is all this chirping normal?

by CactusMouse Mon 06 Mar 2023, 11:15 am

hello! I recently got a new mouse, will have had him for almost a week now. I think he's pretty young, maybe a month or 2? I got him from one of those hole in the wall petstores where they keep mice all packed into a tank.

I've only ever had rats, and it's been surprising how different the needs are for mice/rats, so I don't have much of a reference for what's normal behavior.

I only have a single male mouse. He is extremely friendly, curious, active at night. But he is very very noisy. I'd best describe it as chirping? He does it all the time, more-so when excited and exploring new toys, but he also does it while sleeping. My first thought is it being myco/respiratory related. But he's otherwise without any symptoms of being sick. Glossy coat, eating, playing, bright clear eyes, very active and curious, firm stools.

I may just take him to my vet anyway, but is this something that could just be a normal mouse thing? Are some mice just "chirpers"?

by Misty Mon 06 Mar 2023, 8:56 pm

Some of my mice just like to squeak a lot. They do it when they get excited or happy, or even distressed or angry. They are quite communicative little creatures, and we can't even hear the most of what they are saying as it's too high in frequency.

I like to hide seeds in their wood shavings, when they find one there's little squeaks of happiness.

by cerial Fri 10 Mar 2023, 2:20 pm

Here is Grey.
This is Distressed with him being very defensive.
https://youtu.be/OBayEiNAr2w

He was scared of EVERYTHING. Called Grey after all because he was Grey from stress with thinning fur. After this I gave him his own 10 gallon which turned into a 20 long. He was tons happier with his fur becoming fuller and the squeaking stopped after a few days.

Grey has a wheel that he goes into any time anything surprises him. He still does it every now and then and he would stay in it during tank cleanings letting me pick it up and set it into another tank sneaking the wheel out and quickly cleaning it once he eventually explored the new tank. I slowly introduced 2 other problem mice (agressive females) into Greys tank and eventually they all would sleep in groups.

Grey is much less stressed now and through the use of "sliced almonds" as training treats I have got him very comfortable with me with him mostly using his wheel just for running.

Note: Be very careful about almond slices with multiple mice.
Mice will fight over these and stockpile them. They make great training treats. But you need to be careful or they will lead to fights.
If you put them into food that causes a larger issue. I have one mouse who is extremely agressive about them and he tends to throw all the food out of the food container if he even smells a trace of a almond.

Find out what is causing the sqeaking. Look at the facial expressions/body position mouse chart "google" and that will give you an idea on the mouses cause for all the noise.

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is all this chirping normal?

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