The World's Most Poorly Behaved Mice: A Thread

[ControlCoreAngel]

Let's talk about our most poorly behaved mice, because let's be real, even though we love them unconditionally, some mice are just jerks.
No matter how hard we bonded with them, or if they get along with other cagemates, etc., here's to the ones who never cease to be brats.
Mice are SMART, and with their intellect comes the ability to create mischief with little to no consequences.

This thread IS for talking about:

• little petty things (no pun intended)- kicking all the food out of the bowl, screwing up a pre-existing nest, moving all the bedding to a certain location, blocking off places they need to get to eventually, eating all of one food that another cagemate likes
  
• being rude in general
  
• intentionally or unknowingly causing mischief
  
• stealing food from cagemates
  
• etc.
  

This thread IS NOT for talking about:

• fights
  
• meanness caused by mistreatment
  
• severe hostility
  
• anything that's remotely related to abuse/mistreatment or violence
  
• etc.
  

If you have mice that violently fight with each other, I recommend separating them. Also check the Keeping Mice Together & Introducing Them.

---

So I'll go ahead and talk about Pipin. Oh, Pipin. I've never had such a naughty little mouse.

Pipin is around teenager age and just the most ridiculous mouse I've ever owned. She's committed many a crime including screaming like she's being murdered when she's getting GROOMED, being a general jerk to her very kind and motherly cagemate Macaroni, and so on. I love her, she's so weird.

A few days ago I caught her shoving all the bedding to one side in her cage- DIRECTLY in front of their water bottle, effectively blocking it + possibly allowing it to leak.
But WHILE she was doing it, she was picking up some of the bedding pieces, and SHOVING THEM OUT THE WATER BOTTLE HOLES AND ONTO MY FLOOR. Here's a video of her doing that (tw: strong language).
If this isn't peak chaos, I don't know what is. I love Pipin, but she's awful.

Here's a photo of her ready to bite fingers, while I'm at it.


Now, how about you? Tell us about your worst mouse.

[Robin~]

Well, I sorta have two, but Raven is the worst.

Everyone steals food from each other (even golden child Moo), but Raven is the most likely to do it. I feel I have to go into hyper get-oat-from-container mode just so she doesn’t go off and torment someone else
She also just follows people around, sniffing butts and all that, which typically annoys the other girls and leads to a brief (and loud) “Hey, back off” confrontation.
Lastly, and I’m not sure who exactly is doing this, but since Raven is the nest-builder I’ll put it on her— so, since half of my girls are a bit more sensitive to dust, I try to limit the bedding to a burrow box. I swear, it takes her less than a day to make a mess and throw the bedding everywhere! I honestly can’t bother putting it back in the box at this point because I know it’ll get messed up again in a day.
If anyone’s the worst in my place, it’s her. Granted, she still is sweet in her own sense, but she’s just a queen.

Leaf has her own minor quirk. I can’t do deep food dishes because then she throws all of the food out of the dish. I’ve resorted to shallower, unused ash trays and mostly scatter feeding to keep her from making a ton of noise from throwing millet and pellets everywhere.

[MerciToujoursMaPetiteBoop]

I have no complaints. April was an absolute angel. Whenever she "misbehaved", I played mousie psychologist and tried to figure out what was going on with her, so we could fix it.

But about Pipin ...
I think her obsession with the hole is not to throw things out through it, but to close it off. She's doing what mousies do to close up their nests and make them safe, but for some reason no matter how much stuff she puts up into the hole to close it, it stays open. Then see how she investigates this strange hole that won't close, putting her nose through it to sniff it out. She knows she put a bunch of bedding into it, but ... where did it go?!?

[BrendoniUrie]

Most of the time, no matter how much I give her treats and bond with her, Silk will nip at my hand the first time it enters the cage. It's never enough to draw blood, and afterwards she will take treats, climb on me, etc. She's even the first one to come greet me. I can't figure it out. Maybe she automatically assumes I'm holding a treat, who knows, but the other two sniff my hand for a treat, and she never does. She also always closes her eyes when taking a treat, so maybe that has something to do with it, and I smell like food, or maybe she's just crazy, I don't know.

One of the girls will also sit in the food dish so no one else can get any while she eats, and on top of that she's pooping in the dish and soiling the food.

[ControlCoreAngel]

But about Pipin ...
I think her obsession with the hole is not to throw things out through it, but to close it off.  She's doing what mousies do to close up their nests and make them safe, but for some reason no matter how much stuff she puts up into the hole to close it, it stays open.  Then see how she investigates this strange hole that won't close, putting her nose through it to sniff it out.  She knows she put a bunch of bedding into it, but ... where did it go?!?

