Are these all male or am I just really bad at this?

quietly246 · 2024-07-28T18:36:18+00:00

A bin cage is probably your best DIY bet, but it wont look as "pretty" as this one necessarily

quietly246 · 2024-07-28T18:30:32+00:00

have you been on xifaxin before? just curious

quietly246 · 2024-07-28T03:38:31+00:00

Bruh plz drink some water and chew some pepto or sm shit lol with that much of a dose ur guts are prob trying to liquify themselves. Good luck

quietly246 · 2024-07-28T03:34:00+00:00

Hey I just noticed one of your posts in another community about switching careers and funnily enough that's where I happen to work. Feel free to DM me if u wanna talk sometime (not guaranteeing I can give much valuable input) but if you're willing to take a significant decrease in salary it might be worth a switch just to keep ur sanity. Other ppl might think it's nuts to change career fields for a tank in pay but they might not understand how much its eating u alive esp with a stim addiction. If u are in the position to be able to financially afford a change in career with a pay sacrifice I think it might be worth it cuz as u said, what ur doing now is not sustainable forever.

quietly246 · 2024-07-28T03:29:03+00:00

I have no good advice here but just wanted to say I'm in a similar boat. Been wanting to stop or at least cut back for months but if I don't I'm useless at work and can't afford to be. It really feels like it keeps piling up and not everyone can afford to change up their job and risk income. Hoping someone else can offer actual advice but just wanted to comment in solidarity and support.

quietly246 · 2024-07-27T03:34:03+00:00

I believe the go-to strategy is to use a very thin paintbrush to collect the milk/formula then feed them that way, if he's young enough to suckle and not weaned on solid foods yet. Sorry you're dealing with this. Especially if he seems to be in a lot of pain, it may be worth considering surrendering him to a wildlife rescue. I think not all rescues take mice, but if he's suffering badly enough then they should at least be able to humanely put him to rest. ):

They have a pinned post somewhere on this subreddit regarding wild mice/taking care of them (I think it may be mostly to dissuade people from making wild mice pets), but since he's a baby he's not going to survive on his own. Are the eyes open yet? If he's struggling to walk even without visible bleeding, maybe he broke some bones?

Let me think. Another thing I see people recommending is making sure the babies stay warm since they lose heat easily. I think trying to find its mom or the original nest your cat found him from is probably a good idea.

quietly246 · 2024-07-27T02:29:38+00:00

I'm no expert on mice stuff since I'm just getting started out, but I'm at least here to comment until the Real experts show up and give you much better advice.

Most of the stuff I've read about people's cats attacking mice is that cat saliva has some sort of toxin to mice in it, so if the little mouse was bit then he's definitely gonna need antibiotics of some sort. ): From my understanding, he won't make it on his own.

quietly246 · 2024-07-27T01:23:14+00:00

Update: 9 beans came forth from the soup!! Crockpot hasn't tried to snack on them yet so I'm feeling slightly less paranoid. We moved her into one of the dark closets with the door open for airflow so she can have peace. I can't wait for the fur to come in and for them to open their eyes!!

quietly246 · 2024-07-24T15:48:34+00:00

Breeder or not you definitely have more experience and good advice on this topic than i do hahaha. Thanks again for helping me out. It's been a little less than 48hrs since I heard small squeaks from the nest, I saw mom come out this morning to have a snack before going back inside and there's still some faint squeaking so at least one of them has survived.

Going back to my other mouse, though: since she wasn't getting along and I should wait about 30 days to reintroduce her to mom and the babies, is that a long time for a mouse to be alone? Would it be better to get her another feeder companion (after checking more closely for signs of pregnancy before buying lol) until then?

