# The waiting game



## bella_squeak

So I have been waiting for my pregnant girl to give birth and I am just so excited it feels like it's taking forever. It's been a week since you could tell she is pregnant.

I'm just curious, what conditions happened for you guys on birth? Does it tend to happen at night, when it's quiet?

I know I've seen videos on YouTube of mice giving birth in heavy lighting. So what is normal conditions?


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## micurious

What colors did you breed?

I'm still waiting on my first litter at home, but at work they definitely give birth overnight. I suppose they are, after all, nocturnal.

Does your mouse look super pregnant? I keep side-eyeing mine...I think they might be but I'm demonstrably terrible at judging.


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## bella_squeak

She gave birth today while i was asleep this morning and woke up to sqeaking and saw her in labor. There are 8 babies and I checked and they all seem to be healthy. I know about culling but I was wondering are there always runts or peanuts? The babies all look the same size to me.

Also, I have no idea what they will end up looking like. This is my first litter and I don't know if it's bad or not but I just bred the ones I like. One is long hair I think with cow spots and the male is like a tan color. I am also breeding him with a long hair grey female. I love the long hair.

I would post pictures of them but whenever I try to upload it always says the file is too large?

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## micurious

It's not the file that's too large exactly but the picture itself. So if you zoom in/out then take a screenshot and crop, for instance, you can get it down to a better size.

I've handled about five or six litters at work since September - I think it's easier to see size differences when they get a little older, but then I usually err on the side of not handling for the first three days because a couple litters have been munched. I've definitely noticed some siblings being larger than others at the 7 day mark. (and the MD-/- mice seem to look about a week behind in development as they get older. on the other hand when we wean they are snuggly little darlings while their siblings are being obnoxious)


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## micurious

How is the litter doing? Still waiting on mine.


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## bella_squeak

Thank you for your interest. They are doing great and still have all 8 babies. I truly can't tell gender at all I guess because I'm so new to this.

Overall I'm very overwhelmed with joy because I can't wait to have my own children and I just see these babies and the miracle of their birth and how fast they grow. It's just incredible. Right now I'm just breeding just so I can have babies that I think are pretty in color and I want mice that are more used to me from birth and being held. So that's why I'm not truly worried about their specific color or anything.

The babies are starting to have a little bit of fuzz and they have colors on their skin now. The mom is long haired and looks like a cow haha and the boy is tan. Most of the babies look like zebras or something with their dark lines on their skin. One of them doesn't have much color at all so I'm hoping it is not sick and it just is going to be a color that's not dark.

I pretty much just rambled on with that and I hope I didn't offend anyone or anything.

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## micurious

Same here - I decided that getting mice would be like an ant farm for cats, keep my fluffy overlord busy while I'm at work, and in the mean time I could enjoy watching their babies grow up. Hopefully the babies will be a little more tame! Also I'm a giant genetics nerd.

I don't think being sick would affect the color, so it'll be interesting to see what color the paler one turns out to be. Is the dad tan all over, or just his stomach? Sounds like he might take after dad.

I've sexed them at work before but not until 3 weeks old. Even then I was mostly just comparing them to each other and decided who looked more similar! I do know the boy bits are a little further from the tail than the girl bits, and if you compare them enough times eventually you can kinda see it.... kinda.


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## bella_squeak

Haha I completely agree on the sexing issue. And the dad is tan all over and has a few dark brown spots on his back.

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## micurious

Hmmmmm sounds like maybe there were some recessive c dilutes in the mix. Can you tell what color the eyes are yet? Could just be a pink eyed white, but maybe a cream... I'm surprised there aren't any spots, though, if mom and dad both have some.


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## bella_squeak

No I can't tell the eyes yet

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## micurious

So if most of the litter is stripey I think they must be brindles. Probably runs on the dad's side? Or if you're in the UK I guess it must mean that nature has done the sexing for you, since UK brindles are X-based. :lol:


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## bella_squeak

I'm in united states, Virginia.

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## Laigaie

While there are breeders in the US with x-brindle, the overwhelming majority are Avy (american brindle). American brindles are generally yellow with darker stripes, though they can be all-yellow or all-agouti or even all-black, depending on the level of striping. The yellow can be diluted by c-genes, pink eyes, or blue. The stripes can be diluted by just about anything, too. But, with x-brindles, the stripes and the base color are different shades of the same color, which makes them look drastically different.


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## micurious

Speaking of the waiting game... I thought my doe was due last week, on Tuesday (because, you know, a week earlier I could tell she was pregnant). One week later, she's up another 5 or 6 grams, huge, and still totally pregnant.  I thought for sure she was going into labor last night, but no. So in the last three weeks she's gone from about 25 ounces to almost 39 ounces and ranged from, I dunno, peach pit to golf ball.

