How many pups does a mouse have over its lifetime? - briefly
A typical house mouse produces about 30–50 young over its reproductive lifespan, depending on litter size (5–8 pups) and number of litters (5–10 per year).
How many pups does a mouse have over its lifetime? - in detail
A female house mouse reaches sexual maturity at 5–6 weeks. After a 19‑day gestation, she can produce a new litter roughly every 25–30 days, limited only by the weaning of the previous pups. Typical litters contain 5–8 young, with occasional extremes of 3 to 12.
In a controlled environment, a mouse lives up to 2.5–3 years; in the wild, average lifespan is 10–12 months. Assuming a laboratory setting that maximizes reproductive output:
- Age at first litter: 6 weeks
- Reproductive span: ~2 years (≈104 weeks)
- Litters per year: 12–14 (one per month)
- Total litters: ≈24–28
- Average pups per litter: 6.5
Total offspring ≈ 24 × 6.5 = 156 (upper laboratory estimate) or ≈ 12 × 6.5 = 78 (more conservative). In natural conditions, reduced lifespan and seasonal factors lower the figure to roughly 40–60 progeny over a lifetime.
Key factors influencing the number of young produced:
- Nutrition: adequate protein and calories increase litter size and frequency.
- Environmental stress: predators, temperature extremes, and disease shorten reproductive period.
- Genetics: some strains are selected for higher fecundity.
Thus, under optimal captive conditions a mouse can generate well over a hundred pups across its reproductive life, while in the wild the total is typically under sixty.