Solitary female marking territory?

by MousieMomma Thu 24 Jun 2021, 7:56 pm

First of all, a disclaimer: Storm (the solitary female in question), is aggressive towards other mice, so she needs to be housed alone. You should never house a female mouse alone unless under very specific circumstances.

So Storm has been peeing on me lately, and I don’t mean just a small pee spot on my shirt where she likes to groom herself (which is usually where I’ll find it), she has been peeing everywhere on me! On my arms and hands, all over my shirt, and inside my shirt between my skin and the fabric, which she has only just started to burrow in. Her urine is completely normal as well, smells normal, looks normal, etc. Is this normal behavior? The only thing that’s different in my routine that I can think of is that I’ve had to take care of a dying mouse the past week or so (non contagious, brain tumor) until she passed away a couple days ago. Could she be marking her territory on me because she smells the other mouse? I try to wash my hands in between handling each colony (let’s face it, Storm is an entire colony on her own XD) but the smell of other mice is still going to be there.

So my question is: is this normal mouse behavior? Is this territorial behavior, or something else?

by River Fri 25 Jun 2021, 9:17 pm

Marking is *usually* a male behavior, is there any possible way she's a male with retracted testicles?

Had one of those once! I had a female colony at the time so he was quite the unwanted guest. It's not super worrying either way though, just unusual. Maybe she's nervous. Laughing

Solitary female marking territory?

Solitary female marking territory?

Re: Solitary female marking territory?