My mouse had babies and she keeps eating them but why?

Question

i dont know why but luckly there are still 6 of them. still if u know why then please! tell me

Answer 1

ther may be different resons the mother may be strest or think that they are in danger ether way you need to get them away from her and u will need to take care of them. maby u can go to the vet and they can tell u how to take care of them

Answer 2

Honestly no one knows for sure why a mother cannibalizes their babies but it is like to a few things. Some factors are amount of resources such as food and water, if there are any other mice in there with the mother including the father, a first litter can be very stressful for a new mom and that also effects it. It all comes down to the mom, if she feels happy, safe, good food and water supply. Apart from that we don't know but these are the things you can help mom with. DO NOT HANDLE THE BABIES until they are 10 - 14 days old. If you do you will leave your scent she will feel threatened or will not be sure they are her babies and will kill them. The best thing you can do is give her lots of water and food put her somewhere quiet and do not disturb her, even restrain from picking up the mother herself. And thats all you can do.

Answer 3

Stress is possible, but it's also possible there was something wrong with the other babies, or that there were too many for her to feed, so she reduced the number of babies to something she could manage.  She might do that if there is a lot of noise, too much light, if it's too hot or too cold, or if her food or water ran out.  But she might also do it if she's inexperienced, or she might do it for reasons you'll never know.  When I have a litter, usually I'll count the babies on the first or second day, and then somehow by day 7 there are often fewer than before.  I choose to believe I mis-counted, because there's nothing you can do about it anyway.

You can start handling them at 6 or 7 days old, just take the mom out first, and put everything back the way it was before you put her back.

Don't give them jellybeans or other junk food, mice are very sensitive to the quality of their diets, and especially artificial colors and flavors increase their risks of tumors by a lot.  If you want to give her treats, give her sunflower seeds, unsweetened cereals, dry bread or crackers.  

Don't separate the babies from mom, their chances with her are much better than any alternative you could offer, and they're almost impossible to raise by hand.  Make sure there's a nice safe nest area in the cage for her to hide them in, make sure there's plenty of food and water, that the cage is somewhere quiet and not in bright light for too much of the day, and hope for the best.  If those 6 make it to a week old, they'll probably be fine.

Answer 4

is it her first litter?

that might be why.

first time rodent moms tend to do that.

Answer 5

well, most mothers tend to do that because your food supply is not so swell. try putting a lot of treats out so that they dont get the children. i like to use jelly beans!

Answer 6

this may just be stress like a dog covering its pups up or something around the cages location may make it nervouse (a clock that makes nosie, loud music, radio) but DON'T! move the cage it may cause more stress.

you may want to just remove the babies from the mama and hand raise them yourself!

there are alot of pros to this to!

1. they will be hand tamed

2. they will be trusting of you

3. you will know they are safe

4. you will be like a mother!

also in doing so you need to get special formula and get a needle-less syreng to put the formula in also you will need to learn how much the babies need!

hope i helped!