice get into our home within the past 3 weeks. I've looked high and low on all answers, finding out a typical pregnancy lasts 16-28 days latest. I have no clue as to when this occurred  but now my babies are exhibiting all signs that they will have babies! They have been nesting, and the last few days GORING on food and water! They run around chirping and looking uncomfortable. I'm worried since i don't even now if they are really pregnant! So i guess my question is Are they? Sorry my pictured blurred a bit! They both have that shape! Also they both have about 3-5 visible nipples right now! (I also have them in a barred critter trail cage and read that the males can breed through the bars....who knew?)

ANSWER: Hi Amber,

Yes. Quite pregnant.

Gestation is 21 days. The bad boy/s got through the grid. They are tiny and can get through even mouse-spaced bars.

You should put them all in a large tank (at the very very least 20 gal; 30 is much better) right away before the moms give birth, because you don't want to disturb them the first week of their lives.

Baby mice are the cutest things in the world but I have some bad news for you: These half wild mixes are impossibly crazy. Wild mice you can raise tame. Fancy mice of course. But wild/fancy? Forget it. Unless you are willing to hold these little things literally three times a day from their 1st week birthday to their 4th maybe (and then daily of course). I did have one writer do that as I suggested, and the babies were sweet. But other than that..

So unless you can give them that much energy, you will have crazy little mice who will want to escape. As they get a few weeks older they may decide to bite. They don't like being pets.

An exception is possible; of my ten (yes it happened to me! A flaw in the cage) one decided suddenly to be calm and she was a great pet. None of the rest ever calmed down.

The best thing is probably going to be to wait till they are 5 weeks and then find a very nice spot to let them go together. There should be shade, water, and places to hide. A forest or a meadow. They may not be 100% as able to survive as a wild mouse but they will be far happier.


Maybe you can modify this release shelter to make it work for more mice:

http://mouseranch.com/FYI/releaseShelter.shtml


For the moment get them into a tank, and give them extra protein such as scrambled egg or tofu.

Enjoy how cute they are! The crazy starts a little after they open their eyes at 14 days.

squeaks n giggles,

Natasha





---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------


Lilly 3.5 weeks?   QUESTION: Ahhh well they're still holding out but as it's 3.5 weeks I'm quite the worried lil mousie mom! There eldest sister began doing some nesting overtime for her sisters tonight . Throwing bedding at mom is a specialty that has been mastered over time. But Lily (she's at 3.5 weeks, her sister being what i believe to be a week behind her) exhibits no signs of labor, and to boot, I've noticed for about 3 weeks, that her ...ehem bottom parts seem a bit swollen as well. I don't know if that part of being a pregnant mouse or not, as i did not ever intend to breed my girls. I can see babies moving, and mom has been resting overtime for 3 days. Any suggestions? I'm becoming quite nervous as to what is going to happen. She has become a bit bigger in the past few days. Is it she's just taking a bit longer? I'm quite positive on the date of conception with her as i seen the male leaving the scene of the crime . I leave them in a completely dark room from 9:30 p.m. to what ever time i crawl into bed (some times 3:30 am but shhhh i didn't say that XD) Any suggestions help would be greatly appreciated ! ANd thank you in advanced for everything!

I'm also attaching a link to short video of her sides. Baby movement or no? ( sorry they were right under the cage was by the tv while momma cleaned their real cage)
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=673244746033751&set=vb.100000446965581&type=3 ( set to public should work)

Answer
Dear  Amber,

Why do you think Mr Wild One didn't come back later? You may have witnessed the first date :).

Mice are not always in heat. The first visit may have been a disappointment for him :) or, more likely, he came for food.

This is my guess, unless you can rule it out?

Squeaks n giggles

Natasha