This article is from the Fall 1998 AFRMA Rat & Mouse Tales news-magazine.
By Karen Robbins
Demetri Psihopaidas, Elk Grove, CA
QI’ve been trying to breed my mice for
about a week, and I have seen no teats appear to pronounce
on the female. Also, I have waited for 3 weeks and she has
not given birth. How much do the teats pronounce . . . like
are they unmistakably visible? Or are they hard to see?
Also, I would like to know if there is a possibility of an
early or late delivery. And lastly, I would like to know
what the odds are of the mother dying while giving birth or
needing a cesarean.
AWhen breeding mice, it is influenced by the
age of the animals, environmental conditions, type of food,
type of bedding, weather/temperature, etc. Sometimes you
have to leave the animals together until the female starts
to get big, which may be more than a week. When I breed my
females, I will keep them with the male until they
“start to show” as I usually don’t actually
see them breed. Once in a while you will run across a
sterile male or a female that won’t get pregnant. The
way to tell if it is the male or female with the problem, is
to put a proven female with your questionable male and vice
versa. You will see her getting bigger rather than seeing
the teats since they are so small. If your female is 10
months or older, she is too old. Many people have found that
a lot of times during the summer their mice won’t
breed. The ideal temperature your mice should be housed in
is 65°–75°. My mice are kept at
65°–70° which means a heater in the winter,
and an air conditioner in the summer. A mouse’s
gestation period is 17–21 days. My mice usually go
19–21 days with their gestation. I have found it
extremely rare to have a mouse die trying to give birth. If
a mouse needed a c-section, you would have to find a
qualified veterinarian that would be able to do microscopic
surgery on such a small animal.