AboutJedediah Expertise I can answer questions about fancy mice and about exotic mouse species such as spiny mice, striped mice, natal rats, gerbil/jird species. I can give advice on housing, feeding, building toys, taming, behaviour, but I cannot answer questions on breeding and medical questions. Please see a rodent vet with your mouse ASAP if you suspect it's sick.
Experience I keep fancy mice, spiny mice and bushy-tailed jirds and I foster fancy mice as well as exotic rodents for a private animal shelter.
Education/Credentials I do not have any educational credits relevant to this.
Question QUESTION: Is a female mouse able to feed baby mice though did not give birth to them? How do you know when your mouse is pregnant because i got fancy mice from petco last monday and know she got chubby and ive been watching her action and shes been really tired and hungry and thirsty. Please reply to this as soon as possible
ANSWER: Dera Rachel,
thank you for your question.
Some mcie will produce milk for babies that are not their own, but I wouldn't rely on that. They will care for all babies in the nest, though, keeping an eye on them, keeping them warm and clean ect.
Since you got the mouse from a pet shop, I would assume that she is pregnant, most pet shops don't bother with separating the sexes. Pregnant mice are pear-shaped and not overall round like fat mice. Here's a picture of a highly pregnant mouse: http://wiki.mausebande.com/_detail/farbmaus/traechtig.jpg?id=farbmaus%3Aschwange...
Offer her a lot of nesting material and extra animal protein and leave her alone as much as possible. The pregnancy lasts for 21-23 days and the babies will need to stay with their mother for 28 days. At that time, you need to separate the male babies from the females. The males should stay with each other and the females with their mother for another four weeks.
I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer
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QUESTION: My mouse does sorta those bumps but there growing every day. and my mom has a biology friend and he told us to put a loaf of bread in the cage and so we did and instead of making tunnels in it she made something underneath it. She is also very jumpy(Example:A piece of bedding fell and her tail went stiff and then She swung around and put it in her mouth and brought it to the wheel.)Also was that a yes to they can take care of the babies though they did not have them.Thanks
Answer Mice cannot take care of babies that are not their own because they won't produce milk in most cases. But if there are other mice in the cage with the pregnant mouse, they will usually help caring for the babies, but only the mother will have milk for them.
The loaf of bread is not very useful, bread is unhealthy for mice and it doesn't help with wearing their teeth down, it's better to take it out. For protein, offer her silkworms (alive or dried), dried brine shrimp, mealworms or dead crickets.
It does sound like she is pregnant, the other reason for going fat/getting bumps are tumors, which can grow extremely fast, but usually they don't make a mouse look pregnant. If you are unsure, I recommend seeing a vet with her. www.rmca.org/Vets has a list of rodent vets.
I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer
