help murdering going on in my mouse bin!

[ADEE]

Ok, I had 1.2 ratio of breeder mice in a nice big bin. while we were waiting for babies to get on the ground weve been getting feeder mice... well cam and hazard went into shed on me and ate only one mouse each instead of the normal two so we had two mice left over. i threw them in with the other mice (only one bin right now) and we had one dead one by morning and the other one has its privates ripped apart and all the hair/skin tore up on its back. the other three looked fine so my guess is the male is protecting/defending his females and killed off the other two intruders.. my question is, should i feed the male off? I cant have the male eating babies/grow up mice in the mean time.. that kinda defeats the purpose of having breeder mice dont you think?

I feel simply horrible these little mice got their butts beat to death, please someone have some input for me!

[xdeus]

Mice are very social creatures and don't adapt well with intruders. I don't think you should have anything to worry about with the offspring as they shouldn't pose a threat to the male. Still, it's a good idea to have a second bin for when the mice are weaned and you just want to get them big enough to feed to your snakes. It cuts down on the stress of having so many mice growing up in a breeding colony.

[littleindiangirl]

Were the two feeder mice males? I can see the original male killing them to protect his territory and females. I agree that you should set up a seperate small tub for these occaisons.

[cassandra]

Mice are....well...words I can't use in a family forum. If you bring in feeder mice, it's best to keep them separate. Occasionally I can get my colony to "chill out" when introducing new mice by giving them a bath first (rinse the mice really well in luke warm water), but sometimes they still chase or get chased by others in the cage (although I haven't had death, just death matches of biting and squeaking).

[West Coast Jungle]

Thats why i breed rats. Mice are down right disgusting to put it nicely. As far as rats, they are alot more social and will even nurse anothers babies if needed. One problem is you don't want more than one male in a breeding group (example 1 male-3 females). I like to separate my females when they are about to give birth so they can nurse without competition. My biggest problem with rats was Moms trying to hoard each others babies. Mice are just plain viscious. Rats rule in my book.

[PJ FF]

Oh mice.... I had a horrible time trying to keep mine from making a blood bath. They also smell worse but back on topic. My male would kill the babie and it was gross!!! I would lift their houses and it would be a blood bath and eew. Rant off.

[MarkS]

Yes, mice don't like to have intruders invading their homes. I've found it difficult to even set up breeding groups once they get too old. Once I've got a breeding group together, they stay together for their entire lives and eventually retire together. Mice are very jumpy and don't take well to change. I've found that the best way to raise mice is to put them in a dark out of the way place and ignore them as much as possible. Mice hate being watched, they really want to remain hidden.

[ADEE]

see and thats why i feed mice and not rats! thats nasty!!!

the two feeders were little males, i do have another bin set up and ready for preggy/birthing mothers. but we havnt had any babies yet, we have had them for about 3wks and i *think* the females are getting more plump (pear) looking but only time will tell if we get babies. If the male starts killing off anything else ill feed him off while i wait for the babies to get big enough to feed off..

the mice arent even inside my home (they stink!) and they dont get messed with much either.. only reason i knew it was dead was i changed the water and found it when i dropped food for them GROSS

[Dr_Gonz0]

We bred mice for a while, and had 6 bins at one point with a 1:3 male to female ratio. We never found we had to remove the male when a female gave birth, mice dad's are pretty good with their own offspring. We also found that the female's would nurse each other's pinkies as well.

As for fighting, like people, some mice are just jerks. We would just weed out the agressors and make sure not to house 2 males together.

Robin

[frankykeno]

Ashley, the other issue with this, even if your resident trio hadn't killed the intruder mice is that dumping in feeder mice from an outside source exposes your colony to whatever is going around at the pet store. It's always best to keep temporary feeders that you are holding over away from your own breeding stock. Even rats who will usually socialize well with incoming animals shouldn't be housed with outside feeders in my opinion. It's just not worth the risks to your breeders.

ASF's tend to not allow strange rats into their colony either and in my experience will immediately turn on any unknown adult rat introduced into their well established order.