hi there,<br> my names ben and im writing to you
because a couple of days ago<br>something happened to my
mouse. shes a doe who had just given birth to
11<br>healthy pups. The day before the conception, I separated
her from the buck<br>as I placed her in an average
cage about 35cm by 25cm in my garage so no<br>ants or
unwanted insects could get at them. Her bed was mad out of
paper<br>strips which she had torn up herself in her previous
environment, and her<br>flooring was kitty litter. I made sure
she had a proper water bottle hanging<br>at head
level so there was no way she couldn't reach it. On the
day I<br>noticed the tiny pups in the cage, I was
very excited and quite proud<br>because I had
continously given her a nutritional diet and worked hard
at<br>making her environment fun and peaceful. At the time,
the mother and her<br>babies looked very calm,
however, the next morning I went in to see how
they<br>were doing and found the doe dead in her cage with
blood on her mouth, ears,<br>and leg. She had killed 5
of<br>the pups, it seemed she had trampled them in a rage
to escape the<br>cage. What I found extremely hard
to believe was that she had chewed off the<br>top
bars of plastic grates on the lid of the actual cage,
which would<br>explain the blood on her teeth. It
seemed something had spooked her but i<br>doubt
something scared her that much. At first i thought
something broke<br>inside, but after further analysis, that
seemed ridiculous. So the only<br>thing I could think of
was that she must have over heated in my garage
and<br>died due to this. But the pups that were not trampled
were fine in their<br>bed. They didnt seem too
distressed at all. I'm really confused because I'm<br>not
sure what has caused this disaster. I tried to keep
the pups alive and<br>rang an emergency vet who told
me they had a slim chance of survival but to<br>try
dripping lactose free milk into their mouths every half
hour. They didnt<br>even try to drink it. They died
over the next 24 hours and I felt horrible.<br>If you
can find out why this has happened to my mice, or can
think of a<br>logical explanation i would really like
to hear from you. I would so much<br>appreciate it.
I really don't want this ever to happen
again.<br>Yours Sincerely,<br> ben.