i am plaining on breeding mice because i would have a limited space for a set up. my plain is two aquariums with three mice each.two females one male. i was also plaining on getting two to four smaller tanks for when the mice give birth to ether remove the male or the female. if there are two females in the tank and no male will the female kill the other female's litter?
Depends upon the mice. They necessarily wont ATTEMPT to kill the other mother's mouse's litter (though sometimes will if they do not have a set hierarchy), but they can get to where they steal babies from each other and end up in a tug of war which could tear the skin and kill the baby. Sometimes if the litters are to distant apart in days old the mother of the youngest will think her babies are not healthy due to size and kill them (Had this happen before with many of my litters). Despite this, I've seen on many occasions where the females will combine litters and swap turns caring for them. This can greatly help if one or both mothers are new to having young. This can apply to both mice and rats. You can have a male in with them as long as the male is the father, other wise the male will kill the babies. Also females go into heat directly after birth and stay in heat for up to 20 hours. Having a male in with the female after birth can allow for the mother to give birth to a new litter while caring for the first litter and cause the mother to stop caring for the first litter and forcefully wean them before they should resulting in smaller and unhealthy babies.
Litters can range from just a couple mice to possibly up to 20 pinkies from one mother. You will need to be able to give enough space as they breed fast and grow even faster. Also be aware of that the baby males will mate with their sister and brothers. You must be able to sex and separate the babies almost as soon as they are weaned.
I have only bred mice a few times but I run a rattery and just recently started mice and the principles are almost exactly the same for both and I make sure to research breeding and growth before even getting a breeding pair.