Handicapped mouse pups

Question

BABY MOUSE   I have been breeding mice for over a year for myself, and I have changed nothing about my routine. I only use old t-shirts and new towels to line my cages, as I noticed a bit of sneezing when I would use wood chips. I also sanitize their water bottles, bowls, and entire cage every day to two days. I have a mother who had a litter a week before christmas, it is now a week into FEB. She now has a second litter just born about a week ago, BUT, I have 2 babies from the first litter who are about half the size of their other mates,They seem so malnourished I can see the bones in their tail :( their eyes are still not open and don't seem to me like they will, and they are still suckling on mom with the other litter. I don't want the extra strain on her but her second litter is small and they seem so frail I don't want to stop them for fear they will die. They do eat solid foods too, but because they can not see, they don't do as much as their littermates. How do I help give them a fighting chance?
If you think it is still an upper respiratory infection or something similar, how do I treat that?

I also have another dilemma. Seems like all bad things happen at the same time. I knew I had two moms in my community tank of females that were pregnant but they didn't look very pregnant at all, so I had not taken them out yet. Only to come home an hour after I left to 16 new babies... 8 of which someone had chewed off the back legs and tails of. I quickly set up a nursing tank and put the two moms and the babies by themselves. They are all eating fine and seem okay, but what do I do with mice that have no back legs and tails? Will they be okay?? I have never seen anything like that happen before and have no clue how to handle that situation :(
Please help, I can not stand to see my babies suffer.
Thank you for your time.

I have attached a picture of one of the new borns with the chewed off back legs and tail (there are 8 of them.)

Answer
Dear Rachel,

It never rains but it pours for your mouse house. But it might not end up a complete tragedy.

The two little malnourished guys need extra feeding from you. You need to get them some kitten milk replacement. Here is a video showing you how to nurse a mouse:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNX2byHbppM&feature=related

It should be pretty easy with such big boys; you may be able to have them lick it off of your fingers (or even off of soaked bread). Nurse them as long as they will take it. Another time you should do it starting from far earlier if you see tiny runts. These guys were born with something wrong with them that led to them being too weak to push the other ones out of the way and nurse.  We don't know if the eyes are due to the original problem, in which case they may never open; or due to the subsequent malnourishment. I assume for the moment these babies are larger than the newborns, so they can be left in the nest while the bigger ones are removed.

These two will likely never be as large as regular mice. Still, they may end up perfectly healthy. Even if their eyes never open, they may be perfectly happy. Some mice are actually born with no eyes at all, and they are fine. Pink eyed whites don't have great vision anyway; they use their whiskers and nose as much than their eyes. You wouldn't believe what a mouse can "see" by the air currents its whiskers feel. But they mustn't have a multi level cage.

The other eight are certainly an interesting problem. If you let them survive- and if nature lets them survive-- you will have interestingly handicapped mice. Certainly they must be in a cage without healthy babies within about a week, or they will have a disadvantage. Of course they mustn't have a multi level cage either. My breeder has had mice with cerebral palsy which were pretty much paralyzed from the waist down, and they were happy little critters (I met them...so cute!). The cool thing about mice is they don't know they are handicapped. As far as they know, all mice have the same experience as they do. They do not feel sorry for themselves, nor are they jealous of others. But with eight, they can live by themselves. And you must make sure you have a situation where they can eat and drink. if nothing else works, the best way to give them drinking water without them drowning is to soak hard bread such as Wasa bread in water in a shallow jar lid. And you might find they need softer foods. You will probably figure out what their special needs are. One advantage is the boys and girls can live together. I guarantee they will not mate!  

Assuming the two little ones are females, keep all ten together in a single level cage.

These are my solutions. My breeder, on the other hand, would put them all down. He does this by standing up and throwing them down hard in the bathtub. Don't feel mean if you choose this. They will die instantly.

In the future, these problems will be avoided almost completely if you don't mate back to back. Mice need a rest between litters. You must take the male out BEFORE birth because they will mate within hours after birth. If you don't, you will get the situation I had when I was an ignorant kid-- another litter of babies every three weeks. Can you imagine that life for a poor girl mouse? At the very least don't return the male until the babies are out of the nest. And separate babies at 4 weeks. Girls can actually mate at 4 1/2 weeks!  This way you will never have unintended pregnancies.

PLEASE let me know how it goes with all of these pups. I really want to know whether they survive, and how they deal with their unusual situations. You can either do that by posting a follow-up question here (not a comment or feedback), or writing to me at my email mouse@lovemouse,com, or friending me (be sure to write and tell me who you are) on Facebook: I am the only Natasha Millikan on Facebook.

I wish all of these critters the very best of luck; or your heart strength if you decide to put them down.

squeaks,

Natasha

PS you might get a note saying I have revised this answer if I remember to remove my email and name later.