pregnant or overweight

Question
QUESTION: Thanks so much Tamarah i iwll look into the popsicle thing.

My mouse Carol, as you may know is suspected to be pregnant. She's been gaining weight very rapidly over the last week, on Thursday she was 42 Grams, on Friday she was 46 Grams and now today she is 52 grams. My sister and i are very sure that she is pregnant because it's a definate 'i swallowed a golf ball' shape, however my Mum mentioned that it could be we are over feeding her. But the thing is  i feed her just as much as all the wild ones and they havn't gained any weight. Is Carol going to have babies? If so, do you know when? I've included a few videos and images for you to look at, all you have to do is paste the following link into your browser and then down the bottom click 'download.' Each folder name is labelled the the video/photo was taken.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/p0pwtt

Thanks very much!!

Mart.

ANSWER: Hey,

What a cutie!  She's definitely prego.  It's difficult to overfeed a mouse, since they need their food to be available 24-7, so most mice that have this problem have it all the time and don't develop it out of the blue.  Also, it's usually red/orange/yellow mice that have this problem, with black and white mice usually tending to be slim and smaller.  :)  At that rate of growth, though, and that wide tummy, I'd say she's bound to give birth somewhere within the next week, probably in the next few days.  Not all mice get to exactly the same size before giving birth, so it's hard to estimate.  Definitely be prepared now.  She'll probably build a circular nest right before giving birth, so if you see her suddenly rearrange her cage and make a perfect little nest don't disturb her and make sure she has enough food and water to last her the first few days of motherhood.

Congrats!  :)
-Tamarah

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QUESTION: Hey Tamarah

Thats excellent then! In that case i iwll make sure she has plenty of fresh food and i'll lay off handling her for quite a bit!

Another thing i wanted to say to you also. I've read in some places that these wood shavings are bad for mice. Luckily i have never used them!
What i have been using though are old unwanted pillow cases/T-Shirts for the base part of their cage, would you say im doing the right thing here or is there something else you could reocmmend?

For their inhouse bedding i have been using a mixture of cotton wool aswell as blank A4 shredded paper.

Am i doing this right?

Cheers Tamarah!!

ANSWER: Hi,

Pine and cedar are the hazardous wood shavings to look out for.  Aspen is fine, and so are commercial paper beddings like Yesterday's News or Carefresh.  Shredded paper is great, too, but if you're having any problems with absorbency or smell I would recommend trying aspen or the paper beddings (carefresh is especially warm and fun for them to play in).  Do you wash and reuse the cloth base?  I've never done that with mice before, since aspen usually absorbs pretty well, but if it works for you by all means - as long as they can burrow to keep warm (or go inside the house, of course).  You might want to remove the cotton from at least the mom's cage, though, as the fibers can get caught around little baby limbs or tails and cause big problems.  :)

-Tamarah

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QUESTION: Hello Tamarah,

How's you!?

Sorry i never got back to you sooner have started a new job and have been frantic at work this past few weeks.

Carol my domestic mouse had her babies! I think she's had around 12. Now what i didnt realise is that Molly (the wild one was also pregnant) all along she has been kept in a separate cage to Carol. I had a male mouse escape and when i found him i instantly put him in with Molly (the wild one) and was surprised to see 5 babies lying in the wheel. I obviously did completely the wrong thing by putting the male mouse with her because she deglected them all and sadly 2 were white as a sheet (dead) the other 3 were suffering. I felt awful as i had no idea Molly was even pregnant let alone having babies! I'd imagine the stress of putting the male in there made her neglect her babies which is a real shame. Anyway, regarding the other 3. Molly seemed adiment she wanted nothing more to do with them! So i held carol for about 20 minutes and rubbed carols scent all over Mollies babies. I then placed all 3 in with Carol and her babies (which were now about 4 days old) and shes feeding them and they seem healthy as anything. I was over the moon!

I have noticed a bit of a change on Carols behaviour aswell. She doesnt neglect her babies at all... as soon as i hear them squeek she's immediately in there to feed them all! I do find she's sitll very skittish when she's in her cage. She WILL NOT be picked up out her cage she seems even more resistant than usual over this.. what would be the reason? Does she feel protective over her young ones?
I have held back from changing the young ones bedding in their little mouse house. However i have been cleaning the cage base as it does get very smelly. The babies were born on the 22nd Feb and all seem to have the stubbly hair now.
I should let you know Carol got pregnant form a wild male mouse, would this make the babies vicious usually or harder to tame?

Regarding her skittishness (in her cage) when i eventually get her, i put her in the bath tub (empty bathtub!) give her some floor time with toys then she crawls into my hand no problem... but the bathroom floor/cage she refuses to crawl into my hand... Why would this be?

Hope to hear form u soon Tamarah, hope all is well.

Mart.

Answer
Hey Mart,

I'm doing okay.  :)  Great job on the fostering!  It's good to hear Carol's being such a good mommy.  Some mice make better mothers than others, which would account for the difference in Carol and Molly's behavior.  It is very likely that she's nervous about you being in the cage around her babies, though, which might be why she's a bit more skittish.  It should get better as they get older.  :)

Yes, the babies being half-wild will likely cause them to be harder to tame than otherwise.  You can help this a bit by handling them every day from now on (be careful, once they start hopping they can hop right out of your hand and get injured or lost, I fix this by handling them inside of the cage).  Be sure to move mom out of the cage just before you do, so she doesn't get worried, and to handle her a bunch first or rub your hands in the bedding so the babies don't smell too much like you.  They're about six days old now, so they should do well with being held and picked up.  I don't remember - they're in a cage with solid walls, rigth?  Once they start wandering around, hoppers and weanlings are very good at escaping through wire bars!

Don't worry about Carol - she'll warm up to you again when her babies are grown up.  She's just being a good, protective mom.  :)

-Tam