Female not thriving

I bought a male and female pair from the local pet shop in early August. Male is doing well. The female isn't. She isn't growing, has a poor coat, is small, and not very active. The male is easily twice her size. She tends to lay around a lot. All my other mice are doing great. Growing, gaining weight, very active. Same food, etc.

Any ideas on what I should do? Keep her and try to make her better, or give up and give her to the snake?

Sounds like she is sick. I would get rid of her but not feed it to the snake for fear of getting your snake sick.

If it was anything contagious, the other mice would have gotten it (which is why I'm kind of not sure what to do). Plus, illnesses that mammals have, can't really hop over to reptiles. I think her issue is more of a case of bad genetics.

i weight my mice every three days (I have about 10), if one is not gaining weight, or lost weight, I just feed them off...

Do you know her age for certain? Could just be old. I will think if she was sick she would have died or gotten much worse by now. I would cull her.

She died last week, as did another earlier this week. Both were very underweight. Neither would come out of hiding and I have a suspiscion the male was terrorizing them. Though, he's not a problem anymore.

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Originally Posted by Raptor

She died last week, as did another earlier this week. Both were very underweight. Neither would come out of hiding and I have a suspiscion the male was terrorizing them. Though, he's not a problem anymore.

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i would suggest finding a better source for breeders. there is many members here that breed mice and rats both im sure someone wouldnt mind selling you some breeders.
oh yes also mice tend to produce really well for around 8 months then the numbers start to drop

Did you feed him off?

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Originally Posted by nixer

i would suggest finding a better source for breeders. there is many members here that breed mice and rats both im sure someone wouldnt mind selling you some breeders.
oh yes also mice tend to produce really well for around 8 months then the numbers start to drop

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I just get them from the pet store. I'm not interested in paying an arm and a leg, since I currently can't afford it (woot for being a broke college student!).

Oxylepy, no, I broke his neck and shoved him in the freezer. I already fed Morana for this week. Was waiting for the other male to grow out a bit before switching, but I decided to switch early.

Getting a good breeder mouse from a local breeder may be cheaper than paying $3 at the pet store.

Also good move with removing him, the last thing you need is an abusive mouse ruining things. :gj:

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Originally Posted by Raptor

I just get them from the pet store. I'm not interested in paying an arm and a leg, since I currently can't afford it (woot for being a broke college student!).

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heck last time i was at the pest store they were charging alot for mice period.

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Originally Posted by Oxylepy

Getting a good breeder mouse from a local breeder may be cheaper than paying $3 at the pet store.

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ALOT cheaper than 3$ a mouse

I pay under $2 for mine O.o $1.78 at one store and $1.25 at another. I tend to go to the $1.78 one because it's closer and on the way home from college.

Petco is really out of the way here, but mice are 2.59, small rats are the same, medium rats are like 6$ and large ones are like 10. I order everything frozen in bulk now, and I save a lot more than I would even getting frozen at the pet store.

There are 2 pet stores closer, one refuses to give me rodents since they claim it's cruel to feed them to snakes, the other doesn't even carry frozen or live. *sigh* And it takes about 2 hours each way via public trans to get to Petco.

But still, look around, you will get higher quality animals off of a local breeder and at better prices. You could probably swap your whole colony out for under $20.

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Originally Posted by Oxylepy

Petco is really out of the way here, but mice are 2.59, small rats are the same, medium rats are like 6$ and large ones are like 10. I order everything frozen in bulk now, and I save a lot more than I would even getting frozen at the pet store.

There are 2 pet stores closer, one refuses to give me rodents since they claim it's cruel to feed them to snakes, the other doesn't even carry frozen or live. *sigh* And it takes about 2 hours each way via public trans to get to Petco.

But still, look around, you will get higher quality animals off of a local breeder and at better prices. You could probably swap your whole colony out for under $20.

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$20 is all I get a month and a lot of it goes towards food for between classes.

Are you good at reveiwing papers? If not go look into it, you could probably market that skill to people for a nominal price. I'm at community collage and, believe me, there are a lot of ways to pick up some extra cash off other students. Alternatively you could hang out on a street corner late at night ;)

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Originally Posted by Oxylepy

Are you good at reveiwing papers? If not go look into it, you could probably market that skill to people for a nominal price. I'm at community collage and, believe me, there are a lot of ways to pick up some extra cash off other students. Alternatively you could hang out on a street corner late at night ;)

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Haha. Three of my classes are online, and the other, biology, is a traditional course. I don't really talk to the other classmates, for the most part I'm either ignored or they talk about stuff I have no interest in. I'm the oddball lol

And your goals in life are?

It's a bad idea not to talk to people. My typical crowd is almost entirely gay girls but since I want to be a surgeon I realized sectioning myself off like that is a really bad idea and that the best thing to do is talk to as many people as possible, get to know them and remember their names, and network.

In the time I've been here I have already met 2 people who would love to own snakes and who, when I get my snakes breeding, I will probably end up giving normals to. I managed to expand my group of friends from none to about 50 people in four weeks and I am ever growing.

Don't section yourself off like that, that's what people do in highschool and it's a very bad move for your future, the more people you meet and form decent relationships with the wider your resources are when you need them.

I'm planning on being a pharmacist, but the main issue is two fold. The first part, is that I've always been home schooled and have limited contact with people my own age. I'm quite capable of carrying on conversations and the like, but I tend to hang out on my own since that's what I've always done. The second issue is that I'm 4'11" and have the appearance of anywhere from 12-16. People my age (21) don't like hanging out with those who they perceive as being 'kids'. I've always ran into this issue. Most believe me quite quickly, but others have gone so far as accusing me of lieing (I had a relative to back me up, but they insisted that I told her to lie for me).

As a whole, I tend to stick to myself..Doesn't help that people ignore me when I try to talk x) For example. Before biology class, the group I'm in for my biology lab are all talking. I try to comment, and they simply keep talking, but pause to listen to the other two. So, I simply shut up and do whatever it is that I was doing.

So, in a sense, it's a sort of forced 'sectioned off'. I've love to have friends, but I usually end up getting ignored, as I always have. It sucks, but hey, that's life, amirite?