Mice fighting

by BobaAndFriends Wed 01 Dec 2021, 10:46 am

I have four female mice that currently reside in a 40 gallon breeder tank. I originally only wanted three girls, but that would have left one girl by herself, so I got all four. Their names are Boba, Mochi, Bleu, and Brie. They have huge amounts of toys and hides so that there isn’t any open floor space. They have at least 6 inches of bedding at all times. They have two wheels, two water sources, and admittedly only one food bowl, but I also scatter food on the ground for them to forage for. Boba and Brie are friendly and tame, Bleu takes food from me but won’t climb on my hand and doesn’t want to come out of the tank. Mochi is so skittish that she hides the second I come into the room. She won’t take food and certainly won’t climb in my hand. I honestly rarely see her at all. She’s the one that I *think* is getting bullied.

Fairly often I hear loud squeaks that sound like pain to me and hear what sounds like mice running all over the cage. As soon as I enter the room or get up to check on them, it stops. Because of that, I can’t tell who is getting “attacked” and who is doing the “attacking.” I don’t ever see blood, but Mochi has had patches of fur missing around her face before. She was solid fawn when I brought her home, but she has started to develop white spots all over, and I thought it might be from hair being pulled out and growing back in white.

Does this sound like potential fighting? Does anyone have any tips on what I can do to prevent it? I thought about separating them into groups of two (in separate tanks), but I don’t know which ones are having issues, and I’d rather not separate them from each other if I can help it.

Thanks!

by Buggirl13 Wed 01 Dec 2021, 12:36 pm

This might not be the reason they're fighting, but a 40-gallon enclosure, while technically big enough for a mouse, isn't big enough for four mice. Maybe an upgrade would help?

Mice fighting

Mice fighting

Re: Mice fighting