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aggressive male mouse

waldo

waldo

Crazy Tarantula Lady
I've had my mouse colony (1.3) for about 2 months now and no babies. I neve seen the male show any interest in the femals so today I traded him back to the pet store for a different male.
Brought the new boy home and put him with the girls. He immediatly started attacking them, he bit all three on their backs and sides. He was acting like they were rival males (they aren't, I double checked). The only thing I could think of is they smelled like the first male so I grabbed a spare tank, scrubbed all the dishes and gave all the mice a bath.
At first that seemed to help but the male is bitting them again, not real bad but enough to break skin. Why would he do this? Is he just establishing his place in the colony? I don't think hes being violent enough to kill them but I don't want them chewed up either. Any advice?
 
It's quite normale for males to do this..Even females will fight with a new mouse. He should come down in a little bit.. More then likely after the females go in heat. Which is every 4-5 days. Just make sure that he isn't hurting them to much. You may see some blood when all is said and done. Introducing a new mouse will almost always cause problems. Sometimes it is the opposite of your problem and the females will beat up the new male. You were right in changing the bedding. That usually helps.
Hope that helps!
Ryan-Valley Pets
 
It's quite normale for males to do this..Even females will fight with a new mouse. He should come down in a little bit.. More then likely after the females go in heat. Which is every 4-5 days. Just make sure that he isn't hurting them to much. You may see some blood when all is said and done. Introducing a new mouse will almost always cause problems. Sometimes it is the opposite of your problem and the females will beat up the new male. You were right in changing the bedding. That usually helps. He is probably just trying to breed the females and they aren't "in the mood" so they may run and sweek and he is just trying to stop them and do his thing!
Hope that helps!
Ryan-Valley Pets
 
I had to separate them, he was pinning one female down and bitting her repeatedly. I'll let him be for a couple hours then try again. Maybe he will have calmed down a bit by then.
I've had mice for pets before, they bred like crazy, no one fought, not even when I brought home a new one. Now that I want babies its been nothing but trouble, if theses ones don't start producing soon then they will go and I'll buy a new colony from a different source.
 
I always have the best results with young mice that have grown up together. Even new ones that I bring home that don't no each other usually are ok when you put them in together..Adding new mice to an already setup colony usually creates problems, be it male or female. He must be a mean little bugger...
Ryan-Valley Pets
 
The last male I had grew up with the girls and wouldn't mate with them, I even tried seperating him for awhile :shrugs:

I went ahead and put the new male back with the girls, he is going through spells of leaving them be and then being nasty and biting them. They have little nips and bits all over, you can see red dots on the white one, poor things:(
He does seem to be settling down, hopefully he'll make some babies for me and I plan on keeping one of the males, I don't like this guy.
 
You should have given the first male another month, 2 months is just barely enough time for a new colony to get started. EVery colony Ive started has taken 2 months minimum , sometimes more to produce. He might have even got the females pregnant before you dumped him.
 
waldo said:
I've had mice for pets before, they bred like crazy, no one fought, not even when I brought home a new one. Now that I want babies its been nothing but trouble, if theses ones don't start producing soon then they will go and I'll buy a new colony from a different source.
Click to expand...

Same problem with me. In highschool I had three different LARGE colonies of mice. No one got picked on, they all bred like crazy. I didn't believe in selling them as snake food (silly me) and I had tons of them. I bought different ones and added them in. I guess there were so many, they didn't notice, lol. But now, when I bought mice, for the purpose of breeding, one was sweet, the other scared and the other was just plain mean and nasty. The mean one kept eating the sweet ones babies, and the male was so fat he wasn't getting them pregnant anymore. I gave up on the mice and got three rats, my snakes are now big enough to eat rat babies. It took me THAT long working with the mice. Evil mice. What is up with mice these days? Even white feeder mice back when I was breeding them were sweet, handleable, and bred constantly. Now every rodent I bring home is constantly freaking out. I think they can smell the snakes. :shrugs:
 
Okay... I'm sure others will disagree, but to me that sounds excessive. My rodents had their initial fights to determine dominance, but this seems a bit much.

What kind of enclosure are you keeping them in? If resources permit, can you have them in separate cages, but close enough to smell eachother?

Just a thought, but hey, you could give it a try. :)
 
my male got bit really bad by one of the females (in a 1.3), not sure which one yet. but there is still some bickering at night (after having them for a bit over a month) and it is slowly quieting down.
 
I had them in a 20 gallon long when I first brought him home, when I did the cleaning and bath I moved them into a 10 gallon temporarily. I ended up seperating the male into a large KK for the time being.
I'm going to move the male back into the 20 gallon today, I havn't cleaned it out yet so it still smells like the girls. After a day or 2 I will try introducing them again. If he keeps being mean I'm going to put him down, in fact I might put them all down and just start over.
 
Don't just put them all down. If he doesn't calm down, and no amount of intervention will make him stop, he's crazy. Take him back, put him down, whatever, buy another male, and 2 more females. I had more success with larger groups than small ones with mice. They are in a 20gL I assume. There's room in there for 6 mice. It's worth a shot anyway, then you won't have to start completely over. If you can, get the male from a different source. then you would have two females from one store, the three females you already have, and a male. That's three different groups of mice, instead of a male just chasing around three girls. Put all six of them in together in the 20gL cleaned with diluted bleach, new bedding, and don't put any chews or wooden toys or nesting material that can't be washed. So they all start out in a neutral zone.
 
I ended up having to put him down, he wouldn't stop attacking the girls. I'm giving them a few days rest then getting another boy and at least 1 maybe 2 more females. Thanks for all the advice.
 
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