Trying to introduce 2 females to one female.

by Hermione_Bubba Sun 24 Apr 2016, 12:32 am

Hello. I just joined. I introduced myself in the appropriate forum Smile

I joined because I love my mice & often have questions about their behavior & happiness. Currently I have 3 little ladies. Shadow who iz black with a little pink on the tip of her tail, Ghost who iz white, & Edith who iz white with black patches. My quesion iz about introducing mice. I had Ghost & Shadow together. One day at a petshop with my boyfriend I was playing with the "feeder" mice & there was a particularly small white mouse with black patches. I believe it was a hopper. I held it & reluctantly put it back in its crowded, ten gallon tank. The next day we went back to the same pet shop & I went back to the feeder mice. A lot of them were gone, but surprisingly my tiny friend was still there. I took it as a sign & decided to take it home. I had never sexed a young mouse before but I was pretty sure it was a boy. I named him Edward. However, apparently my sexing skills are not all that great. As he grew, it became clear that my Edward was an Edith. I felt terrible about her being kept alone for so long & immediatly began trying to introduce her to Ghost & Shadow. I've introduced mice before, all including Ghost. First her to my mouse Pearl. It went perfectly. Second her & Pearl to Shadow. Pearl & Shadow went perfectly, but Ghost was a tad more aggrasive toward Shadow. I got them all to play nice fairly quick, though. My current mission iz introducing Ghost & Shadow to Edith. Edith & Shadow are fine. My problem iz Ghost. I've never had a mouse act the way she's been acting. When I put her with Edith she squints her eyes, curves her back away from her, & vibrates her tail. She chases her & makes her squeak & jump. Since I started this she's started bullying Shadow as well. There hasn't been any blood or anything. Just some wrestling, chasing, & squeaking. But I haven't seen much of any improvement & it's been weeks. Idk if I should just get a new mouse for Edith or put Shadow & Edith together & leave Ghost alone. I know that some mice are just antisocial & are better off alone, but I don't want her getting depressed or sick from being alone. I can hear her bulling Shadow right now. What should I do? I really just want them all to be happy & healthy. I apologize for this being so long. I just want to make sure the situation iz understood. Thank you Smile

by Peachy Sun 24 Apr 2016, 7:16 am

How have you been trying to introduce them? The chasing, tail rattling, and squeaking can be uncomfortable to watch, but it's normal and something your mice need time to work out together. You don't have to keep separating them unless there's blood drawn.

This page has a lot of good introduction information, if you haven't seen it.
https://petmousefanciers.forumotion.com/t39-introducing-mice

by MouseLover Sun 24 Apr 2016, 8:16 am

The last time I introduced girls, one of my mice was squeaking so loud and long, it would be more accurately described as screaming! It sounds noisy and worrying, but she wasn't being hurt, she was just freaked out. 9 times out of 10 it sounds worse than it is, and as abeona says, no blood = no problem.

As long as they're introduced properly, they've got a good chance of sorting it out and getting along just fine.

by Hermione_Bubba Sun 24 Apr 2016, 12:00 pm

Thank you both! I just get worried about all the noise & I feel like I'm stressing out little Edith. I just need to sit back & let them work things out. I'll look into other methods of introduction on here & keep working with them.

by peas Mon 25 Apr 2016, 6:34 pm

I would do your best to get them to work it out.

I just went through this with my 3 girls but they would not work it out. I had to try them together in different combinations before just giving up.

It got so bad that the weakest one was living on the top of the water bottle for a day and a half. She wouldn't even come down to get a drink, she slinked down the water spout and drank upside down, it was pathetic she was totally traumatized. So i moved her out by herself and she was quite happy.

The other two, they fought even worse with the weakest one gone. Same situation occured, with the new weaker one having to live wedged up on the ledge, never coming down for more than a second to grab a piece of food and quickly scurrying back up to hide. Even if her tormentor was asleep, she still refused to be anywhere but up high at all times.

There was never any blood but some seriously traumatized mice trying to live on top of a bloody water bottle! At one point, before i was trying different groupings, both the weaker ones were squished on top of eachother on top their water battle hiding from the toughest one. It was a sad sight, again no blood but two mice trying to live on top of eachother on top of a water bottle while one mouse rules the entire cage is just not reasonable blood or no.

So i would try and let them work things out, and it is probably not as bad as it sounds but pay attention. My poor little mouse was living on top her water bottle for who knows how long before i noticed that she never came down. I mean, it must of been bad enough before then right? I am sure there had to be a point before she decided that living on the roof of a water bottle was preferable to the treatment she was getting. And when i say living, i mean she was sleeping on top her bottle, pooping there, peeing there and just not coming down for any reason. And scurrying right back there instantly if i ever brought her down by hand, in terror as fast as she could.

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Trying to introduce 2 females to one female.

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