Mice question!?

WelshYorkieLover · #1 (**permalink**) 24-11-2011, 07:34 PM

Hiya just a quick couple of questions about mice. It looks like there are only two little girls in the litter that I am getting first pics of. I'm a bit disapointed as I had said that I'd like all of the little girls but well at least I have two!! Anyway my questions are -

Are little girl mice easy to bond? As in could I add more to the group at a later date?

and

Is it true that little boy mice fight and cant live together?

B3rnie · #2 (**permalink**) 24-11-2011, 08:51 PM

Does are fairly easy to bond from what I have heard, they need to be kept in groups as they become quite stressed when kept alone.
Bucks can be kept together but it isn't something for a novice mouse keeper to try IMO as fights can turn fatal in an instant. I haven't been able to keep boys together once they reach sexual maturity, so IMO it is best to keep them on their own.

WelshYorkieLover · #3 (**permalink**) 24-11-2011, 09:00 PM

Thank you very much. Would two female mice be ok? I was hoping for at the very least three becuase if one passed away the other two has each other still if that makes sense. I'll probably get more little girls from another litter later on and see if they bond. If they do great! If they dont then I'll just keep them separate.

I cant imagine how awful it would be to see the boy mice fighting and killing each other so I am not going to have more than one male mouse in a cage.

niki87 · #4 (**permalink**) 24-11-2011, 09:04 PM

I have bonded quite a few girls before with no problems...though saying that I wouldn't be complacent as it can go wrong. Girls can bond with adults and babies...at least I have found.

I bond mine in a baby bath, big enough to run around, not too big to counter the whole point of bonding!! And leave for a half hour/hour/couple of hours...supervised. See how they get on. Any scrapping ignore as it is purely dominant ranking techniques. If blood is spilt then separate. Oh and make sure it does not smell of either mouse. Also strip the cage and remove all smells of the mice, or new cage with as few levels as possible, preferably one level, to try eliminate possessivness.

Boys can live together, I have had boys spend all their lives together. But it is incredibly hard to bond particularly adult boys. I did do this relatively successfully only once, though after about a month they started fighting more seriously. But if you get brothers and keep a large...again one level cage...it should be OK.

Oops sorry for essay!!

zany_toon · #5 (**permalink**) 24-11-2011, 09:53 PM

Does are very easy to intro to one another just make sure you do it somewhere neutral and keep an eye on them. I usually empty the cage I'm putting them into of all contents, sterilise it and intro them in there. Once they are all sleeping together then you know it's all going well and can start adding toys again. I've only once had a girl-girl intro fail and it's because one of the girls was a bit of a diva - if you can do it early in the day when they are tired and stick around to keep an eye on them. Doing intros allows you to stagger the ages of girls in your group so that hopefully you should find that even losing one that the younger ones will be around to keep the older girl company.

As for boys, I've never been able to do intros between males that haven't been raised together unless one of the boys has been neutered. I've found that entire males (in my experience, I know some one that it didn't work for) will happily accept neutered boys. Brothers can be kept together but it is notoriously difficult - I've only been able to keep 3 groups of unneutered males together (one group of 2, one of four and one of five and all over a year old) and that's out of more than 30 boys in the time I've had them. Single levels, one each of everything (e.g. one wheel each, one bed each), scatter feeding, half cage cleans (only replacing half the dirty bedding during a cleaning and only dry wiping half the toys each week) can help but even doing that they can fall out at any time and seriously harm or kill one another. If you do decide to keep boys then I would recommend that you consider before hand if you have enough room for multiple cages - as a precaution you should have a spare cage to separate them as soon as any fighting starts. As B3rnie said, it isn't something that most people would recommend for a novice mouse keeper as you need to be very intune to mousie behaviour in order to spot the warning signs of a fight or to see if one is being bullied as despite how daft they can be male mice can be sneaker little beggars!

