Sigh! Why Do They Always Do This to Her?

by CinnamonPearl Wed 28 Feb 2018, 10:14 am

I'm so sick of it!

So with Shelly gone and me only having five mice, I thought it was time to merge my two colonies and have everyone live together in one tank. Trying to merge the colonies went terribly last time thanks to Chara and Nutmeg totally abusing Grace, biting her badly on the bum, and not even letting her go get food without chasing her. But since everyone except Dandelion is starting to get up there in age, I hoped that this time, they'd be chill old ladies and it'd be different. But nope! I did the introduction and everything seemed to be perfectly fine, a few scuffles but nothing abnormal, and everyone was being nice to each other. Chara, Nutmeg, and Annie welcomed their new friends with open arms! But then I realized this morning that I hadn't seen Grace since Monday evening and dug her out of the nest house to find the poor thing with nasty bites on her bum and tail. :'(

Needless to say, I'm going to have to separate again. I'm bloody frustrated about it since I'm so sick of maintaining two tanks and was hoping to finally get everyone to live together nicely, but NOPE! Chara and Nutmeg are a couple of jerks. Does anyone understand why those two always refuse to treat Grace with respect? I know that some girls just can't get along, but it seems bizarre to me since Grace is gentle and has never done a lick of bad to either of them. It just feels unnecessarily hostile. The only explanation I can think of is that Grace is a British mouse while those two are American, and that maybe they aren't recognizing her as the same species? But that seems pretty far-fetched to me, since Annie, Dandelion, Suzie, and Shelly all treated her fine.

Do you guys think there's any possible way to make this introduction work?

by Rodents rock! Thu 01 Mar 2018, 7:50 pm

Awww, poor Grace. I'm not sure what you could do. Maybe try to have some introductions with just Grace and one other mouse at a time and see how that goes.

by CinnamonPearl Thu 01 Mar 2018, 8:12 pm

I could try it. The sucky thing about it is they always treat her fine for the first day or so and start abusing her once I've let my guard down. So even if I did one mouse at a time, there's still so much risk.

Whatever I end up doing, I need to wait a while and let her tail heal. Those bites are so bad. :'( I put some neosporin plus on it, but it really must've hurt.

by Rodents rock! Thu 01 Mar 2018, 9:30 pm

I think I would just keep the two colonies separate then and not risk Grace getting bitten again.

by scaredymouse Fri 02 Mar 2018, 9:16 am

I have done this before! I separated the bully for a week. During that time, i put everyone else together to bond. It went great. The group was happy and bonded well. Then i added the bully back. Makes sure its a dirty tank, one that smells like everyone. So when you add her back, she is an outsider. In the week she was gone, things will have changed enough that she will have to try tho fit in all over again. It worked for me. When i added my bully back, she fell in line. Also, while she's separated, swap out bedding or nest boxes tho start the process.

I think it's worth s try. If it doesn't work at a week, i would isolate her one more week then try again. If it doesn't work then, you'll have to give up for sure.

This should go without saying, keep a close eye on them based on their history.

by CinnamonPearl Fri 02 Mar 2018, 10:49 am

Oooh I'll have to try it! I think it's Chara and Nutmeg both who are misbehaving, but I can always put them in lone tanks, and then introduce them both back at separate times to make sure they don't gang up together. I'm going to give Grace time to heal first, so it'll probably be a few weeks. But I'll def let you know how it goes, thanks Scaredy!

by Rodents rock! Fri 02 Mar 2018, 8:30 pm

That's a great idea Scaredy! I hadn't thought of that.

Let's us know how it goes Cinnamon.

by scaredymouse Sun 04 Mar 2018, 3:07 pm

I know all kinds of advanced introduction techniques but you really need to know the mouse personalities Smile

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