# Doe Eating Babies' Tails.



## Carlie (Jun 21, 2012)

I have a 12-week-old Blue Doe who gave birth to a litter of 6 about 4 days ago. It's her first litter and they look to be doing well.

Except she's bitten their tails off to varying degrees.

It's the first time I've seen this in around 20 litters and I'm not sure what to make of it.

Will she have done this from lack of protein or something similar? Would you breed from her again if she was in your mousery?


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## PPVallhunds (Jul 26, 2010)

Ive had it a few time with both the fancy mice and the grass mice, Ive put it down to going ott when cleaning up the new babies. All the fancy mice didnt do it again with a second litter but the grass mouse did it every time.
My current stub tail girl had her mum do it, but when another female gave birth a few days befor in the same group there tails were fine as were the litter born a week later in the group.

So could just be her age and inexperance. But i would say if you do breed her again and she does it again them remover her from the breeding program.


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## Carlie (Jun 21, 2012)

Lovely, that's good to hear. That was going to be my strategy at a guess - give her a chance, see if she does it again and take action if she does.

It's a bit of a bugger that they're missing most of their tails though as I'm trying to choose mice that don't have white tail patches.

Ah well. :lol:


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Eating parts of limbs and tails, and occasionally ears can all be an overly aggressive grooming to rid the babies of external parasites. And gosh, those little pinkers must be tasty as this sort of thing happens to everyone who has a largish population of breeding meeces.


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## Carlie (Jun 21, 2012)

Hmmm... they do sound tasty. I might try one.

I'm curious to know what they're going to look like as adults with short tails. .


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## PPVallhunds (Jul 26, 2010)

heres some pics of my latest when young
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa23 ... 020-14.jpg
http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa23 ... pup-14.jpg
And bit older
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 4529_n.jpg


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## andypandy29us (Aug 10, 2012)

the photos are great ... its amazimg how much they change in the pics ..


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## Carlie (Jun 21, 2012)

PPVallhunds said:


> heres some pics of my latest when young
> http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa23 ... 020-14.jpg
> http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa23 ... pup-14.jpg
> And bit older
> https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 4529_n.jpg


They are gorgeous! Wow!

I guess they do just fine without their tails then?


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## PPVallhunds (Jul 26, 2010)

yeah it doesnt seem to cause them any problems but it sure makes them a pain to catch lol


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## Carlie (Jun 21, 2012)

Piccy of the bob-tails!


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## PPVallhunds (Jul 26, 2010)

arh i like the top one and the one on the right. It will also help you tell them apart if you keep them in a group where they all look the same colour lol Thats how i can tell one of my orignal foxes as she has the tip of her tail missing.


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## GibblyGiblets (Oct 2, 2011)

looks like she wanted manx babies xD

yeah, I know u_u *walks away*

pretty babies though ='D


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