Can I volunteer to sex mice?

by jay.mayhem Tue 03 Apr 2018, 7:58 pm

I'm so done with PetSmart man I just,,, ugh.

My sister and I went to our local PetSmart after calling ahead to look for new babies. So we were a little disappointed to find that all four were silver or white satin (Daisy is silver), but we decided to check them out because maybe we could take the white baby. Before even considering adoption, I sex all of them myself (because who trusts pet stores) and guess what? They're supposed to be female;
3 males.
1 female. With a breeding plug.

Can I just work there to sex the animals?

by CucumberMouse Tue 03 Apr 2018, 10:34 pm

You could ask the petstore, but I seriously doubt it. I think that for the most part petstores goal is in gaining money, not the care or good housing of the animal. This might not be the interest of the individual worker, but as a whole chain company, the main goal is profit. It's unlikely that they would be willing to hire or accept formal help from someone who isn't helping profit. Unless you're out there running a cash register, or selling animals and products, earning profit, they probably don't want to pay you for help in sexting animals. Having a job requires what minimum pay is, and they probably wouldn't let someone volunteer for them without a formal contract and A LOT of trust. They can sell mice marketed as male or female, even if they aren't their labeled sexes. Most people don't bother or know how to check a small animal's gender, so petstores get away with lying or misguiding their customers. So, why would they hire someone to fix a problem that they don't think is a problem. It's horribly irresponsible, and bad for both animal and customer, but right now that's just how it is.

by jay.mayhem Tue 03 Apr 2018, 10:58 pm

Oh yeah. It was a joke, the whole volunteer thing, but I really just get so peached off. Like, seriously, even the supplier should know better, but they just don't care.

by AnonymousMouseOwner Tue 03 Apr 2018, 11:08 pm

Maybe I'm just lucky, but out of the 9 mice I have purchased from a certain local pet store, all of them have been sexed correctly by the employees, and I didn't double check before purchase. That pet store in particular seems to have much more caring employees than other pet stores I've seen.

I've only ever gotten 3 mice from chain pet stores, all from Petco, and only one is a current pet. They've all been sexed right though. Maybe I'm just lucky, or maybe the stores in my area are better about that? Not sure. Seems like a lot of people have reported mice being mis-sexed by pet stores, it's pretty sad Sad

by CucumberMouse Tue 03 Apr 2018, 11:51 pm

... You were joking... well that's a little embarrassing... it's been a long night. Still, I had that rant building up in me too. There were actually some adorable female mice at a petstore that I was really considering getting, but at least one of them seemed pregnant, even though they were in a cage of supposedly "all girls". It's pretty pathetic putting profit before the health and happiness of actual living beings.

by jay.mayhem Wed 04 Apr 2018, 9:38 am

Aaaaand that's two stores in a row. A male and female tank, all the females were male. One of the males was female. Luckily they just received the shipment yesterday, so we have one flat white girl, on our way to another store right now. Jeebus, these suppliers need to get their stuff together.

by jay.mayhem Wed 04 Apr 2018, 10:20 am

A soft black baby! Mission accomplished. That was the first employee who actually knew what he was doing. Now to bring these beebos home.

by CallaLily Wed 04 Apr 2018, 11:41 am

Oh that sucks. I’ve been very lucky too and so far haven’t come across a mis-sexed mouse or pregnant doe at the pet shops near me. However I have come across a mom and pop type shop that thought it would be a good idea to purposefully throw all their males and females together because they wanted babies. Rolling Eyes

by KaylaLovesMice Tue 05 Jun 2018, 11:59 am

How do you sex mice? I would like to know since I'm getting mine from Pet Smart and would like to double check. Thanks.

by jay.mayhem Tue 05 Jun 2018, 12:10 pm

KaylaLovesMice wrote:How do you sex mice? I would like to know since I'm getting mine from Pet Smart and would like to double check. Thanks.

You're going to want to pick up the mouse (gently, with the BASE of the tail as a last resort) and place it in your hand. You can then inspect the genital area by lifting the hind legs up by the base of the tail. I believe there's an article on here about sexing, or you can just look it up, too. My clue to you is that if a male is relaxed, you'll definitely see his testicles. If he's "tucked up," they kinda look like raisins. You get better with sexing as you go along, too.

by jay.mayhem Tue 05 Jun 2018, 12:12 pm

ALSO. Make sure only two feet are ever suspended and only for the shortest amount of time possible. They can hurt themselves without a way to balance.

by Peachy Tue 05 Jun 2018, 2:41 pm

Here's a page with tips on how to sex.
www.petmousefanciers.com/t45-sexing-mice

by KaylaLovesMice Tue 05 Jun 2018, 3:42 pm

Thanks guys this helps alot!

Can I volunteer to sex mice?

Can I volunteer to sex mice?

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