# Housing pregnant does together



## windyhill (Jan 19, 2010)

Do any of you house a few pregnant does together?
Whats the pros and cons.
Is it safe?
I know some people use nannies, but Ive also heard of housing 2 pregnant does together.


----------



## Cait (Oct 3, 2008)

I house pregnant does together 99% of the time and don't have problems. With every mouse litter there is of course the possibility that something can go wrong and there are a lot of things to weigh up. For a simple example - does who litter together but too far apart may reduce the younger litter or they get pushed out by the older stronger babies BUT for does housed alone they may produce little or no milk and with no other lactating doe to help all the babies will die. There are pros and cons for both.


----------



## miss.understood (Apr 20, 2010)

Keeping this in mind as i plan to breed a couple does at the same time in a few months. thanks for that hun x


----------



## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

I wonder about two things; first, if a litter gets munched, how will you know which one did it, and, second; unless the two does and the buck are all in the same line, whose babies are whose, or even if you do know, sometimes one doe will produce better quality meeces than the other, and you'd want to know that.

Right now, I regret having the two yellow does and Mondo together, since now I don't know which one of them carries aby.


----------



## Jack Garcia (Oct 9, 2009)

It's possible that neither of them carries rosette. Things do spontaneously pop up, which would mean nobody carried them. I think of the recent dumbo mouse that appeared that way in Bristol.

I sometimes let does litter together; sometimes I don't. I generally play it by ear, as it were.


----------



## windyhill (Jan 19, 2010)

So far Ive housed does by themselves, but am wanting to try housing a few females together.


----------



## Cait (Oct 3, 2008)

Moustress - if you needed to know whose babies were whose, you could mate up your does and then put two of different colours together, let's randomly say a blue and a PEW, so that you could clearly see the difference. To be honest I could tell you the father of a litter but possibly not which doe of a pair they belong to as they generally give birth around the same time (better for the babies) as is the case with most show breeders. I don't have a problem with 'munching' though :lol: If one doe does have better babies though, I can keep all of that litter between the two does and cull the inferior quality litter if I need to - another thing that helps to achieve breeding goals.


----------



## windyhill (Jan 19, 2010)

Im going to try having 2 does in together and see how it goes. 
Im going to try putting different colored together, so hopefully I can tell the offspring apart, if not, all well


----------



## Lizzle (Apr 7, 2010)

I am doing this with two of my females - they were purchased together and have known each other their whole lives. They are actually best friends and prefer each other's company to any other mouse. Lady lovers for sure.  If I were you, I might be apprehensive about putting two pregnant does together unless they really like each other and are due at around the same time. And I agree with Mousetress - if you want to record their lines specifically, you can get confused as to whose babies are whose.


----------



## windyhill (Jan 19, 2010)

Im talking about breeding two doe cagemates at the same time, no interducing new does.


----------