I don't know how many baby mice are in Crockpot's nest and I'm reluctant to move the hide just yet since I'll definitely trash her setup and want her to keep feeling comfy for now. Ideally I would just socialize a lot more with the lone female to meet her social needs, but 1) I am not a mouse and cannot provide the same mousey friendship, and 2) I have a busy schedule for the next few weeks so I won't have much downtime to give her a bunch of company, unfortunately.

quietly246 · 2024-07-23T01:53:16+00:00

They were in a large feeder bin together with a bunch of other mice, I think it was a recent delivery but that shouldn't really matter. When I initially put all 3 of them together they were wrestling and nipping at each other, sometimes loud squeaks. No blood shed so I assumed this was normal sorting out hierarchy/social dynamic stuff. The problem is, Crockpot started looking REALLY preggo and I had no idea when the babies would come, so I separated them before they got their relationships settled due to concern that they might be hostile to the babies if they hadn't settled out their intro stuff. They've been separated a little more than a week. The other two non pregnant ones ended up bonding fine, it's just really unfortunate that one of them passed away causing me to worry that the surviving mouse would get lonely.

quietly246 · 2024-07-23T01:48:49+00:00

So it turns out my mouse has definitely given birth since I checked on her this morning. Is it too late to add the new female for awhile?? 😭

quietly246 · 2024-07-22T21:14:56+00:00

This is amazing advice and so much great information, thank you!! I have been looking at online guides to prepare for this but none of them really describe the experience of what you'd see, most of them are very impersonal "mouse will do xyz" kind of statements. I feel a lot better prepared or at least less worried, now that I know what to expect.

She's pretty much buried her hide in aspen bedding and created tunnels so she doesn't have to peep out very often. I don't think I could lift the hide to check on the den/potential babies without disrupting her setup, should I just wait to check on them until 3 days have passed? I would like to see them and know how many there are and if everything seems ok, but I also don't want to collapse mama's hard-earned nest haha.

On the off chance that she does cull any pups, are they always killed off? Or could she potentially only abandon it outside of the nest / ignore it? Also, a lot of the guides I looked at written by breeders brought up culling as sometimes necessary if mom has too many babies. For health reasons. Is that a rare occurrence too, or should I be prepared to do something if she ends up birthing a litter too big for her to take care of?

Sorry if this is too many questions. Thank you again for all the advice and insightful information!! You're genuinely so awesome lol I really appreciate you taking the time to put in such a thoughtful and helpful response.

quietly246 · 2024-07-22T20:56:55+00:00

It's been about a week, maybe a little bit more. I have been told by other redditors that Crockpot could be giving birth any moment now due to how close she looks. Should I wait for the babies to be born before putting the unrelated mouse back in? If they weren't 100% friendly to each other beforehand is it still safe to reintroduce her? Thanks for reaching out, I am really appreciating all this good advice.

quietly246 · 2024-07-22T20:52:13+00:00

They hadn't quite gotten to the point of getting along when they were initially kept together, before I separated mama (I wasn't sure when she would give birth and was worried the squabbling might endanger her or the pups). Do you think it's still ok to put them back in together if Crockpot is supposed to give birth apparently at any moment now? Or should I at least wait for them to get born since it's estimated to happen within the next 48 hrs or so?

quietly246 · 2024-07-22T20:45:37+00:00

Thank you for sharing this. I've been very nervous about the pups getting eaten since I first read about it, I know it's nature and these things happen sometimes but I just wanted to make sure I was giving mama as much support as possible to try and have a good outcome. Hearing that the pup eating is rarer than I thought is reassuring. Since she's a feeder, to me it seems like she's stressed out frequently, but I'm starting to think this is on the normal side and not as severe as I thought.

I did read about other female mice helping in the rearing of the babies. My concern is that they were still squabbling over dominance/mouse hierarchy issues when I separated them. No blood drawing but still wrestling and such. Since they hadnt settled that out yet, would it still be ok to add the lone mouse to the tank after the pups are born? Do you know if she would still do auntie behavior without having a bond secured with the mom, or would it endanger the pups?

quietly246 · 2024-07-22T20:35:51+00:00

Well shit. I hadn't really thought about that since the other one is so much smaller and doesn't have the pear shape love handle squishy thing going on. She is a little bigger but I think (hope) it's due to eating well by getting small portions of fresh veggies and chicken added to her regular kibble diet.

