Mouse behaviour after death of a cagemate

by livyabrown Wed 30 Dec 2020, 3:23 am

Hi there! I was just looking for some advice on my young female mouse, stitch. Her cagemate sparky passed away suddenly the other day and I fear that stitch may have killed her. I am not looking to get any more mice especially as I would worry about stitches behaviour with them. She also doesn’t seem to be showing any signs of depression or grieving as she is eating and drinking fine, running on her wheel still and is happy to be handled.

I was wondering about the effectiveness of certain other methods of keeping her happy such as fake friends and giving her extra attention. This is my first time ever having mice as I have only ever had hamsters in the past.

Lastly I was wondering how long after her cagemate death should I clean the cage? Seeing as she isn’t to bothered I was hoping to do it asap but I was wondering about her being upset if I remove the smell of her sister.

by chiroptera Wed 30 Dec 2020, 4:41 pm

I feel like it would be okay to clean the cage, it might upset her but sooner or later it will need to be done anyway, may as well do so now so as to "get it over with" so to speak.

If you're sure you don't want more mice at the moment, then if she's not showing clear signs of distress or loneliness, then I would suggest treating her like a lone male. Give her lots of toys and things to do, as well as a lot of one on one time with you. I think that methods that work for lone males should work for most females as well. I'm not sure how well fake friends really work, I've not really used them for my males before and have never had a lone female. Definitely make sure she has a lot of enrichment though - if she's bored I think it's a lot more likely she'll be stressed over lack of a cagemate.