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Patricia
AnonyMouse
11/01/2005
14:00:25
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 Subject: 5 dead mice
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I took the mother and her 2 litters of babies and put them into a ten gallon aquarium because she was having to many litters of babies. She needed a rest. Anyway they were happy and growing, there was 7 babies and all and they were big and turning brown. I put a cardboard tube taped onto the side of the aquarium where they would crawl into and sleep. I also had little houses for them to sleep in but they always wanted the tube.
I went to give them fresh food. I have alot of deer mice and have 2 ten gallon aquariums and 1 -20 gal.so i have about 30 mice. This litter was so different and so much more friendly than any other babies that were born from any of the other mice.. I got the tube down and was going to put some more shredded paper towel in for bedding when i held the tube up a dead mouse fell out then another one and another one. 5 dead mice in all leaving the mother and 2 babies. I was heartbroked. What could have killed five of them I had mice die before but never five. It looked like they suffocated. they were asleep, only one had its eyes opened. It is so strange and these mice would let me hold them a little, none of my other mice were ever that friendly. My husband and i are both sad and hope we didnt do or give them anything but they were all in a bunch sleeping together. Nothing was changed, no different food or anything. I really believe they suffocated. Is this possible they were in the middle of the paper towel tube. I dont know but i feel so bad. My husband put them in a little box and i had made a little bed for them to lie in and he buried them in the yard.Poor little things..Did u ever hear of that many mice of the same litter dying like that?
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Patricia
AnonyMouse
11/01/2005
18:12:10
| RE: 5 dead mice
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I have been checking the mother and the 2 babies that are still alive. The one baby was running the wheel and the other was in a house with the mother. They seem okay buti am checking every 10 minutes to make sure they are still alive. I am heart broken and wish i knew why they died but so far the 3 mice that are left seem okay.
I will keep my eye on them but i guess there is not much i can do but feed and care for them as best as i can.
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Patricia
AnonyMouse
11/01/2005
20:54:26
| RE: 5 dead mice
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I have been checking the mother and the 2 babies that are still alive. The one baby was running the wheel and the other was in a house with the mother. They seem okay buti am checking every 10 minutes to make sure they are still alive. I am heart broken and wish i knew why they died but so far the 3 mice that are left seem okay.
I will keep my eye on them but i guess there is not much i can do but feed and care for them as best as i can.
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paul
AnonyMouse
11/02/2005
19:41:40
| RE: 5 dead mice
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I'm very sorry to hear about the babies. I've never heard of deer mice sufficating in a nest.
They always cover themselves up and seem to manage somehow. I'm wondering what was different about the 5 who died. Were they all from the same litter? It's possible the had a disease that killed them, but deer mice are usually very healthy (unless they're inbred). How old were the ones that dies and the 2 that are still alive?
paul
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Patricia
AnonyMouse
11/02/2005
20:56:40
| RE: 5 dead mice
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The five that died were the oldest litter,about 2 months old and ( i forgot there was 9 altogether) so we have three of the second litter and the mother. I realized also that the five mice that died were from the same litter. I guess u are right, they have always piled on top of each other and i would wonder how they could breathe but my husband does not think they suffocated either. It is so weird. The only other thing that i could figure out was, I put scotch tape on the paper towel outside to make it stronger, when i looked right before i found they were dead ,i saw they chewed the cardboard on the inside of the paper tower tube and all i could see was the tape. Do you think they died from maybe chewing the tape? The other 4 were inside of the tube also and so was the mother. The three mice and the mother seem fine. Running the wheel and eating. I just hope they didn`t get sick from the tape but i really don`t think it was the tape because the others probably chewed it too. I don`t know but i still feel bad but what you said about the whole litter dying and being sick. they were all fine the night before , they were letting me pet them and they would let me pick them up behind their neck and i put them into their houses so i could change their food and they seemed healthy. I guess we will never know. I am keeping my eye on the rest of them. I have alot of mice. In 1 aquarioum is fat girl and the three babies and the ones that died were also in it.. In another aquarium i have stumpie, who has 2 babies, then in the 20 gallon, i have it partitioned and have, one eye (yes he only has one eye) and whitey a female. In the other part i have mickey and about 7 big babies, they are brown, and almost as big as their dad mickey. I clean them every other day, take them out and totally clean the whole cage. At first they jumped like crazy but now, they hardly come out of their houses, getting used to me i guess. Well, thanks for answering but i don`t know why they died, not being in bred but it does seem fishy they all came from the same litter, maybe some kind of hereditary thing. Thanks
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paul
AnonyMouse
11/04/2005
00:58:21
| RE: 5 dead mice
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Even if there were some problem with that litter, it's unusual for them to all die at the same time with no symptoms. Unfortunately I'm at a loss to explain this any other way if they other mice are OK. My concern would be that they could have had some contagious disease. This is unusual with deer mice, but maybe they were geneticly predisposed to some infection. I would keep the mice that were in the cage with them seperated from the general population for a while until you're sure they are healthy, maybe 2 weeks.
My mice have shreaded paper towel tubes and eatten tape with no ill effects, though I wouldn't make tape a regular part of their diet. They seem to be able to eat almost anything without a problem. I had some wild mice in my house eat a mop, that is a string type floor mop.
Sorry I can't be more help. Good luck with the remaining babies.
paul
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Patricia
AnonyMouse
11/05/2005
21:04:25
| RE: 5 dead mice
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Thanks anyway, keeping my eye on the other mice. seem fine so far. I only taped the outside of that tube because there was so many and it was drooping. Oh well, the short life they had here was happy i am sure, for a mouse. All the food and alot of variety of food.A safe cage. and their wheel and hamster tubes they would run and run around in. But no more tape ever.!
Patricia
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Kim
AnonyMouse
11/07/2005
01:42:04
| RE: 5 dead mice
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"I had some wild mice in my house eat a mop, that is a string type floor mop."
We had some deer mice that liked the same kind of mop at our cabin. They chewed it all down to put in their nest. The mop sure looked funny!
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