# early development



## gingerdragon (Nov 11, 2014)

So I just had a litter of three boys and seven girls last month. They were to be seperated on exactly march 5th. I did this on time and the boys were put in a cage with their sweet grandpa and uncle. Now, two weeks later, I am finding that I have 17 pregnant females. I'm wondering if one of my new boys developed early or if I've missed an escapee having a field day and somehow covering his tracks and getting back into his cage. I've seen no signs of escape so I'm pretty confused and am nowgoing to be very very busy pouring money into extra food and cages. I already have a plethora of extra stuff (cages, houses ect) but I have been blindsided. I found today that almost all of my girls are getting little bumps. The girls from the new litter are too young to be bred yet and I feel terrible for somehow missing something. Btw, I suspect that several of the new litters will have long hair. Anyone out there want some long haired ( or otherwise) mice? I know that in the lab they separated their weanlings at 21 days instead of 28. Maybe I waited too long?


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## SarahC (Oct 3, 2008)

Are you certain that you have removed all of the males?


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## gingerdragon (Nov 11, 2014)

Yes, I'm very sure of the sex and I made sure to be exactly on time. I just dont get it. Im going to have to keep a close eye on these guys. Im also very confused as to how they might have escaped. This isnt my first rodeo you know? Haha but these clever little ones seem to have performed a miracle! The only logical explanation I can think of is that one of the male weanlings somehow sexually developed early.


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## SarahC (Oct 3, 2008)

it's very unlucky and amazing that ALL have been mated by such a young buck.You would expect to safely be able to house bucks up to four weeks old with does and certainly not all the does to be caught.It's odd.Good luck with the homing.


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## gingerdragon (Nov 11, 2014)

I'm waiting to see if I have a bunch of pseudo pregnancies or if the three males somehow actually impregnated 17 out of 18 females.


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## gingerdragon (Nov 11, 2014)

Ok so an update: I did my daily weigh and check. It seems I was alarmed by pudginess and that I dont have nearly as many pregnancies as I thought. It's still yet to be seen but it looks like I have 2 definitely pregnant girls from my second generation and possibly 2 or 3 more. As for my third gen girls, they all seem to have gained 2 or 3 grams over the past week and thats not out of the ordinary for their age. Like I said, it's still yet to be seen but I'm fairly confident that what I'm looking at now is manageable.


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## Miceandmore64 (Jul 16, 2013)

I left two young males in a little bit too long and just had a birth and one more expecting.
Bit of a bummer but the litter was only 5, the mother killed the runt an I have 3 girls and a boy.
Very lucky!


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## gingerdragon (Nov 11, 2014)

Two litters, the rest were just fat :-D
I'm actually thinking that one of the nights that the girls got out that they found a way into and out of one the males' cages. The window/door on the lid wasnt completely shut on Rupert's cage one morning and i think i found 3 girls up on a metro shelf I have in the opposite corner of the mousery that day. I had to look back through a ton of notes.


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## gingerdragon (Nov 11, 2014)

My girls seem to retain some baby weight that kind of makes them look pregnant. I have the new litters which are heavily angora and regular long hair. I will post a bunch of pictures of the new babies. The are almost weaned now.


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## gingerdragon (Nov 11, 2014)




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## reeserueryn (Apr 13, 2015)

Very cute! Love the black pie off to the very left with his/her little eye patch


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

What a lovely mixed grouping of mousies! Thanks for posting!


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## gingerdragon (Nov 11, 2014)

Not everyone is happy about the bath but most of them like it. Wet mousies!


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## paddycat (Mar 25, 2015)

Such cute moozles!
I like the one with the eyepatches, he looks like rorschach!

Just out of interest how do you bathe your mousies for the first time? I want to do it but don't want to freak them out entirely.


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## Fantasia Mousery (Jul 16, 2011)

Please, don't bathe your mice. It is not natural for them, and they do not need it.


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## gingerdragon (Nov 11, 2014)

I don't bathe them. No soap is ever used. This is just playtime. In this picture, I had a lot of water in there, more than usual because I kept adding warm water to the pool but there is still dry area for them to stand. I usually only fill it so half is dry and half is wet and I put them on the dry side so they aren't forced to swim or be wet. I leave bits of food and hide spots as well as things to climb on and explore. They like sticks, honestly they'll play with grass if I put it in there. But most of these mice love to just swim around the deepest part and push this yellow floating ball around. If one did use soap, the mice would lose thier natural oils, probably thier hair too (not conductive to breeding long hair mice) and thier skin would become dry and cracked making it very easy to get horrible infections. When they cluster together and clean themselves like in this picture, bath time is over and it's time to go back in the cages. Well, after draining the tub and laying out a towel for them. I also keep a small cup for washing down the poo before the towel goes down.


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