Females of both species transported their young either by dragging them
collectively while the young were attached to mammae, or by carrying
them one at a time in the mouth. Since mice of the subgenus _Peromyscus_
have three pairs of nipples, they probably transport only six young
collectively. Svihla (1932:13) has stated that both pectoral and
inguinal teats are used in transporting young, in contrast to Seton's
reputed assertion that only inguinal nipples were used. But Svihla
neglected to cite Seton's complete statement. Seton (1920:137) recorded
a litter of three as using only the inguinal mammae, but on the
following page recorded the use of both inguinal and pectoral mammae by
another litter of four. My findings agree with those of Svihla. Nursing
females of both species were removed periodically from cages by lifting
them by the tail. The young would hang onto the mammae and the female
would clutch the young to her with all four feet. Young two weeks old or
older crawled behind the mother while nursing.
The method of transporting young in the mouth has been mentioned by
Seton (1920:136) and described by Lang (1925) and Hall (1928:256). These
authors report that the mother picks the young up in her paws, and
places it ventral-side up in her mouth, with her incisors around it. The
young are not picked up by the skin on the nape of the neck, as are the
juveniles of dogs and cats. I have found that females of both species of
_Peromyscus_ carry their young ventral-side up in their mouth while the
young are small, and sometimes when the young are older. Generally, when
females of _P. truei_ moved young weighing more than 10 grams, the
female grasped the young from the dorsal side, across the thorax just
posterior to the shoulders, and held them with the incisors more or less
around the animal. Perhaps this method was used with older young because
of the observed tendency of the larger young to resist being turned over
and grasped from the ventral side, and because their increased weight
would have made it difficult, if not impossible, for the mother to pick
them up with her paws. The young rarely resisted the efforts of the
mother to move them by this method; when grasped across the thorax by
the mother, the young would remain limp until released. Some females of
_P. truei_ would drag almost fully grown young back into the nest in
this manner. I have not observed older young of a comparable age to be
moved by females of _P. maniculatus_. The females of _P. maniculatus_
appear to be somewhat less concerned than those of _P. truei_ for the
welfare of their young once they are mobile and close to being weaned.
The following listing describes changes in postnatal development of
young, of each species, from birth to nine weeks of age.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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