Hello from my 3 little mice and me

by sparkocm Wed 28 Dec 2016, 11:53 am

Hi pet mice owners and enthusiast.

I recently (4 days ago ) got myself 3 pet mice. I've never had pet mice before and I've been reading a lot on how to care for this little ones.

To introduce myself a bit, I am a tech geek and work an office job. On my free time I play video games and read about coding and computing. I am currently 25 years old and I am very curious about curious critters such as mice and rats.

Now to introduce the little mice:

*Some back story, I was going to buy only one little mice, but after reading some information I found out that their average life span is of about 2-3 years. So I figured maybe getting a couple would be a nice idea, they could have tiny babies and continue to provide me with company as I take care of their offspring. So I went to the local pet shop just to find out that there were only 3 lonely mice ( 3 albinos ) that were left there because no kid, or adult liked them to be albino because of the pretext of being "lab rats". So I decided to buy all 3 of the mice and get them a new home.

Currently I own 2 females and 1 male.

Their names:

1. (bigger female) Patty
2. (smaller female) Whiskers
3. (male) Mustafah

So as a new pet owner I would like to hear from you guys what you think of my little adventure getting this 3 little ones, their names and any advice you might want to throw my way since I am a novice.

P.S I will be getting this guys a new enclosure today, I have them on an average sized cage of about 55 cm ( that's about 22 in for all those who use the Imperial System )

by CallaLily Wed 28 Dec 2016, 1:54 pm

Welcome!

Please take a look at all of the pinned topics in this section: https://petmousefanciers.forumotion.com/f11-reproductive-care. There are also many other care topics pinned in each section of the forum. Please check them out when you get the chance and feel free to ask any questions you may have.

by EverythingAnimal Wed 28 Dec 2016, 2:32 pm

Hello! Boy, you're going to have A LOT of babies to care for, hopefully you have a plan for them all? Better start reading up! I would reccomend removing the male now, as your females are already pregnant.

by sparkocm Wed 28 Dec 2016, 5:28 pm

Thank you very much guys for the tips. Yes I do have a plan for all the babies. I actually got a pretty nice and large enclosure for the mice today and two smaller enclosures for the males to stop from over reproduction and too many babies.

Thank you for the pointers on articles to read! very helpful and I am preparing for all of the little rascals that will be around.

I have a few family members that want mice for their kids, and I will house the rest as I am fascinated by this little critters, hopefully I will be able to manage their breeding cycles and not end with too many mice since I don't want to also put the females health in danger

by AnonymousMouseOwner Wed 28 Dec 2016, 5:44 pm

Welcome to the forum! I'm a little confused, are you purposely breeding them?

by scaredymouse Wed 28 Dec 2016, 6:15 pm

Welcome to the wonderful world of mice and welcome to the group. If you are housing your mice together, your females are most likely already pregnant. A litter can range from roughly 5-15 babies! All males need their own tanks, they cannot live with other males. They can and will fight to the death. Females can and should live together, preferably no less than three to a group. FYI, female mice can be tricky but with proper introductions, successful colonies can be built and maintained.

Take a look at the links posted and let us know if you have any questions. Oh, pet shop mice usually don't live past 2 years old. I would go as far as to say that the majority don't make it past two. I just wanted to clarify that for you since you mentioned lifespan in your post.

If your mice are pregnant, you are going to be up to your eyeballs in babies soon. Each mom needs her own tank and the links posted earlier will walk you through how to be a good mouse grandparent. I will say this, I totally understand the desire to watch the miracles of life unfold and have a giant pile of itty bitty babies! But once they are grown, it's no easy task to clean that many tanks every week, give then all the socialization/attention they need, provide/make toys for all of them, deal with any fights in the female colonies, the cost of basic care and potential veterinary care, and the caregiver fatigue you still experience caring for so many critters...it's a lot of work. I have 9 tanks, 2 cats and 2 chinchillas. But I don't work and I have help.

by AnonONIagent Wed 28 Dec 2016, 6:18 pm

sparkocm wrote:Thank you very much guys for the tips. Yes I do have a plan for all the babies. I actually got a pretty nice and large enclosure for the mice today and two smaller enclosures for the males to stop from over reproduction and too many babies.

Thank you for the pointers on articles to read! very helpful and I am preparing for all of the little rascals that will be around.

I have a few family members that want mice for their kids, and I will house the rest as I am fascinated by this little critters, hopefully I will be able to manage their breeding cycles and not end with too many mice since I don't want to also put the females health in danger

I would recommend having your family members adopt or buy mice from a local shelter, breeder or pet store rather than breed them yourself. To breed you generally want use mice from another breeder so that you know they have a good pedigree; pet store mice are almost always badly inbred and of poor genetic stock, and thus are not ideal to breed.

That said, since the females are almost certainly already pregnant, there is nothing wrong with giving the babies that will result from the current pregnancy away to family (so long as you make your family members well aware of what they're getting into, of course). But after that, I would strongly recommend against breeding these mice further.