canniblistic mice?

[Carpet]

i had 5 mice in a ten gallon hoping to breed them for a couple of my snakes. i had one male to 4 females. Everything was fine until yesterday.
i went downstairs to check up on them and one of the females was eating another female. today i went to give them some food and one of the females was eating the male. ive never seen this before. they have been together for like a month with no problems. ive kept mice in the past as pets and have never had this happen to me.

im confuse to why they would do this.
any suggestions?

[Oldnavy]

I have had that happen to me befor. They were low on food or decided to reject the food you were giving. OR if they weren't low on food, they were lacking on nutrients. Did you feed them only one kind of food for a long time? Try to vary their diet and don't let them get low on food or water and your problem should be solved.

I gave them apple and orange slices as treats twice a week and i never had it happen again,.

[AussieDragons]

I've had the occasional cannibalistic mouse. Don't know why. But... There's two things that will make any breeder mouse a feeder in short order:

-Eating babies
-Eating cagemates

In the past - any time we catch a mouse committing either of these acts, they are immediately fed to the nearest snake or monitor that enjoys a fresh treat. And therefore immediately removed from the genepool :-)

[earthpig23]

Sorry to get off topic but Mark is that new avatar a potrait of you or just a symbolization that your a caged anima;l...lol sorry couldnt resist caryy on with the topic.

[AussieDragons]

Sorry to get off topic but Mark is that new avatar a potrait of you or just a symbolization that your a caged anima;l...lol sorry couldnt resist caryy on with the topic.

LOL... Ditto on the sorry for being off topic :lol: . I saw that picture, and thought to myself "that's EXACTLY how I feel!!!".

Not everyone will understand, but you'd better! If you don't "get it" now, you will as soon as you get here :D .

[Carpet]

Yeah i have been feeding them on a steady diet off mice pellets, i think that might be it. Plus last night and the night before i was out late and didnt feed them on there usual schedule. Now that i think of it there bowl was empty when i found them eating each other.

i guess it make sense now. : (

thanks

[earthpig23]

Sorry to get off topic but Mark is that new avatar a potrait of you or just a symbolization that your a caged anima;l...lol sorry couldnt resist caryy on with the topic.

LOL... Ditto on the sorry for being off topic :lol: . I saw that picture, and thought to myself "that's EXACTLY how I feel!!!".

Not everyone will understand, but you'd better! If you don't "get it" now, you will as soon as you get here :D .
Ohh I get it and that is the first thing I thought of... :D

[jojo6199]

I tried breeding mice myself. One male, 3 females in a large tub, fresh water every darn morning when I do my normal rounds, lab block and tons of variety treats offered....should do fine right.

Wrong, first female let her litter live about 4 days and then killed them all, second female ate them as they delivered! Rotten horrid, stinky things! Fed them all off and went to rat breeding LOL.

After a bit of a slow start, I now have one female rat raising her 8 fat fuzzies beautifully and another female ready to pop at any moment (she's HUGE with her litter!). Three other females are happily in with the stud rat, Casanova, whose doing his job and they all get along beautifully. Not a fight or anything between the 4 of them (it is a large main cage though).

Rats rule! LOL

Oh and they don't stink like those rotten mice did not matter how often I cleaned up after their rotten furry selves!