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cage mate issues

1414 Views 2 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  Blacksheep, 
M
About two months ago I got two males to keep my one male company. After keeping Ty separate from the new guys, Dewey and Sprite, and introducing them in the tub and at play time all three successfully moved into one cage. They have been together for about a month and a half and there have been no fights. The three of them will cuddle up to sleep and don't mind sharing treats, food, etc.

I've never heard a fight, and have never seen scratches or marks on any of them from a fight, but in the last day Ty seems terrified of Dewey and Sprite.
For example, earlier today I had all three out to play and everyone seemed happy. Then Ty went back to the cage and within 10 min. Dewey and Sprite followed. (One went to the food bowl and the other to the water, so it's not like they went in there and started harassing Ty) Out of nowhere Ty started squeaking as if someone was attacking him when the other guys were nowhere near him, and ran out of the cage. I kept him out for about 30 min. and after Dewey and Sprite fell asleep went to put Ty back. Dewey looked up at him and Ty jumped up and scratched my hands trying to get away. That was two hours ago and I'm scared to try to put Ty back again because I don't know what's going on. Does anyone have any suggestions?

(For the time being I put Ty in the old cage next to the other cage as if I'm introducing them just to see how they do with that. So far so good, they're sniffing through the bars as if nothing wrong.)
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A
Are you talking about mice?
If so, it is usually not recommended to house males together as it normally leads to fighting.
My past mouse Shi (female) used to squeak for no reason when her cagemate, Pei, was coming near her (also female). I think it was because Pei was harassing Shi and Shi was afraid it was going to happen again and squeaked out of fear.
Also, just because he is not bleeding does not mean he did not get attacked. One time I tried to introduce a new mouse (Tatiana) to Shi and Pei's cage. For a few days I saw no marks on Tatiana and never saw fighting, but I did hear squeaking. My mice waited until I was asleep to attack her. By the time I found out what was going on it was already pretty bad.
I woke up one morning to find Tatiana in the corner cold and with her back legs not working.
I put her on a heating pad and made a second cage for her. Unfortunatly she died soon after.
I would keep Ty away from them permantly and also keep a close watch on the other two for signs of fighting. You might want to get another cage just in case you need to separate the other two.
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He could have still been attacked. When I had rats, my doe Sheik used to pick on one of my other does, Velvet. There were no hard core bite marks nor would I hear any bickering. She was just on the bottom of the dominance group. She was also a real softy and didn't take punishment well...even if I said "no no don't go there" she would kinda back away slowly and give me sad eyes. I'm assuming during some dominance battle, Sheik just pushed her too much.

I mean it could be the same way with Ty. Someone was just too hard on him.
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