As most of you know i got 2 new meece girls, Bino and Lou, Today is tank scrubbing day. I clean the tank out 2x a week, one time is just changing the fleece and a quick clean and the other day is the big scrub! where the tank is disinfected and all toys, huts are washed down with the big hose outside, anyway i done a quick into with my babies and the older girls in the hay shoe box, and they seemed to just sniff eachother and one jumped out into my hand (Danger Mouse) as to say, ahh get me out from these babies lol. Anyway should i move the babies into the big tank with my other two or wait till they are older? Any help as soon as would be great

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Peter

Well as it's a tank and there are no bars for the babies to squeeze through there is no reason why you cant bond them now.

I tried bonding 2 younger mice to my groups of 5 (who I had bonded from a pair and a trio) and they just didn't get along.
So be prepared for if things dont go as planned.

When you bond them you have to put them in a neutral cage with no toys/houses that any of them can become territorial over. Just lots of substrate and some bedding so they can make their own nest, oh and scatter feed their food.
And then they have to stay like that for about a week or so.
When you move them to the tank make sure to put in some substrate from the neutral cage they were in and when you first move them in dont put any toys or houses in there, you'll have to add those gradually.

That's what I got told when I tried bonding mine. Hope that helps you.

Thanks for the reply, sounds a good way to me, I'll put them all in the tank with lots of bedding as you said and scatter the food instead, this sounds a really good way to do it, thank you! Should i leave the wheel in or just make the whole thing bare? I put them in the tank today with nothing in just to let them see eachother and the bigger girls were sniffing the babies bums and looked like they were grooming them and making a fuss over them to clean them lol, Try that tomorrow morning and see how it goes, will let you know Thanks again!

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Peter

Definitely leave the wheel out. Just bedding and food. I know it sounds boring for them but it will help the bonding and it's only for a short while.
Some people put a drop of vanilla extract on each mouse so they smell the same but this isn't a must.
If you put them together then I would leave them together as you dont want to break the bond that's forming by taking them away.
If the older ones were grooming the little ones then I dont think you'll have any problems at all.

Good luck for tomorrow.

Thanks very much, I'll be putting them together first thing, The bigger girls are friendly so hopefully all should go well

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Peter

I cant wait for an update tomorrow.
More piccies too Pretty please! I love seeing other peoples mice.

Thank you, Will take some tomorrow while the tank is all clear as my mice are not very keen on photos, they will not sit still and preffer to run around but i will get some for sure tomorrow, even if it takes all day lol

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Peter

I've put them in about 10 mins ago, everything bare, apart from the water bottle, a big bundle of hay, tissue and newspaper. They're sniffing eachother a lot and the big girls keep chasing them and trying to groom them, but the little ones don't seem to like it that much. I've scatterd the food around and their eating that no problem. Danger Mouse keeps mounting the little ones. She's done this to all her other sisters? Anything i should look out for when they're together or is this all just normal

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Peter

hhmmm I'm not 100% sure on the mounting but I would think that it's just a way that they show who's boss. Gerbils do it and so do bunnies. I've never seen my mice do it though but it sounds like that's what's happening.

They may take a few days to get used to each other so a few squeaks here and there are normal also.
I think if you see then 'proper' fighting, like locked together/attacking each other then you should seperate them but I doubt that will happen.

When I tried to bond mine the first time they all ganged up on 1 of the others and just chased her ALL the time so that's when I seperated them.
Second time I tried they picked on the other 1 mouse and kept attacking her while she was asleep so I seperated them.

I'm sure if you keep an eye on them you'll easily spot anything bad.

Oh are you a member of micearenice.co.uk? It's a great mouse forum, lot's of lovely people that know alot more than me!

Yeah i think the big girls are just trying to be like mums haha, they're like 'oh you've got some dirt on your cheek, lemme groom it off' I've changed all the floor bedding so it all fresh and new and everythings smells different to them. I've put in a big heap of the hay, tissue etc into the cage from both their existing cages. I've heard a few squeeks for the babys tank when they've been by themself same with the older girls. Hopefully it only takes a couple more days and they'll be settled together. I'm just a big worrier haha, done the same when bonding my chipmunks. Anyway thanks so much for your help! Hoping they might all go to sleep together in the same place, post some pictures and another update later

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Peter