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21K views 30 replies 13 participants last post by  sheelaj 
#1 ·
#6 ·
Thanks for those links they were very helpful!
 
#11 ·
I just recently bought a fancy mouse. Well I bought two. I named one Rambo and the other Gizmo. After a week, Rambo was making Gizmo bleed. So I went to the local pet shop and was told that I could get a smaller male mouse to go along with Gizmo in order to replace Rambo. Thus, I adopted a regular feeder mouse. (Gorilla) Now Gizmo picks on Gorilla endlessly. I had no idea what to do.

Well, I went yet again back to the pet shop. The lady there said maybe another feeder mouse would help. So now I have 3 male mice living together. The thing is, the new mouse (not yet named) is more dominant than Gizmo. So Gorilla is still being picked on by Gizmo. I have no idea on this earth what to do.

I put Gizmo in a roller ball inside the cage for a little while to see if maybe just being with Gorilla and watching him would help. Please please please help me :/
 
#12 ·
Male mice rarely get along and often fight to the death.The pet store is stupid.Separate the males.Don't worry,male mice do quite well on their own.
 
#15 ·
if they can't live together, then why whenever you go to buy one, there are several living together? in one small tank? i mean if you go to a pet store, normally there are 100 feeder mice living together, and up to 15 fancy mice living together. all of male and female sexes.
 
#18 ·
Because they're cheap and it doesn't matter if some die. Sorry to be blunt but it's the truth. Not to mention that young mice can sometimes get along for a little while and start fighting when they're older (at this point the mice have been sold or fed to something).
 
#20 ·
No, I wouldn't do that. Male mice don't really "play" as adults so even if they don't fight, they're not really benefiting. If you want to have mice that can play together and live in the same enclosure, get females.
 
#23 ·
just one more question, i have them living alone...which has been good so far...but one more issue has me worried. i have one mouse (gorilla) he's a feeder mouse. i feel like when i hold him he's dehydrated or something. he doesn't feel like he used to. he rarely comes out of his house and i'm worried he isn't eating or drinking right....what do i do?
 
#24 ·
Sounds like it's time to call the vet. Unfortunately, feeder mice tend to get a lot of health problems. Has he been drinking at all? Urinating? No one can really diagnose him over the internet.
 
#26 · (Edited)
WELL I'm sure whatever problem was going on is too late for me to try to help out with since it's been a few months.... But for anyone else who may look at this, I'll just stick this out there.

So recently I bought two feeder mice from the petstore that's practically around the (long) bend from my house. (I was originally going in there to replace one of my hamsters, but there weren't any cool looking hamster coat colors/patterns I hadn't already had.... I'd never owned mice before, and they looked really cool and unique with their splotches of color.)
No mix up in the gender despite still being pretty young, but they were both pregnant. I have 15 pups who will be 5 days old tomorrow morning, so of course I'm doing research about what to do for them once they get older- there's no way I'm returning them knowing they'll become snake food.

That being said, I did enough research to make it hard to find anything new to read about them.
It seems 50/50 about the male mouse thing- some say 'don't house them together, they will only fight', while others argue that they've housed many male mice they've raised together for their whole lives without any major issues.
I'll then presume that the issue is that you need to make sure they have enough SPACE and toys/feeding areas so they can claim different areas for their own. Most cages you can buy for mice at the store are only big enough for maybe two male mice, which will make fighting more likely.
I'll most likely end up with keeping all the male mice in my litter (I attempted sexing them today, and my prediction is that I have 6 males and 9 females- we'll see how correct I was in a week or so.) since most people just don't want to deal with their over sized testicles. I honestly am not a big fan of it either, but male rodents tend to be darlings personality wise. (least in my experience as an owner.)

Anyhow, I suppose I'll let people around here know my experience after a few months go by- If I must I'll seperate them into cooperating groups or even single parties if any are getting real abused, but that'll be my last resort. I'm actually going to make my own habitat for them and toys and such (I'll probably use old hamster and guinea pig items I have lying around doing nothing) to make sure they've got their room- I'm pretty strong in believing this hypothesis of mine, but again we'll see.
 
#27 ·
Out of curiosity, what sources said you could keep males together? It's been known in the mouse community that male mice in other countries can sometimes be kept together. It sounds crazy but male American mice seem to be much more aggressive (to other males, not people). I've known breeders in the U.K. and Australia who can keep related males in the same enclosure. On the other hand, I have NEVER known anyone in the U.S. who did that long-term. It must be a genetic thing.

Good luck with your mice but I can't say I'm optimistic :(. I hope that having so many helps by spreading out aggression in the group, though. Your best bet for housing them will probably be the largest glass tank you can fit it in your house.
 
#28 ·
They're from the UK I believe.
Fancymice . info / keepingmales .htm

I think it'll depend on the litter perhaps... We'll see what happens. I hope things end up alright with them. I don't know the history of their genetic line, or exactly what category of mouse they're in.

I'm pretty creative, I'll come up with a large, rodent-knaw-hole-through-proof for them all to fit comfortably in. (I've had plenty of hamster escape artists- at least with them, they come back to the cage if you leave it out. I don't know about the mice though.... Neither of them has escaped.)

Their breed could by no means be anything special if they're just being sold as feeders, but do you know what they could be judging by a picture? I would post a picture of them right here, but since my post count is under 20 it won't allow me to.... I have pictures in an album on my page.
 
#29 ·
Yup, that's what I figured. No one in the United States can pull that off long-term, sadly :(. The problem is that males can seem to get along at first and then one suddenly kills the other (no time to even separate). I really hope you can make it work, though, since housing them all individually would be tricky.

They don't look to be a specific breed but there might be a name for the coloring. If you can get clear shots of the adults, someone might be able to tell :). I know some of the basic varieties but mice aren't really my thing.
 
#30 ·
UK mice usually have MUCH larger ears then the American mice.

Males RARELY get along.Even brothers may one day just attack each other,even if they lived together with no problems before.
 
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