Meet the girls, and a few questions as well!

by katieomms Wed 14 Mar 2018, 7:02 pm

Yesterday I adopted a new 4 week old PEW mouse, and I have her in a separate enclosure for her safety. All my mice are female, but one is particularly aggressive when it comes to new additions- I learned this when I first got two new mice. Here's a brief description of each of my mice before I ask questions:

Doorknob: One of my two original PEW mice. I "rescued" her and Puta from being snake food. Doorknob is the nicest and the calmest, but she's also pretty fat.
https://i.servimg.com/u/f62/19/81/68/16/doorkn12.jpg

Puta: The name fits. Her name was originally Popcorn, but Puta ended up sticking as the name. She was the other PEW mouse that I adopted with Doorknob. She's the most active and the bravest- she'll play games with me while the other mice won't. Unfortunately, she's very aggressive to new additions and I'm worried about the baby when I finally put the baby in the main enclosure. I tried to introduce the baby through the bars of the main cage, and Puta immediately tried to attack. When I first put my other two mice in the enclosure with Doorknob and Puta, Puta would bite them until they bled. I isolated Puta for a few days in a separate enclosure, and that seemed to fix the problem.
https://i.servimg.com/u/f62/19/81/68/16/puta11.jpg

Cookie: She's all gray, and is the second most active mouse. I adopted her with Oreo a few months after I got Doorknob and Puta. She's a little mouthy, and will try to chomp down on anything you put in front of her in the cage.
https://i.servimg.com/u/f62/19/81/68/16/cookie11.jpg

Oreo: She is black and white, and is the smallest of the four. She's the shyest, but she's funny because she loves to remodel the cage to her liking. I'll put little pieces of colorful paper in the cage, and she'll take them right away and run to decorate their house.
https://i.servimg.com/u/f62/19/81/68/16/oreo11.jpg

Baby (haven't picked a name yet): I just got Baby yesterday. She's four weeks old.
https://i.servimg.com/u/f62/19/81/68/16/doorkn11.jpg

Anyway, I'd LOVE if you guys could help me out with a few things.
First question: Does eye-squinting always mean that a mouse is sick? Doorknob squints her eyes all the time, but it's mostly when she's in her nest or trying to sleep. She's also a little fat- she's the largest of all the mice significantly. I'm not really sure what to do about that. It's odd because she doesn't eat as much as Puta does. She seems healthy, otherwise.

Second question: How should I go about introducing the new baby mouse to the others? Right now, I have the baby in a separate enclosure. Last night, she was by herself, but today, I've been keeping Doorknob in the enclosure with her to keep her company. Doorknob is the nicest mouse, but even then I'm still hearing some squeaks coming from the baby and Doorknob has been a little bit of a bully. Baby seems to like Doorknob, though, and I just saw Baby cleaning Doorknob's ears a few minutes ago. I know I should clean the main enclosure thoroughly before adding Baby to it. Should I wait until Baby is a little older and larger? I just hate to see her in the smaller enclosure with just Doorknob. I'm worried that the three other mice will team up on the little one, and possibly kill her.

If you guys have any other advice, I'd love to hear it. Anything helps!

by River Wed 14 Mar 2018, 9:11 pm

What cute girls!

Eye squinting can and usually means 'back off!', like a glare, and can indicate sleepiness too. I wouldn't worry about it.

You need to introduce mice on neutral territory first. A playpen of sorts. If that goes swell, deep clean the tank so it and nothing in it smells like any of the mice, and add the new mouse in for a few minutes. Then, add the others. Supervise closely! Fighting is normal, no blood, no foul. This has always worked for me! Check out our introduction sticky for more detail.

Also, a bit of extra advice but we recommend quarantining new mice away from the existing colony for three weeks to make sure they aren't sick and won't spread any illness to your other mice. That'll be helpful to know in the future! Smile