Feeding night - Rats & Mice in same tub?

[Nate]

I'm wondering if there are any problems that anyone knows about regarding temporarily houseing rats and mice together

I typically go to the pet store and pick up quite a combination of hopper mice, adult mice, and small rats.

I have a deep Rubbermaid set up as temporary housing before feeding them to my snakes. I usually let the rats out into the rubbermaid, and I keep the mice in the bags (inside the rubbermaid)

Usually, they will chew right through the bags to get out of them (which is why I put the bags IN the rubbermaid)..so then they're in with the rats.

It's usually not for a long period of time - but I'm not aware of any rats vs. mice issues.... so, for some of you more experienced with keeping rats and mice, what kinds of risks are involved with housing them together for any length of time?

Same thing happened last week and this evening - and so far, they've appeared to get along fine - but that doesn't mean I know what i'm talking about

Thanks guys

[wuffielover]

I'm sure there have been cases where rats housed with mice have killed them- but I've known some rats (mostly large, aggressive adult males used to living alone or with a set group of 1 or 2 other rats) that would kill other rats that they didn't know. All I can tell you is in my personal experience, a normal, non-aggressive rat will not usually attack a mouse. Where I work we have a tank on the front counter where we will put a dozen or so feeder mice for quick grabbing so we don't have to go all the way to the back room to get them. Occasionally a rat will get tossed in there too if we grab the wrong size accidentally or some such and are too busy with customers to take it all the way back to the racks immediately, and I've never seen an incident where these rats (usually juveniles, used to living in a large group of other rats) have attacked the mice. Yesterday I even saw the rat we'd put in grooming one of the mice! However, this is just my and YMMV, I'm sure others will chip in.

[cobweb2000]

Rats predate on mice; they can and will kill them. It may not be immediately, but eventually the mice will be attacked. If it's just for a very short time they may all be too busy exploring the new smells and sounds to bother with each other, but I wouldn't leave them for more than an hour or so personally.

Mice also carry an infection called Sendai that they can carry asymptomatically that will infect rats; it may not matter if you are feeding them off immediately but Sendai can decimate a rat colony very quickly. I keep my pet rats and feeder mice in totally different areas of the house and disinfect after dealing with the feeders to prevent any evil little mouse viruses from getting to the rats.

[LadyOhh]

I've always had mice and rats fighting when they are together.. Lots of squeeking, and running around.

I don't mix them, out of pity for the mice.

[littleindiangirl]

I think if the mice have somewhere to go to to hide when the big ones are getting a little too rough, you're likely to be fine.

But as mentioned, rats have been known to kill mice, so keep that in mind.

That's about all I can say.

[FlowRock]

All I know is that in the wild rats stalk mice, once i saw a documentary where they threw some mice in a room full of wild rats, what happened then reminded me of a bunch of terriers going rathunting, none of the mice survived the first minute...
There is a saying like: I you have rats in the house, lucky you, you wont have mice...