# Pregnant female too young- growth stunt?



## Le Necrophagist (May 27, 2009)

Is it safe to say that if a female gets impregnated at an early age from age 6-10 weeks old that their growth will be stunted, along with their litters? Would it be possible for them to grow to the size of a normal adult or is it guaranteed they will not and their litters will always be small?


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## Jack Garcia (Oct 9, 2009)

I think it varies a lot on the individual mice, but here's what happened to me. I had a female who got pregnant at 6 weeks, accidentally. She had eleven babies. One was a runt and was culled immediately. Two of the remaining mice were males and were culled. Four of the remaining females remained with mom, and four were fostered.

The four who were fostered are all larger in build than both their (now adult) mother and their siblings who were raised by their birth mother.

Based only on this one case, I would say that yes, stunting of growth can occur in young pregnancies, but overall health seems to be about equal between the two groups of mice.


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