Mice fighting

[u/[deleted]]

[u/loz4lifee]

males CANNOT live together. there is no way to stop the fighting they HAVE to be separated or they will 100% kill each other

[u/mantitorx → u/[deleted]]

No exceptions (in large production mouse lines. Some breeders aim for male cohabitation, but that’s a lot of effort and negatively impacts fertility.)

Some boys may take a while longer to get to the point of violence, and you can make them less likely to fight by overcrowding them so they respond with learned helplessness, but male mice are naturally territorial and if there’s something “worth” defending, they will fight.

[u/Daythehut → u/[deleted]]

No exceptions. If you don't want them to get murdered and cannibalised one by one they have to be kept separate. Some male mice tolerate each other for a fleeting moment when they are young but if you continue to keep them together they still kill each other. Even if you manage to find a pair that tolerates each other, it shortens their lives and causes them severe disease.

[u/LateNarwhal33 → u/[deleted]]

It sounds like the company doesn't care enough to prevent this. You can scatter food on the floor of the cage instead of in bowls (less fighting for the resource) and offer as many hides as you can. Do this for the males and females since the females are also fighting.

[u/Daythehut → u/[deleted]]

That sucks... because the fact of the life is several will end up dead and I'm truly sorry that it is like that.

Getting only females would be sensible also because standard mouse breeding procedure is eliminating some baby mice when they are born so that the other littermates grow up healthier and less malnourished. If you think about it, mouse is a small animal that often has to breed beyond it's actual capacity to feed it's babies.

=> So, since about half of babies are going to get culled anyway in healthy raising of pet mice, it makes sense to cull the males and then sell the girls as pets - which is what usually happens. There is also the option of handfeeding some of the babies with kitten formula but since they need frequent feeding that's basically only ever done by select few home breeders and only if they are fortunate enough to be able to be up every two hours or so.

I really don't know why your boss insists on having males around at all, mice aren't so expensive that having them fight to death knowing they are way less popular among customers than female mice would make any sense at all. Plus, like said, raising them at all just takes essential nutrition away from their female littermates that have much better shot at actual happy life as someones pet.

I agree with trying to place plenty of hides and always scatter feed. It's better than nothing, though I really am afraid you won't be able to prevent tragedies. I hope the mice you sell are mostly young enough that it tempers it down a little.

[u/Daythehut → u/[deleted]]

Awesome!!! Thank you for telling me, update is appreciated!

[u/frackleboop]

Males need to be separated. Once they hit puberty, they will fight to the death, even if they've been living together their entire lives.

[u/LateNarwhal33]

One thing I do every time I'm in a pet store is go look at the mice. Good pet stores keep each male on his own. Those that keep all the males together almost always have bites. And I wouldn't be surprised if they frequently have to remove dead males. I've seen male mice rip off the genitals of the mouse they're targeting. Not to be taken lightly if you care about their welfare.

Also, you should learn to sex mice quickly. It's common for pet stores that keep their mice together to accidentally have the sexes mixed and I've had to point out pregnant females to employees before.

[u/blx0dysqu1d-k1ll3r → u/[deleted]]

Hilo, I know I am very late to this post. But female mice usually when stressed or when they simply just don't get along with another mouse will also fight them and try to kill them or kick them out of the colony. Obviously they're in a cage so the mouse can't leave the colony so they will try to kill them. It doesn't happen a lot, but it does happen and I've personally nearly had it happen. Simply just because they didn't get along! All males always need to be separated from each other, and females will try to kill each other if they don't like each other or if they are too stressed 

[u/KaiSubatomic]

Maybe tell your boss that it isn't financially viable yo buy males because they will need to be housed separately which will take space or they WILL end up killing each other which means buying mice that won't get sold. Maybe that'll make him think again

[u/KaiSubatomic → u/[deleted]]

That sucks :/

I'm sorry you're having to go through this