Adult males have never been observed to display paternal solicitude toward young, but some individuals, kept with females and their litters, did not molest the young and were accepted by the females as members of the family group.
Other things being equal, cannibalism involving the young might be expected to be greater at times of high population density. Then, young left in the nest by a female in the course of her foraging would more often encounter adults and partly grown young, both those that lived in the same burrow system and exploring intruders from other areas.
The eyes open at an age of nine or ten days. Then the young enter upon an exploratory period, when each wanders out of the nest, emerges from the burrow, and wanders through the adjacent surface runways in frequent short forays, sometimes following the female and sometimes alone. Such forays usually cover only a few inches at first, but as the young vole grows, becomes familiar with its surroundings, and takes more plant food, its sphere of activity gradually widens, and family ties are dissolved. Voles reared to an age of three weeks in the laboratory and then released, survived just as well if the female was not released with them demonstrating that they were fully capable of shifting for themselves at this age. In confinement, however, young voles of greater age continued to suckle and remained closely associated with the female. Females in confinement evinced much uneasiness because of their inability to evade the young when the latter were old enough to walk. The young then followed the female continually and suckled whenever she stopped or even while she moved about, unless she paused to remove them from her teats, but they would not remain detached for more than a few seconds. When a young followed the female away from the nest and then attached to a teat, the female after pulling the young from her teat, would usually carry it, grasped between her incisors, back to the nest and deposit it there. On one occasion a young vole caught in a live-trap was partly plucked and eventually killed by the female on the outside trying to pull it through the wire mesh.
On several occasions, young were successfully transferred from the mother to another lactating female in confinement, which accepted them as part of her own litter. Young, up to the time of weaning, appeared not to differentiate between the mother and other adult voles. They would follow any larger individual indiscriminately, and would huddle against it or nuzzle its undersurface searching for a teat.
The following notes are based upon many different litters, and give some idea of the sequence of events in their early development.
Newborn: The skin is pinkish gray dorsally and pink ventrally. In profile, sparse and exceedingly fine hairs less than 1 mm. in length are discernible. The vibrissae are approximately 2 mm. long. The skin is thin and partly transparent, much wrinkled, with some deeper folds, notably one between the knee and the heel. The young lie on their sides making violent convulsive respiratory movements. When not attached to the female's teats, they may make faint squeaking sounds.
One day old: Little changed in appearance or behavior except that the dorsal surface has become darker because of growth of hair.
Two days old: Covering of fine brown hair readily discernible on dorsal surface; lower incisors protruding about .5 mm. from the gum; upper incisors have barely pierced the gum.
Four days old: Pale brown hair averaging about 1 mm. in length over the dorsal surface gives the young a sleek, seallike appearance. The young have gained greatly in muscular co-ordination. Part of the time they may still lie on their sides, but they are able also to gain an upright sprawling posture. In crawling, they are unsteady and often topple over on their sides after taking a few halting steps. They make frequent jerky lateral flexions of the body, probably to search for a teat. Their eyes and ears still are sealed shut.