This actually makes SO much sense haha.
It's been a bit, Pip's at her adult stage now and has reached PEAK MOUSE CHUNKY. She's still throwing bedding out the lower water bottle hole. She does do a lot of nesting so this honestly makes sense, but when I've taped up the hole so she won't toss it out, she's been a bit frustrated with the tape's existence. It's either what you said or she is hardwired for chaos. Probably both.

Here's updates on my hell children considering I've been away from this forum for a hot second.
A few days ago Pipin drained the ENTIRE. WATER. BOTTLE. All of it. Then got mad the floor was wet. Macaroni was similarly upset.
Also, I know this is a frustration "where is the tube" thing, but when I clean cages I block off the hole where their PVC tube originally was so they won't escape the other cage, normally with a glass cup I use to keep their peanut oil. They try to bite the glass. It's funny. It was originally plastic instead of the cup, but I figured that, in case they were to accidentally eat the plastic, that wouldn't be too good.
Sometime ago, in the middle of the night while I slept, they dislodged the PVC pipe. They had an opening wide enough to escape, but... they didn't. So that's both good and bad behavior, I feel.
Pip's also learned how to climb up arms and shirts.

[ControlCoreAngel]

Angel continuously bumps a dead thread because their mice are just THAT awful? Yup.

I'm Pipin, and I know you just gave me a very special treat because you love us, but I'm going to bite you just after you do.

Macaroni gets this month's good mouse behavior award for sweet precious children, but who am I kidding, she ALWAYS wins that.

[Lucille]

Oh man, Pipin!! lol

Im a new mouse mom and have only had my babies for 3 weeks but I used to have rats. I NEVER met a rat that gave me any grief until...

I was looking for siamese rats for my siamese cat. She had lived her whole life with pet rats free ranged in our home and loved them. They would play, eat sleep together. Wash each other. When the rats were geriatric, she helped with hospice care by gently grooming them. I decided this time around it might be nice if her ‘kittens’ looked like her so I found a breeder in Washington who has siamese rats and reserved two

When pickup day came, I learned that there were extra rats available because the litter had been born garnet eyed and all the show rat people turned their nose up at them-theyd hoping for black eyes.

When I met Pip, the first thing I blurted out was ‘whoa. She looks like a troublemaker’

I quickly second guessed myself because i had never had a trouble making rat. She was adorable and I ended up bringing her home in addition to the two I had reserved

Things in my house had changed at that point with one of my cats suddenly becoming interested in hunting rodents so I built the rats a large enclosure to keep them same and happy.

The siamese was still interested in loving rodents and she would visit them often to touch noses through the bars of the topper

Pip was a holy terror. She could not be trusted around cats. Or humans. Or life in general lol. She would climb up to her cage topper and dangle her tail alluringly while pretending she wasn’t paying attention and she would twitch it a little to attract the cat who was intent on harming rodents

When the cat would go for the tail, Pip would whip around and grab whatever part of the cat she could with her teeth. My cat learned to stay at least 12 inches away from the cage!

The siamese who wanted to love them never did learn tho and neither did I. We used to nose bump and kiss the rats through the bars many times a day. The other 5 rats were sweethearts

Pip was nearly identical to her litter mate Squeak and she KNEW IT. The main way to tell them apart was body language, behavior and facial expression. Pip learned that if she wanted to bite cat and human noses through the bars, all she had to do was mimic her sister and we would fall for it

Every.
Single.
Time.

Yesterday, I was at petsmart to purchase a lovely new mouse I had already picked out after a full hour of watching the mice there. While they were getting the paperwork ready, a curious little mouse who looked a lot like Pip began using its Jedi mind tricks trying to get me to take her home.

“Aw! You look like a troublemaker!” I blurted out. She looked at me with a coy smile and a mousey side eye as if to say ‘you have no idea’. I felt that warm happy tingly feeling I get whenever Ive met a trouble making female who is about to absolutely wreak havoc on my life.

Patterns, you know?

I remembered Pip... apologized to the little lady, and went home with no more mice than I intended to

I just weaned my babies in recent days and am trying to pick the best companions for them... usually I have no issue throwing my life away on destructive mischievous and even dangerous lil cuties... but Ive got young children to think about now

I hope Pip Part Two Mouse Edition finds the perfect home!

[disastervibe]

My girls certainly have their own idea of keeping the place tidy. For a while they were throwing the empty shells of seeds they'd already eaten out of their cage (clean) onto my floor (trash can). Right in front of me!

[M O U S E]

This isn't about my mice, but it's about my past hamster. She wasn't necessarily naughty, but there was one thing she did to her treats... lol. I'd put her on top of the container every once in a while so she could pick out her treat (nothing got soiled btw). She would pick one treat up, walk over to the edge of the container, and drop it over the edge. She did this a few times before sitting down and eating one of them

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