Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi all,
Two days ago I went and bought five mice for $1.50 apiece, because my so called breeders still haven't had any babies after 5 months. These are fancy mice, and are light brown. I threw the new mice in with my "breeders" and that night I fed one to my snake. Next morning, when I fed them, they had turned one of the new mice into a pile of bloody body parts and eaten most of it. Has this ever happened to you all? I was grossed out and disgusted. Also, I am going to keep two female fancy mice and one male and feed off the two albino lab females that haven't produced yet. Yes, they had plenty of food and water, so they weren't in need of food or moisture from the victim mouse.

Taylor

You upset the colony by throwing new mice into it... Once mice are in an established group... disturbing it by adding new individuals usually results in fights and cannabilism. My mice used to do it.. hence why I switched to breeding rats...

What were the genders of the mice? Generally, male mice will not get along with one another unless they are siblings that have been together since birth. This is particularly true if there are females present with the males. They will fight over the females.

A good rule of thumb is ONE male per cage. You might get away with more than one male if there are no females, but it still may not work.

Also, as the other person said, just throwing some new mice into an established colony can upset things, regardless of gender. It really depends on the personalities of the individual mice.

Finally, you should always house new mice seperately from your other mice to be sure they are free from any diseases. If a new mouse is sick, it could wip out your whole colony.

I have found that when I need to introduce a new individual to a colony it works best to house it separately for a few days so that the tub smells good of the new mouse. Then you can move the established colony to her tub. That way they are the newcomers instead of her being an intruder. She won't likely kill the newcomers since they outnumber her and they will accept her since they are on her turf.

This isn't guaranteed but usually works well.

The best thing is to raise the colony together from babies.

Marcia