Azhael
Site Contributor
- Joined
- May 7, 2007
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- 6,644
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- Location
- Burgos
- Country
- Spain
- Display Name
- Rodrigo
I´ve just spent over an hour watching my colony of mice, yes, an hour, that´s just how i roll.
There are three females, one of which produced a small litter and proceded to eat it, another one recently produced about 7 babies (it´s hard to tell how many) and the last one is very heavily pregnant and should give birth tomorrow or the day after.
They are a funny bunch. I was atracted to the cage by the sounds of moaning babies, obviously annoyed by something. I found that one female was carrying them from one nest to another, and the babies were clearly inconvenienced by that. Once a few had been moved, the cannibalistic ex-mother then came in and started to move them back to the previous nest. At this point i introduced nesting materials to see if that would make them settle down and stop bothering the newly borns. They went in a shreding craze at first and then there was a battle for the materials, each female trying to pull them to a different corner. Once they each had a reasonable share the baby switching began again. Now, for each baby the new mother rescued, the ex-mother took another, each using opposite sides of the cage as a highroad to move the stolen goods. And then the great finale...the heavily pregnant female, who hadn´t previously participated, started to move babies at radom xD In the time i spent watching the madness that is a mouse´s life, i counted a minimum of 62 movements of babies.
I honestly have to say, it was fun xD The logic of it scaped me once the heavily pregnant female chimed in and added chaos to the whole thing. From that moment on i swear i saw the new mother moving babies to the wrong nest, i think she was as confused as i was. I know the babies were because they were moving blindly all over the place no having a clue were to stay.
I can´t wait to see the aftermath tomorrow, although i hope it doesn´t involve more cannibalism.
Sorry for the absurd, pointless anecdote, but it made me laugh and i had to share it
There are three females, one of which produced a small litter and proceded to eat it, another one recently produced about 7 babies (it´s hard to tell how many) and the last one is very heavily pregnant and should give birth tomorrow or the day after.
They are a funny bunch. I was atracted to the cage by the sounds of moaning babies, obviously annoyed by something. I found that one female was carrying them from one nest to another, and the babies were clearly inconvenienced by that. Once a few had been moved, the cannibalistic ex-mother then came in and started to move them back to the previous nest. At this point i introduced nesting materials to see if that would make them settle down and stop bothering the newly borns. They went in a shreding craze at first and then there was a battle for the materials, each female trying to pull them to a different corner. Once they each had a reasonable share the baby switching began again. Now, for each baby the new mother rescued, the ex-mother took another, each using opposite sides of the cage as a highroad to move the stolen goods. And then the great finale...the heavily pregnant female, who hadn´t previously participated, started to move babies at radom xD In the time i spent watching the madness that is a mouse´s life, i counted a minimum of 62 movements of babies.
I honestly have to say, it was fun xD The logic of it scaped me once the heavily pregnant female chimed in and added chaos to the whole thing. From that moment on i swear i saw the new mother moving babies to the wrong nest, i think she was as confused as i was. I know the babies were because they were moving blindly all over the place no having a clue were to stay.
I can´t wait to see the aftermath tomorrow, although i hope it doesn´t involve more cannibalism.
Sorry for the absurd, pointless anecdote, but it made me laugh and i had to share it
