Female mouse killing males?

Hi.

I recently purchased one femelae mouse cause i wanted to try breeding on a smale scale just for fun,i put here in a cage and put a male in but about 2 hours later she killed him by biting in his neck.
So what should i do?
Try again?

THX

The way to introduce two mice is to put them into a totally clean new enclosure with all clean and neutral items at the same time. If the female was in that cage for even half and hour, she had claimed it as her own already and was defending it. But, even with the neutral territory, some females are just aggressive.

So how should i do it if i want to introduce a male to the cage?

If you already have the female, get another enclosure (like a tub, which is what all my trios are in) and put the female and male in the new place at the same time. That way, no territory is pre-established and they can just get to know each other. That's what I do when putting together new trios, since I like to get unrelated males, and so far so good.

Ok,but i mean the female was maybe 2 minutes in the cage before the male got in.
So it wasn't that long

Hmm. So you got the male and female at the same time? You might just have one of the aggressive females that don't like males then. See if you can exchange her or get another female and try then.

Personally I'd get rid of the female and get another one. Try to find one thats young.

I used to date a girl like that....

You could try letting the buck establish the enclosure as his first before adding the doe, too. With rabbits, you ALWAYS take the doe to his cage for breeding, to avoid her being defensive of her territory. The bucks are usually too busy thinking about sex to defend much of anything, and it makes sense that it would work the same for mice and rats too.

I don't know how well this would work, but has anyone ever tried the vanilla trick? Some people say to do it with rats. You wet your finger with a drop of vanilla, and wipe a bit at the base of the tail and on the nuzzle. (NOT in the nose)

They say it distracts the rats from the new smell and helps with introductions.

I have no idea if it really works on rats or if it would work at all on mice. Just an idea.

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So what should i do?

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Feed her of and get another female and male!

In that kind of cases I have a Zero tolerance policy!

Usually mice from the pet store are more skittish and you will often get problems, the good part is that once you will start breeding it will get better with the second generation.

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Usually mice from the pet store are more skittish and you will often get problems, the good part is that once you will start breeding it will get better with the second generation.

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BINGO. A lot of people who claim that it's so difficult to breed mice, just don't stick with it long enough to raise up their own breeders from the next generation. A lot of pet store mice are already too old and set in their ways to make good breeders, or they've been bounced around from cage to cage with strange mice in every new cage to ever feel comfortable anywhere.

Ah yes, good point folks. :) I got my first trios from my local reptile store as weanlings and raised them to the proper age before adding a nice young male in a new enclosure. It's worked that way all three times I've done it, and I'm just about to start a new trio with second gen. (those two silver albinos and an unrelated white female).

When you pick up a new pair, make sure they are as young as you can get them without still being dependent on mom. That way you know you've got a fresh start. Then, just raise them up to the proper age and introduce them in a nice clean enclosure.