# When do your mice start showing signs of pregnancy?



## cirrutopia (Mar 8, 2010)

I know this varies hugely between individuals, between lines, and to a lesser extent, between litter sizes... but I'm wondering when your mice typically begin to get a bit of a belly from being pregnant?

Mine have tended to be at the end of the second week... curious to see what others' experiences are.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

It varies widely; sime does don't show until they are a couple of days of throwing their litter, others look huge by day 12 and continue to expand until it's utterly inconceivable that they haven't popped. Some does don't show at all if they are only carrying three of four babies.


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## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

With American type mice, you *might* be able to see a *very slight* bulge around 10+ days, again depending on all the factors that moustress mentioned, but usually around 2 weeks I can see a slight bulge, that will increase to golf ball size by the full 3 weeks. The bigger the mouse, the longer it will take them to show, but that's a good thing because the bigger the mouse, the more room the babies have! Also, the smaller the litter, the longer it will take to show, but again, that's good for the babies.


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## Shadowrunner (Sep 26, 2011)

My biggest doe never shows until a few days before she delivers.

Mot of the other guys get a little "squishy" at the end of the second week and then grow pretty quickly from then on.


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## Autumn2005 (Apr 21, 2010)

I've discovered that on my VERY pregnant does, if I gently palpate the sides of the belly, I can feel the lumps of the babies... by the time I can feel that, I know that birth is generally 12-24 hours away at most. And I mean, *very * gently palpate, hardly more than running my fingers down her sides.


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