WelshYorkieLover · #6 (**permalink**) 24-11-2011, 10:10 PM

Thank you both very much! I will definately not be keeping boys together lol! I just don't have the experience and I would be heartbroken if one of them got hurt or worse.

purple_x · #7 (**permalink**) 25-11-2011, 10:19 AM

I started off with a trio and 2 pairs of mice, all girls. And I was hoping to bond them all.
I had to do the trio and 1 pair first as the others were too small to go in the cage. The 5 mice bonded really well although towards the end for Mila (pts due to a tumour) she started fighting with one of the others, no idea why but no fighting had gone on before that.

Anyway I did try and bond the other pair with the group of 5 but it just didn't work, I tried twice and all it was doing was making the pair miserable so I left them in the end as a group of 5 and a pair.

So bonding can work sometimes and other times it cant!

You could always get some of the boys, get them neutered and put them in with the girls

I bet you cant wait to get your little girls home. What are you going to call them?

Crittery · #8 (**permalink**) 25-11-2011, 11:11 AM

I've been alright every time I've bonded girls - I had one where I intro'd a solo girl to a group which was tricky. She was so unused to company she squeaked so loudly everytime they came anywhere near her! No fighting or anything to justify it though and settled down after a time - made best friends with the neutered boy.

As has been said, neutral territory is the way to go. Ideally a smaller carrier or cage first and then gradually add toys things after a few hours. Some people do it in stages and keep cages quite empty for the first few days.

One thing I've found helps is when you add a wheel - a flying saucer is so much better than silent spinner since loads of them can go on at once and so no squabbles

WelshYorkieLover · #9 (**permalink**) 25-11-2011, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by purple_x

I started off with a trio and 2 pairs of mice, all girls. And I was hoping to bond them all.
I had to do the trio and 1 pair first as the others were too small to go in the cage. The 5 mice bonded really well although towards the end for Mila (pts due to a tumour) she started fighting with one of the others, no idea why but no fighting had gone on before that.

Anyway I did try and bond the other pair with the group of 5 but it just didn't work, I tried twice and all it was doing was making the pair miserable so I left them in the end as a group of 5 and a pair.

So bonding can work sometimes and other times it cant!

You could always get some of the boys, get them neutered and put them in with the girls

I bet you cant wait to get your little girls home. What are you going to call them?

Honestly I feel like I'm gonna burst with excitement!! It's like Christmas day over and over and over again! First christmas was last friday when Kiki came to us, next christmas will be tomorrow when Louie, Riley and Chico comes to us and then another christmas will be when the mice come home. There are two more christmases coming but I'll make a separate post about that lol.

Well I'm thinking Lola and Lulu for the two female little mice. There may be another girl or two in there but we'll know in a couple of days or so probably. But Ive said that I will take another couple of girls the in the next litter lol.

I'm just about to post a pic of the babies on the original post that I made about the babies!!

WelshYorkieLover · #10 (**permalink**) 25-11-2011, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crittery

I've been alright every time I've bonded girls - I had one where I intro'd a solo girl to a group which was tricky. She was so unused to company she squeaked so loudly everytime they came anywhere near her! No fighting or anything to justify it though and settled down after a time - made best friends with the neutered boy.

As has been said, neutral territory is the way to go. Ideally a smaller carrier or cage first and then gradually add toys things after a few hours. Some people do it in stages and keep cages quite empty for the first few days.

One thing I've found helps is when you add a wheel - a flying saucer is so much better than silent spinner since loads of them can go on at once and so no squabbles

Aww I can imagine a flying saucer filled with mice!! that would be so cute. It wouldn't matter too much if they didn't bond I'll just get a new cage but it would be nice for them to be in a bigger group than two. More company for them

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

Contact Us - Terms of use - Top
Pet Forum \| Dog Forum \| Cat Forum \| Small Animals Forum \| Bird Forum \| Horse and Equestrian Forum \| Reptile Forum \| Poultry Forum \| Fish Forum PetForums is part of the Pet Media group of websites including \| Pets4Homes \| PetsLocally