Help! I have two females that get along great, and I got two more. I tried to house them together and one of my females took a chunk out of the new mouse rump. I did all the proper intro stuff (washing cage, accesories) and it is just this one mouse that does not like the two new ones. My other mouse (honey-bun) gets along with the two new girls. I thought that females were suppose to be really social and all get along? Also, is it a genetic problem for this one mouse to have such bad problems with the new mouse? I seperated them and put the original two in a seperate cage from the new two mice. I have a huge 24"x16" cage I wanted to keep the four in together, but think I will not try to introduce them again! That was my second attempt. Any one have mice with this problem? Any thoughts would be welcome!!! Thank you!
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Fighting Female mice
Replies (1)
female mice do not always get along. The mouse who is doing th fighting probably is the dominate female and is making sure she is still dominant with the newcomers. They still probaly can get along but I would slow down the introductions, maybe put the mice together in neutral ground (a large box with lots of hides, toys etc) and supervised, may work better. This way none of the nice have 'rights' to the territory. Try only two mice, the aggressive one and one of the new comers, and see what happens. If fighting starts right away, maybe put the aggressive mouse into a small cage, then teh cage into the neutral territory, this way the aggressive mouse can't harm the other one and will hopefully get used to the other's scent. Don't leave them like this for hours, but half an hour once or a couple times a day for a week or two, switching 'new' mice with the aggressive one till she calms down, then try all mice in the play/neutral ground area.
Another possible reason could be the aggressive mouse is pregnant. (if you have had her for more than 4 weeks and don't have any males, than this won't be the case). Pregnant mice, mothers with babies, even newly weaned ones, are HIGHLY aggressive towards strangers. You shouldn't even try to introduce them to new comers while pregnant (not so bad in the first week of pregnancy but after that, deffinitely not), nursing or still housed with the babies. Once the babies are housed elsewhere and a few days have passed and a cage cleaning, then introducing new comers usually works much better in this case.
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PHLdyPayne
