23 Nov How Fast do Mice Multiply?
It is well-known that mice can reproduce very quickly with infestations likely to get out of control. But just how fast do these small creatures multiply? How many times can these tiny creatures give birth and how many babies can they have in a year? By knowing the facts, you can better prevent your house from becoming infested.
How Often Can a Female Mouse Get Pregnant?
Mice get pregnant frequently. A female mouse can get pregnant between 5 and 10 times a year. A mouse within its first year of being able to become pregnant can have about 10 liters. That’s a ton of mice within a short period of time.
A mouse infestation is categorized as having both a male and female mouse on the premises as once that happens, there is a very short amount of time before you have over 10 mice in your house. From there, the numbers will continue to multiply.
How Many Babies Can a Mouse Have?
A mouse can have a ton of mouse babies, also called pups, in a single liter. Per liter, a mouse can give birth to about 14 pups. However, the average amount of pups a mouse will give birth to is 6-8 pups.
Over the course of a year, a mouse will have about 56 pups overall. However, by knowing how many times a mouse can get pregnant, there is the chance of a mouse giving birth to up to 140 pups in a year. That is if the mouse gets pregnant a maximum of 10 times with a full liter each time.
When Can a Mouse Start Having Pups?
If the number of pups a mouse can have in a year isn’t shocking enough, the point at which a mouse can start having pups will emphasize their infective dangers. Mice are rodents, they multiply a ton and they start the process early. A female mouse becomes mature enough to have pups at 6 weeks old. This means that their first-year reproduction starts around the 6th-week mark, making the multiplication of mice in an infestation happen at an even faster rate.
How Long Do Mice Live?
When mice start to pop up around your home and have pups with the other nearby mice, they live longer than they would be able to outdoors. Mice who live outdoors only live to be a year old, but indoor mice (infestation or otherwise,) can live to be 2-3 years. Each mouse can get up to 3 years of reproduction before they die, meaning it will have a ton of pups throughout its life.
Final Thoughts
Rodents can reproduce often because that is what’s needed for the species to survive. Mice’s reproduction cycle is no different. A population of mice can go from 2 to 56 in the course of a year, leaving you with a ton of mice to try to exterminate. That is why it’s important to take care of your mouse problem when you only have one mouse to deal with.