I want to know from you guys, if there is any truth to the idea that if you separate a mouse from its tankmates for ONE DAY, and then put it back, that the other mice will kill it when it is re-introduced?


Here is my story.... Rant coming...

Yesterday I went to a LPS that I don't normally go to to buy a mouse, and I made sure to get the receipt because I figured Luke might chicken out. And last night Luke refused the mouse... so today I went back to return it. (Luke is a very very VERY picky ball python, all my other guys happily eat frozen, but Luke will only accept live, and he doesn't always eat either. I don't have a permanent mouse enclosure, so I have to play the pet store dance for him.)

But they refused to give me my money back! The man working, who I think was the owner, told me that he would not take the mouse back, because it's been "traumatized from being in with a snake" and that he would take it back and "rescue it" but that he would not give me my money back. Now as I said I don't have permanent housing for mice, so I said that I would give it to him. The girl takes my kritter keeper and goes into the back room of the store - I ask what are you doing? - she says that the mouse has been away for awhile so if she puts it back with the others, they will kill it. So she proceeds to waste 10 min of my time while she sets up a 10-gallon tank for the ONE mouse...

Whaaat? I have been returning mice all the time to the pet store I normally go to back at school, and they have NEVER had a problem with returning mice or putting it back where it came from with the others. Nor do they have any sort of "mouse trauma" or hostility problems among their mice that I am aware of.

Now please note I always care for my feeders in the mean time - give them food, hiding places, clean paper towels, etc. I am not a torturer of mice! Yet that's how I was treated at the store, and I was getting a ton of funny looks. Grrr... well that's the last time I go to that pet store. *rant over*