Every day Momma keeps working toward the arrival of her pups. She's still nesting, and now she's sleeping a lot. There's also a lot of food in the tubes. (She's hoarding cereal, treats and pasta for their arrival) I had to fill the cereal dish twice today, and while I don't want to overfeed them, I was certain she was hoarding the food for the babies' arrival. Sure enough a peek in the tubes confirmed that suspicion.
Hoarded food in the tubes
I still suspect there's two pregnant females, and while this calculator says I can hold over 20 mice in the cage, I'm not sure how many we want, and how many pups will be females. For Gideon's sake (and the sake of the mice) I am hoping most are females.
Since momma came home Friday evening with us already visibly pregnant I'm guessing there's maybe 3-4 days before the pups arrive. I doubt we got her exactly 2 weeks pregnant (when they show) and the gestation is only 3 weeks. So, I suspect they'll be here before long.
Right now the mice - all of them - are unusually quiet and sleeping for the most part. For nearly 1am that's not too normal. I'm taking that as another sign that they may be on their way.
We'll see. I've been trying to look online for signs that she's close, but haven't found much as of yet.
The nest so far
Video stills from 1-20
While all this is happening, there's still some activity in the igloo as well. I suspect that's a nesting area for another female.
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Comments: 27
Keep us posted, will be looking forward to pics!
Amanda, an average litter is 12-15 pups, but they can have up to 20 pups as well.
I know that the first nest spot I keep seeing a mouse in, so seems that's used. Now I see one blocked off with felt and another mouse behind that in the tube, then there's nesting materials in the igloo and one is in there off and on (but sleeps with the colony in the tubes)
I'll relax now. LOL
We are struggling to identify and remove the one known male in the group without stressing out the females in the process. We did sex the other baby (also a female) earlier because it was slower and hopefully it's not sick. It was shivering, but sat in our hands and explored a bit. When returned to the cage one of the older mice looked it over almost as though that was their pup.
We estimate judging by the size and the fur (you can still see it's pink skin though the fur) that it's maybe 21 days old.
Thanks Regina.
Me too, Cassandra! I think we have 3 pregnant!