Are these babies GIANTS? Are there 15 of them??? What the heck? :shock: I left them in with the male after getting them because I figured coming from a coed they must surely be pregnant. I guess she could have reabsorbed and become pregnant again by the male I kept with them. Oyy... I was really hoping we could get this whole birth thing done before, for instance, Christmas travel rolled around!

If she keeps it up I'm definitely themeing these babies. I was threatening Noel and Joyeaux at first but now I'm thinking there's going to be a Dasher, Dancer, Vixen and Prancer as well. *shakes fist* :roll:


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## bella_squeak

That's so cute I love the possible names! Christmas is so soon I wish it was more obvious with the weather (I'm in Virginia and it's not even cold outside ugh).

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## micurious

Yeah, I'm in upstate New York, just an hour from the Canadian border and yet it was 60 degrees on Monday! Very unseasonable, although after last winter dipped below 0F for weeks at a time I'm in noooo hurry.


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## bella_squeak

Guess who have opened their eyes!!!!









I can understand you there especially because New York is said to have mountains of snow.


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## micurious

Awww look at the little nippers! Is the one in the center perhaps the one that stayed pink and never got those dark pigment spots?

I came home today to find that 1) the expectant mother has grown to the point that she looks like a horror show, with weird baby mouse angles poking out every time she stretches or flexes. Either she has a few enormous babies or many small ones... 2) the other doe who I couldn't quite decide pregnant/not pregnant is so totally pregnant. That's exciting, because I'd really like more of the roan/merle coat she has going on. Although presumably she's carrying from my seal point guy, and I have no idea what assortment of C dilute variants SHE might have. Could get veeeeery interesting.

Supposedly the snowiest city in the US. Not sure how that's possible, since both Alaska and Maine, y'know, exist, but the average snowfall here is about 10 feet per year (cumulative, not all in one storm - though that would be pretty cool.)


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## bella_squeak

I can't wait to see pictures of those babies soon! And yeah one seems to have no spots but it's hard to get it to stay still long enough to see because they all are darting around now

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## micurious

And today the mice have officially gone from (drum roll please)

Linnet: 22 grams at the beginning of the month......to 39 grams

Kazza: 20 grams at the beginning of the month......to 37 grams

Mildly amused to note that they gained the exact same amount of weight. But it was twice as obvious on Linnet.

I hope they wrap this up soon, because I have no idea what to do about the holidays. I'm visiting my parents for five days and the original plan was to bring the mousey entourage, being manageably small in number as they are. They've hoarded more food than they could conceivably need in five days... and their water bottles could last for most of a month left to their devices.....but.....

on the other hand, the feline midwife would be coming with me and giving the poor sods a well-deserved break. Hmm.


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## bella_squeak

So exciting and I would leave them at home if I were you so they don't get stressed from the trip.

New problem: WHAT DO I DO the babies are now at the stage they want to run and jump and I want them to be tame so every day I have been holding them. Today I held, kissed, and petted the babies and some I have to hold as gently as possible on the base of their tale to keep them from jumping so fast I lose them.. and one of the babies pursued to try to softly bite me over and over while trying to get away.. what do I do?

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## SamOfChaos

At this stage I try not to get them to far from the ground in their home, just let them run over your hand like 5 to 10cm obove the ground IN their home (not outside) and don't try to hold them by the tail (some mice are sensitiv and it hurts them, not good base for taming). If they jump from your hand just pic them up again a few times.


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## bella_squeak

Oh thank you so much I'll do that.

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## micurious

Yeah, neither of them gave birth last night, that's... four nights left before I go? I don't see them coming with at this point. I give them lab block and then supplement anyways so I'll just give them a bunch of lab block and make sure all the water bottles are working the way they should be. They'll probably be glad for the mini-vacation. And presumably by the time I get back there will be happy fuzzy fat babies.


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## micurious

50 grams and still going strong...


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## bella_squeak

She's just holding them in lol

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## micurious

Seriously, they're going to come out with open eyes and a full fur coat.


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## micurious

!!!! LITTLE SQUEAKERS!!!

From BOTH moms, to my extreme surprise when I came home. Either they gave birth very stealthily last night, or sometime this afternoon! I think there must be at least three apiece, but we shall see tomorrow. Just as soon as I gave up on all control of the situation, of course :roll: Both litters have to be Pascal's at this point, not anyone from the coed cage at the pet shop.  That overachiever.


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## micurious

And the official count is SIXTEEN total, with the big black blimp coming in at 10 and Kazza the surprise mom at 6. I honestly thought she was only going to have two or three, or that she wasn't due for another week, she was so much smaller than Linnet.

Did notice this morning that Linnet seems desperate to escape that cage and those babies, not sure if this is going to be A Thing. They are small and I do think I may need to cull at least two...ten is physically doable but a lot.


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## Lilly

Congratulations on your little squeakers


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