# Two litters in four days from same doe



## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Uh, huh, got your attention, didn't I?

Roselle, a fawn tri doe, had four nice big babies four days ago. She still looked swollen, so a couple of days later I fostered her babies onto another group of does. Today she show up with a litter of seven or eight nice healthy little squeakers. Her abdomen now looks like a normal postpartum belly, and the babies have fed well. It was way too early for those first four to have come from that mating, so it'll be interesting to figure out how the unknown father and she managed their tryst. The current litter came right on time; exactly eighteen days from the time I put her in with Sarge and Shimmer.

It's even more puzzling to understand that a doe can be carrying and get pregnant again...or hold babies and deliver later...I wonder now if Shimmer had done that. She looks healthy enough, fur nice and shiny, bright eyes.

Yikes, I just had the alarming thought that maybe there's undercover lover in that tank....naw..can't be....but I gotta go check just to be sure.

Her mother, Shimmer, had a litter, was swollen, and after about six days, she had munched them all. She's still swollen, and I've been treating her presumptively for pyometra, and I presumed Roselle was suffering from the same thing. I hope the antibiotics didn't hurt her new litter .

I'm very optimistic about this new litter, and the fostered babies that were born four days ago are looking good.


----------



## Stina (Sep 24, 2010)

I've not personally heard of this happening in mice previously....but have heard of it in cats (having 2 separate litters being carried at the same time). It's very rare, and usually when it happens, the second litter is lost b/c of the labor of the fist litter (basically all born at once, so the 2nd litter is underdeveloped). If the litters are in separate uterine horns though, that can protect the 2nd litter. I imagine what happened is that for whatever reason, not enough hormones were produced after the first litter's implantation to prevent the next estrus cycle


----------



## GibblyGiblets (Oct 2, 2011)

I have never heard of it in mice or cats, I wasn't even aware either had two uterine horns.

I do know rabbits can get doubly pregnant though.

is it possible she had the first 4 babies, then a few days later had the rest of the litter? that makes a bit more sense to me than to have been doubly pregnant, but then again, I really don't know.


----------



## Stina (Sep 24, 2010)

2 litters at the same time is more likely than healthy babies from the same litter being born 4 days apart. 4 days is the approximate estrous cycle of mice, so a 2nd litter makes sense. It just requires ovulating and mating twice....its not that big of a stretch....its just that normally a pregnancy will prevent a 2nd estrus cycle (and thus secondary ovulation) from occuring.


----------



## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

The first were so much bigger than the second that I don't think they could have been the same litter. There have been other oddities in the pre- and postpartum health of meeces with this kind of coat (they are of the 'mystery' roanish, merlish,splashy type).

Since Shimmer looks so dang healthy, I'm going to hope for the best. I would guess that carrying two litters at once would be likely to cause intense hunger, which would explain her munching those tasty little pinkers. They hardly had a hint of hair on them. I'm still treating both does for pyometra as I'm not sure what's going on exactly.


----------



## Kitsune_Gem (Oct 15, 2011)

Its not uncommon in cats, chinchillas, and on some rare occasions, rats, to have two different fathers from one litter.

Chinchillas can carry two litters at once due to the shape of their uterus, thus resulting in litters as close together as a few days, to a few months, its also a way that a breed back can be done, something you don't want.

I have heard of cases with rats, where the mother had one litter with two different fathers, although rare.

Cats, well.. You can have a litter of 6, each kitten with a different father, yay genetics~

So it is very well possible that the two litters have different fathers, or something of that sort.


----------



## Shadowrunner (Sep 26, 2011)

I had a PEW do that to me a few months ago.
She had a litter, then three weeks into that one she had another and with no contact with any males. 
They all turned out to be splashed.
It was bizarre, so I wrote it off as a miscalculation on my part.

That's so cool though that it's happened elsewhere!


----------

