# Motherless litter



## Sizzlea89 (Jan 19, 2013)

I came home this evening to find my doe dead but still slightly warm and 6 little pinkies. I have no idea what to do! I have no idea why she died as she was on her own because I had her in quarantine from my other mice having litters and I believe she was quite old but not sure as iv only had her 3 days! I got her from a friend and had been told she had been fighting with the other mice they had. I asked if they had a male in with her and they said no only females that they got a few weeks ago!

If someone could give me some advice on what to do I would be very great full


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## Paradigmatic (Jan 22, 2013)

If you currently have other mice with litters I think your best bet if to try and foster off the pups of the dead doe.
I have not tried it myself, but I know it's a better shot than hand-feeding, as the mouse foster mother can provide much more attention than we humans can.
Removing the mother, and then rubbing the new babies in soiled bedding of the new mother, and mixing them into her pups before letting the foster mother back into the tank seems to be the best bet.

If you have some litters roughly the same size as the orphans this will also help, though I've heard of mouse mothers who would take any size baby (including ginormous rat babies!)


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## Sizzlea89 (Jan 19, 2013)

Thank you for your help  I didn't have any litters around the same age but my doe that has the oldest litter seemed like the best bet because I know one of the other does likes to have a pinky snack! (Accidental litter became lunch) so anyway I got a handful of shavings and the pups that were her own and left the orphan pups to roll about for 5 minutes then I start singularly handing each pup in turn to the doe to let her organise her nest (she's a bit OCD haha) she was more than happy to take the orphans on! It's amazing what smells can do! I was starting to think there wasn't going to be much luck for them


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Way to go! k

Using the litter from the nest they are fostered to is absolutely the way to go. Meeces are ruled by scent in a number of ways. I'm glad to hear of your success.


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## Sizzlea89 (Jan 19, 2013)

I was having great success until about half an hour ago when I went through to find there were only 2 of the 6 pinkies left and some of the 14 day old litter were covered in blood! There obviously had to be something wrong with them for that to happen! The 2 that are left are chunky little ones so I hope they manage ok


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## Sizzlea89 (Jan 19, 2013)

Aww  I'm a little sad! Went in to check and see how they were getting on and my doe had pushed them out of the nest and they were dead. I can only guess that they wernt feeding at all. Oh well at least I tried


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## andypandy29us (Aug 10, 2012)

sorry for your loss ... you did everything you could x


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## bonsai (Oct 14, 2012)

Sorry to hear that.
Everything looked so good,first.


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## MojoMouse (Apr 20, 2012)

You did everything right. It's a shame that the doe rejected them. It's likely that the babies had not had the first feed from their mother, so went too long and lost the instinct to suckle. It doesn't take long before this can happen. The foster mum would have realised they weren't feeding, and just left them.


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## HannahBanana (Dec 23, 2012)

What a shame. If they hadn't had their first feed it's likely they didn't get any of the super high quality colostrum milk which is produced in the first few days of lactation, it includes a lot of antibodies. If the foster litter were older the mum wouldn't have been producing the high quality first milk meal. They might not have been doing so well because of that too. It's such a pity, sorry for your loss.


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## Sizzlea89 (Jan 19, 2013)

I wasn't really thinking they would make it either because the size of them, it's a real shame but it's what happens unfortunately! I believe my foster doe did try her best as she was moving away from her own litter to try and give them a chance, I successfully fostered another 10 day old though, I got him handed to me because apparently his mother just started attacking the litter and the girl didn't want to risk him getting hurt too!


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