First Introduction Went Wrong

by katafrat Sun 19 Apr 2020, 1:16 am

♡ thank you for taking the time to read this! ♡
-- hello! so i'll give you a quick preface on how this all started out. i am relatively new to mouse care and my main priority is making sure i am giving the babies proper care. Smile

my original mouse, maya is a sweet girl. her cagemate, pearl passed away about 3 weeks ago from a tumor, so she grieved for a long while. i ended up adopting a bonded pair, named primrose ("prim") and iris. ♡
i let the new mice settle in for about 2 weeks, before thinking of introducing them. i first introduced prim and maya to each other on neutral territory last night, and they both got along perfectly. not a single squabble, squeak, or fight from the either of them. this was a really good sign.

so tonight, i decided to put both primrose and iris in the neutral cage with maya to see if she would get along with iris.

however, iris and maya initially fought, but no squeaking from the either of them. i thought this was a dominance thing, because neither of them seemed the least bit afraid of each other. i ended up separating them after i saw a drop of blood (i think?) on a nearby toilet paper tube. primrose was very distraught by this and was tail rattling, hiding in a paper towel tube while iris and maya went at it.

so i brought prim back to her cage, let her calm down, and separated both maya and iris for the night.

i have a couple of questions. ♡
- do you think there is a possibility of me reintroducing maya and iris in a couple of days? (they did not spend the entire time fighting, and i separated them for the night when they were not fighting.
- is there any particular reason why they were not squeaking at each other? this is more of a curious thing.

thank you so much for reading, once again! and i hope things will work out in the future. in the meantime, i will be leaving the three mice to themselves for a while. ♡

by Peachy Mon 20 Apr 2020, 8:02 am

I usually only hear squeaking when one mouse is afraid or being hurt, during intros. Normal communication is too quiet for us to hear.

I’d give this intro another go! Give them a couple days to cool off and really evaluate how tame they are. Tame mice intro better so if you feel you need to wait a little longer to work with them, do it. Where are you introducing them and what do you have in with them?

This is the way I was taught to intro fighty mice who draw blood. It took a few days but once they were together they were best friends!
I like to intro in a bathtub with a towel down. No toys. Plop them all in at the same time at different sections of the tub so they can come to each other on their own terms. Watch for 15 minutes. If they’re doing good, continue to 30. If they’re good after 30, snuggling and grooming, move them to a clean cage without any hides or toys. Give them a few minutes and then introduce food and water. Then a small hide. If all goes well you can add one toy, but if they fight over it take it right out. As time goes on and they learn to accept each other and share, you can gradually add toys until they’re tank is the way they like it.

If after 15 or 30 minutes they’re not having it and blood is drawn, send them home for the night and try again the next day. Make sure you don’t intervene in any squabbles unless blood is drawn or is about to be drawn, though. Mice need to work out their hierarchy and their humans interfering can just slow the process down and frustrate them.

Good luck!

by katafrat Mon 20 Apr 2020, 4:38 pm

@Peachy wrote:I usually only hear squeaking when one mouse is afraid or being hurt, during intros. Normal communication is too quiet for us to hear.

I'd give this intro another go! Give them a couple days to cool off and really evaluate how tame they are. Tame mice intro better so if you feel you need to wait a little longer to work with them, do it. Where are you introducing them and what do you have in with them?

hello! thank you so much for your kind reply. <3
-- i definitely will, i've given maya and iris some time to cool off. and just this past couple of days, i've worked on taming iris and she has gotten so much more comfortable with me. so i'll give this another go here soon!

i'm currently using a bin, about the size of a 30 gallon tank. but a bathtub would work a lot better, since they can go to each other on their own terms, without having to fight over food or toilet paper tubes haha. i will add things gradually, so thank you again! Love

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