behavior i didn't consider possible.

Oh ok. That's pretty neat though!

You want to be really careful introducing other species and even the same species from external sources into your established colony. That is an easy way to introduce a terrible mycoplasma that could easily wipe out your entire colony. Ive seen it happen to small colonies and even numerous big colonies (thousands of mice/rats per week).

I was taking care of a litter of mice and after they were weaned, I had to move the male babies. Out of curiousity, I moved them into a tank with three of my male rats. Not only did none of the rats eat the mice, but one in particular would cuddle them a lot. I'll see if I still have the picture somewhere.

This is a interesting topic. I actually had one hopper ASF left after feeding our small batch off. I put the ASF hopper in with hopper rats about a month ago and they are all growing up and surprisingly there is no aggression shown at all. I thought maybe the ASF would try to dominate the rest of them, or the rats would gang up on the ASF. I have been keeping an eye on them closely just incase.