17/01/2022
Mice not breeding or mothers killing and eating her own pups are common problems.
The Jackson Laboratory offers some suggestions for mice not breeding. (See the Link below.) As ideas, these are good, but in terms of specifics, I have to wonder how many come from observation and/or experimentation and how many from speculation and/or imagination.
Processed foods -- for people or animals -- are considered guilty as defective unless proven innocent. Even if a formulation starts off great, ingredients can subsequently be adulterated -- the melamine in pet food some years back is a tragic example. Supplementing the diets of mice -- especially for mothers or mothers to be -- is a great idea. I wouldn't use the Love Mash proposed by The Jackson Laboratory in the Link, (Magazine ads a century ago promoted Brewer's Yeast as a human nutrition booster -- along with Charles Atlas Isometrics.)
People in a corporate or institutional environment can forage for leftovers in the conference room after a meeting. Small pieces of healthy breads, fruits and vegetables can be fed to the mice.
The foods you make for yourself are great for mice. They love cooked corn. My own breakfast is oatmeal cooked with banana and raisins. Soy milk is added when the oatmeal cools. Breeding mice get a little of this every day. This soft food is good for weaning young, too. I also eat sesame bagel with peanut butter. I cut off the edges of the top. Mice love this. Pasta mixed either with sauce or olive oil and oregano is great. You also can take any bean cooked for people and mash it up. This is then mixed with cooked brown rice.
Stress for mice certainly is to be avoided. I'd not worry about noise that much unless it's bothering people, too. You certainly don't want Heavy Metal music blasting out of supersized speakers. I check on the mice several times a day and that doesn't worry them at all. Mice in labs are often subjected to procedures that are uncomfortable or painful. The person performing experiments should only enter the mouse house when necessary. Others should perform all other care. If the mice are afraid all day that they are about to be jabbed, poked or prodded, reproductive success is sure to be affected.
https://www.jax.org/news-and-insights/jax-blog/2014/december/five-reasons-why-your-mice-are-not-breeding
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