Introducing babies to an adult

by soymilk Sun 25 Mar 2018, 1:27 pm

Hi, I'm new to keeping mice. I adopted a single "male" from a shelter and then quickly realized that she was a girl. I knew she probably needed a friend, so I recently adopted 3 baby females (littermates) from another shelter. I've only had the new babies for a day so I was planning to try introductions next week once the babies have settled in a little bit. I've been reading up on introductions so I know to do neutral territory, maybe swap their toys over this next week, dab them with vanilla, only separate when there's blood, etc.

Is there anything I should know about introducing babies (about 2 months old) to an adult (estimated 1 year)? The babies are quite small compared to Soymilk (my adult).

My other concern is that Soymilk is very skittish. I don't think she's ever really been handled; the shelter said that they would just grab her by the tail when they needed to handle her for vet visits or whatever, and she was taken in by the shelter because she was left in a box on a hiking trail. We've made some progress with taming her; she'll come up to me to get treats and she'll put her paws in my hand, but I still can't hold her. The babies are pretty tame and I can grab them pretty easily, but if the introduction were to go wrong I'm just worried I wouldn't be able to remove Soymilk easily (presuming that Soy is the one to be aggressive with the babies).

Thanks in advice for any advice.

by soymilk Sun 25 Mar 2018, 1:40 pm

Another question-- I'm going to clean both their tanks today, should I swap some of their dirty bedding and toys to help get them used to each others' scents?

Introducing babies to an adult

Introducing babies to an adult

Re: Introducing babies to an adult