"No offense, but only sick, straving, dehydrated and totally stressed out mice do that.



What's offensive is, you do not understand that petshop mice, bagged up, moved all over(no home), not watered or fed properly, and stressed to their limits do that. Even more offensive is, monitors do that too."



I didnt realize I hadnt stated that those were pet shop mice.



Sick, starving, dehydrated and stressed- yeah, that about describes most of the animals I encounter in pet shops, and most of the mice that I witnessed the 'chewing' behavior from.



Ive encountered mice in the past that werent like that; and typically it was something that would occur between my buying the mice and getting them home- sometimes as little as 15 minutes.



Believe me, I understand that the animals you see in such conditions are not a standard for their kind- but it happens, and warrants a warning to those who may not have encountered it- once the damage is done (stress, starvation, dehydration) the results can easily manifest before you have the chance to alter them (if you plan to at all in terms of feeders).



My mice were bought and fed to the animal almost always within 15-20 minutes, so starvation and dehydration werent really things I was in control of- and thats a prime example of why one should be careful about where they get their feeder stock from (if starting a colony).



I personally just hate the smell of mice- thats why I find them nasty. The occasional pet shop mouse stessing out was just a negative addition to buying petshop feeder mice- something I no longer do.



As Ive said in other posts; I find the condition of generally every monitor I see in a pet shop to be utter crap- theres no reason for petco to be selling monitors; let alone keeping them in the conditions I witness. Its not small surprise that they exhibit stress/starvation induced cannibalism.



Myself, Im content to work with F/T mice- its convenient(time saving), its probably healthier for the monitor and I dont have to perpetuate the sale of animals in crap conditions.



That, and frozen mice dont stink. :D

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