mice breeding - (Jun/03/2009 )

I've not done much animal work so I come to ask for help.

I have 1 male and 1 female I want to breed, currently in seperate cages. I'm letting them settle for a couple of days before introducing them to each other. When you introduce the mice to each other what is your suggestion? put the male in the female cage? or fresh cage withe female going in first then male or vice versa?

Any suggestions or recommendations? They are C57/BL6 mice if thats important.

Lost

LostintheLab on Jun 3 2009, 05:44 PM said:

Never had to think his deep - they did their work themselves without me having to do anything

LostintheLab on Jun 3 2009, 03:44 AM said:

We place the female into the male's cage and give them some bedding material. One issue we sometimes have with first time mothers is that they will eat most (if not all) of their pups. In our hands, this usually only happens with new mothers. By their second litters, however, the females not longer devour their own litters.
We also have better luck when we house breeding trios (one male & two females). We then separate the pregnant females to their own cages at least a few days before giving birth.
Hope this helps and good luck.

Mondo977 on Jun 4 2009, 01:09 AM said:

Thanks for the advice, I will look out for the eating problem, though these are ordered mice so I don't know if she's been a mother before (she's 7 weeks). Its the babies I actually want ( ). I might be able to get another female if this is a problem.

Thanks though for your speedy replies, maybe I"ll introduce them tomorrow after 2 days of settling in....cue candelight, music and sterile gloves....


Not so lost now

LostintheLab on Jun 4 2009, 09:26 AM said:

I don't want mouse pee on my hand!

Hi there,

I am new to this forum, however I have many years of mouse breeding experience.

We always placed the female into the male cage, this produces the Whitten Effect (male pheromones induce oestrus in females). We always preferred a nice "smelly" male cage for this.

Sometimes when pairs are placed into clean cages, the males were so intent on establishing territory, they have been known to attack females.

In all my years experience, I have never had females eat the young unless there are external stress factors such as noise, vibration or bad housing.

We successfully breed mice in both pairs or trios. If it is not important to identify the mother (ie: random breeding programs) then we left the trios together and both females as well as the male care for any young in the cage.

I love breeding mice

Good luck

I am given 5 (4 female/1 male) kittens from same mother and I need to breed these when they grow up.

They are 5 weeks now. Should I separate the single male to a different cage or let them be together?

Nabi on Apr 9 2010, 01:45 AM said:

I'd start by separating the male and leaving the girls together for now. If your lab has an option of 'small' or 'large' shoebox cages, chose the large cages. Females are much less prone to infanticide when given plenty of space, and males won't pack on extra grams that make it more difficult to mate...unless they are an obese strain.

At 8 weeks old the females will start coming into heat, now you can add them to the male's cage. Let them go about their mousy business and you should start seeing noticeably pregnant females in about 11-15 days. At this point either pull two females at the same time and put them in a new cage, or house them separately. Give them plenty of nesting material and, if possible, a paper or plastic house for inside the cage. These environmental enrichment items provide a more natural environment that keeps the mice happy & productive.

Fungus_Dreams on Apr 11 2010, 01:59 AM said:

I did what U told and I am expecting an expecting mother anytime this week. Today afternoon, I will be checking on them; so keeping my fingers crossed.

Thank U FungusDream; but don't U go away, I will have to find U again for more troubleshooting.