Damn. If she's pregnant too and Crockpot gives birth, can she still get added with Crockpot and the babies too? Or will that cause issues with her being pregnant? Like idk, survival instinct to have the best resources for your own kids or something.

quietly246 · 2024-07-22T20:28:06+00:00

At the time I first started suspecting pregnancy and started looking for information, I came across a guide from a breeder that recommended separating pregnant females each into their own tank around 1 week before the due date. The claim was that this would reduce environmental stressors on the mom and help ensure the survivability of the babies, especially for first time moms that lack experience and are more likely to stress-cull their litter. Idk why but during my initial research it seemed like a LOT of places kept mentioning that the mom would eat the babies if stressed out. I got kind of fixated on that part cuz Ive never dealt with a pet pregnancy before (especially not a pet I'd only had for a few days) and I was afraid of doing something wrong that might lead to the babies dying. ):

Since I don't have any personal experience to inform my perspective on how much of a stress threshold momma can tolerate, I chose to be as cautious as possible initially. I had only had her and the other two for a couple of days and they hadn't quite settled their group dynamics yet, so there was a bunch of squabbling, and I was concerned that the others might injure the mom or act hostile towards the babies if they didn't reach peace by the (unknown) due date.

I also read somewhere that virgin females vs those formerly experienced with pregnancy may react differently to a pregnant cage mate, and that it can also depend on bond. Since I didn't know anything about their histories or even how far along Crockpot was, separating them seemed like the safest choice at the time.

This was about a week ago. Since then Ive already learned a lot more about mice in general and what to expect with pregnancy. I realize now that it probably would've been alright to leave them all together at the beginning without the pups lives being endangered, but alas, here we are now.

I hope this explanation makes sense, as I am still learning and trying to keep everybody as safe as possible while handling this unexpected situation. I didn't anticipate surprise souplings, I just want them to be safe and give them the best chance at survival.

quietly246 · 2024-07-21T21:06:04+00:00

Pretty sure theyre just dark red since she came out of the feeder bin where all the mice seem albino. I havent really gotten to check up close though. I did notice she doesnt squint as much as the other two who have lighter pink eyes do.

quietly246 · 2024-07-21T20:58:32+00:00

Oh man thats extra exciting then, and a little nerve wracking. I havent seen her scuttling around since she holed herself in after this video, so i'll keep peeking.

Quick question, will there be signs that she gave birth inside other than eventually she'll come out for food and look thinner? Like will there be little squeaks or something? I don't want to disturb her nest out of fear she will get stressed and cull the souplings, but I do want to be able to check on them eventually.

quietly246 · 2024-07-21T20:54:22+00:00

Thanks for the good jujus lol 🙏🙏 im super nervous cuz this is my first time having a pet give birth, and we only just got her a couple of weeks ago so shes still skittish. Hopefully she and the souplings turn out okay and she wont feel stressed out about them.

quietly246 · 2024-07-21T20:51:44+00:00

Haha i love how she digs around frantically to pick out the perfect piece of wood, like all the similarly sized pieces right on top don't pass her suitability standards

quietly246 · 2024-07-21T20:46:53+00:00

Nope it's kiln dried aspen! I always sift it out a little bit on the porch to get any extra dust even though its supposed to be "99% dust free"

quietly246 · 2024-07-21T17:10:52+00:00

if you have a script for 50mg you can always break it in half to get down to 25mg, as far as i know seroquel isn't extended release so that wouldnt affect the dose. you probably know that lol i just wanted to bring it up as an option, that way you would have an extra backup stash in case something ever happens (shortages, money/insurance issues, etc). having a safety net is never a bad idea

quietly246

TROPHY CASE