Mama Mouse Abandons Newborns Again

Question
We have a year old female mouse and a slightly younger male.  She had her first litter several months ago and promptly cannibalized the pups.  She has just had her second litter of five pups and she is ignoring them completely.  Her cage is in a quiet place and we do not even go into the room except to check food/water.  I only realized she finally delivered because one of the babies was behind her food dish.  The others are scattered over the cage floor and she is no where near any of them.  The cage is a standard 10 gallon size small animal cage, not huge or tiny.  We are giving her complete quiet and zero contact/interruption except for food/water.  Is this just a mama who does not know what to do?  I am not going to let her deliver again but want to understand why this is happening.  Several of our friends have had very successful experiences and we are completely at a loss as to what is happening with her.

Answer
Hi Lisa,

Unfortunately, some female mice just don't make very good mommies.  If it were her first litter I would think she just didn't know what those little pink squeaking things were, but since she's done this twice it may just be that she isn't the mothering type.  This can be due to genetics, as some strains are better or worse mothers than others, or how she was raised - it just depends.  Check the area she's in just in case, though, for any kind of sounds that might be outside of your hearing range such as electronics or vibrations.  Also, sometimes changing the mice she lives with right before she gives birth can stress an anxious doe out (such as separating her from the male and/or other females days before birth, or putting her in a tank with new females, etc.).  You can try placing the pups back into a pile for her, but this has just as much chance of making things worse as better if she decides to eat them instead of scattering them.

-Tam