Pregnant mouse?

[glitchiq]

My little sister adopted a couple of mice two weeks ago, and when I saw one of them I thought she looked a little... chubby. Her nipples were pretty clear too, so I thought maybe she was pregnant. But fifteen days passed and she only got a teeny bit bigger (maybe because of a better diet), so I didn't think about it. She and her sister were also taken to the vet for respiratory stuff, and the vet didn't mention noticing any pregnancy. BUT her nipples are still pretty prominent, and I know that there's still five or so days left in her gestation if she had just gotten pregnant before we brought her home.

I was just wondering what the signs to look for are in a pregnant mouse? I know about rats, but I don't know if mice are similar. We haven't been weighing her, but maybe we should start? Thank you!

 

[lilspaz68]

My little sister adopted a couple of mice two weeks ago, and when I saw one of them I thought she looked a little... chubby. Her nipples were pretty clear too, so I thought maybe she was pregnant. But fifteen days passed and she only got a teeny bit bigger (maybe because of a better diet), so I didn't think about it. She and her sister were also taken to the vet for respiratory stuff, and the vet didn't mention noticing any pregnancy. BUT her nipples are still pretty prominent, and I know that there's still five or so days left in her gestation if she had just gotten pregnant before we brought her home.

I was just wondering what the signs to look for are in a pregnant mouse? I know about rats, but I don't know if mice are similar. We haven't been weighing her, but maybe we should start? Thank you!

I don't know a lot about mice but they are pretty similar to rats and those i do know.

Mice from what I understand get HUGE with their pregnancies. How old is your little mouser lady? I would advise weighing looking for a steady and increasing gain.

 

[mouse-crazy]

I have had a pregnant mouse! The nipples started showing early on, and then only at the very end was it obvious - as someone else said, the mouse looks like it swallowed a golf ball! At that point, only a few days are left. Good luck - baby mice are super cute!

 

[mouse-crazy]

Here's my son holding one of them - so tiny (and easily comforted!)

 

[glitchiq]

I don't know a lot about mice but they are pretty similar to rats and those i do know.

Mice from what I understand get HUGE with their pregnancies. How old is your little mouser lady? I would advise weighing looking for a steady and increasing gain.

I did some googling and saw in a couple sources that some mice show like crazy - like they swallowed a pin-pong ball. But some don't show at all; they might just have a couple babies in there. If she's pregnant, that must be the situation. Or she hasn't ballooned out yet (but I have no idea about what the gestation period of a mouse looks like - like when they start showing).

We don't really know how old she is, but pretty young, I would say. Two months, maybe? Young, for sure.

If she's pregnant, I'm worried about how we've been handling her. No picking up by the tail or anything like that; usually we scoop her up gently. But since she and her friend have been on medicine for respiratory stuff, we have to work pretty hard to get it into them with the little syringe while still being gentle. I hope her belly hasn't been pushed on by accident or anything.

We can try to start weighing her, but I don't know how much it will do if she's in what potentially could be the last five days of gestation. What should we do in terms of prepping her habitat if weighing her leads us to really start to suspect that she's pregnant? I don't know if we should separate her and her sister, or what we should bed her down on, or what we should provide her with (a nestbox, I assume).

 

[glitchiq]

I have had a pregnant mouse! The nipples started showing early on, and then only at the very end was it obvious - as someone else said, the mouse looks like it swallowed a golf ball! At that point, only a few days are left. Good luck - baby mice are super cute!

Oh wow! Well, we'll see if she starts showing at all. At this point, if she's pregnant, she has about five days to go. It would be best if she weren't - no baby mice to find homes for when so many already need homes - but at the same time I can't help but get a teeny, teeny bit excited. We'll see!