mouse babies

Question
my mouse just gave birth and the male has been taken out of the cage and she has 2 other females with her, who are not pregnant. how can i tell if there are any problems with the mom and her babies or the mom and the other females?

Answer
I'm sorry Sara, I didn't see this question until I had already answered your last one.  Congratulations on your new litter!

The mom should be alert, eating and drinking, and nursing her pups several times a day.  Keep an eye on her and make sure she isn't tossing any pups out of the nest or laying around panting - otherwise she should be just fine.  Some moms sit with their babies 24-7, and some seem to never be around them, but if they have little white spots on their bellies, then they are eating sufficiently (these disappear over time, but should be easy to see when they roll over for the first few days).  Here's a photo of a milk spot for reference:  http://or.ucsf.edu/larc/10799-DSY.html (the "Day 1" photo shows it very well).  The pups should all be inside the nest and nursing.  It may be tough to tell if anything is wrong with them unless you lose any of them, but the chances of them being healthy and happy increase exponentially with every day that goes by.  :)

If you hear any loud peeping or squeaking, notice any anxiety between the mother or the other females, or notice any pups that didn't survive, observe the cage personally and carefully to figure out what is going wrong.  If the other females are being antagonistic they should be removed, but most of the time they will either leave the pups alone or help mom out.  Removing them if nothing is wrong could stress out the momma, so try to keep things in the cage the same for the first week or so of the litter's lives.  You may find you need to remove them later on for the sake of space as the pups start to get older, around 2-3 weeks.

Best of luck, and congratulations again!  :)

-Tam