# Hey everyone!!



## shadowmouse (Sep 17, 2010)

I know I haven't been around for awhile. My mice from Erica have sadly not done well. I am down to just Bander. She's still healthy and happy, but all alone. So I mauled over whether I should contact Moustress and ask for another female, or just go to the pet store. I decided that since we're moving in the summer that I would rather get a female from the pet store because the chances of Bander expiring like her litter mates is pretty good and I would rather have mice with generally similar life expectancies. Of course, I went into the store with the "I'll just see what I see" attitude.

Long story short... Came home with 2 females. They're very pretty and when I was looking at them in the store seemed roughly Bander's size(Bander was the biggest of the bunch from Erica). However, got them home and they're like mutants! They're huge. They make Bander look tiny. It's not that their bodies are that much bigger, but it's more that their legs and tail are bigger. Bander is sooo much prettier and sleeker too.

Here's Beauty and Princess Ella (as dubbed by my 4 yr old son):

Beauty









Princess Ella









Together...










I plan to quarantine them for a few days and obverse them for aggressive traits, then put them together if everything seems good. Do you think the size difference will be a problem?

What does tail flipping mean? The black one was doing it. I thought maybe it was aggression, but I think she may have been pooping or peeing at the same time. The pet store worker let me take them out of the tank and neither one offered to bite. For being timid they are not too hard to handle. They seem so strong and healthy. I'm glad of that.

So what do you think of them? Anyone else have problems with sudden impulses to buy mice when you see a pretty one in with the feeders??


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Tail shaking indicates agitation or anger. Ella looks pretty nice; can't really tell about the black doe, it's all squinched up so one can't really see the body lines.

And yes, I have had that same problem, and try to resist most of the time. It helps that so many of my mousies are from lines I've worked on improving so that I rarely find one better than what I already have in the mousery.


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## shadowmouse (Sep 17, 2010)

I'll try to get some better photos later on. They were both so afraid. When I was catching them the worker was pretty shocked at how fast a caught them. They were flying all over and I get put my hand in and came right out with the mouse I was after. :lol: hehehehe... When we got them home we decided to not handle them until tomorrow. I'll have to get some pictures of Bander too. She's so sweet. I wish all my mice from Erica were still alive. They had the best personalities.


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## laoshu (Sep 16, 2009)

I have impulse's to buy animals yes.. I normally have it under control ... well until the other day when I fetched home a guinea pig 

your two are sweet.. Princess Ella looks pregnant in them photos.. is she?


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## shadowmouse (Sep 17, 2010)

I don't think the brown doe is preggers. The small animal guy at this Petco is an animal science major and seemed to really know his mice. They were all sorted into male/female cages. Hopefully he knew them well enough to not have them mixed together. :? Wouldn't that be a surprise! :shock: I really wouldn't mind, though. I think I know my mice well enough now that I can handle it. I guess only time will tell.


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## bethmccallister (Mar 5, 2010)

I was wondering what happened to you. I'm sorry to hear about your experience with your other lovelies. The brown one looked pregnant to me too. My mice do the tail flip, aggression thing sometimes too...I think it's funny. They don't "act" more aggressive or anything...just shake the heck out of their tail and then carry on.


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## shadowmouse (Sep 17, 2010)

How do a tell if she's pregnant or not other than size? Is there any other tricks to being able to tell? I will try to get your some better profile pics tomorrow. Maybe that will help. She didn't look pregnant to me in person. They're both really fat.


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## shadowmouse (Sep 17, 2010)

Here's another one from today...


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## bethmccallister (Mar 5, 2010)

> How do a tell if she's pregnant or not other than size? Is there any other tricks to being able to tell?


Not really, in fact I thought one doe I had was seriously ill because she kept getting larger and I had not bred her. Just when I thought about putting her to sleep she had a litter of 12 wild mouse babies. :shock:

Just saw your new picture...I would say she's pregnant. The black one just looks chunky to me and not preggers but the brown one I'd put money on it.


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## bethmccallister (Mar 5, 2010)

One thing you can do if you have a food scale is weigh her today and then weigh her tomorrow and the next day. If she's increasing in size she's probably going to replace all those lost mousies for you in one "pop" lol.


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## shadowmouse (Sep 17, 2010)

:roll: Oh, no!! Hubby is going to kill me. The whole reason I got petstore mousies was so they wouldn't last terribly long! Now I'm going to have more? hehehehe... It would be fun to have babies, though, huh? :mrgreen:


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## bethmccallister (Mar 5, 2010)

Babies are wonderful!! Your son will get a lot of enjoyment out of watching them develop too. One of nice thing about babies is you can hold them more and they turn out to be super friendly.


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## shadowmouse (Sep 17, 2010)

If that doe is pregnant we are going to have to get her friendly before she gives birth. She is sooo skitterish. I don't want her eating the babies because she's afraid.


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## bethmccallister (Mar 5, 2010)

Just get back to your peanut butter trick!


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## bethmccallister (Mar 5, 2010)

In my opinion baby eating has more to do with a lack of protein, amino acid and folic acid in the diet. Go get a small bag of high quality dog food such as blue buffalo or the one I'm using now from Walmart called Purina ONE® Natural Blends Chicken & Oat Meal Formula + Vitamins & Minerals. You can mix a few pieces in it with their regular mix you give them and it will last you a really long time.


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## shadowmouse (Sep 17, 2010)

I forgot about peanut butter!! :lol: I'm going to give her some now! And the dog food. That's right. I have to get some.


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## shadowmouse (Sep 17, 2010)

They rudely turned their noses up at the peanut butter! :shock: I was shocked. I've never seen a mouse turn up their nose at it. I left a tiny smidge on their bowl. Maybe they'll taste it and give it a second chance later on.


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## shadowmouse (Sep 17, 2010)

I am planning to weight the mouse using the wii fit tomorrow and then again the next day. Not sure if it will work, but it's worth trying.


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## bethmccallister (Mar 5, 2010)

Wow, mice that don't like peanut butter? How crazy is that? Maybe toast with a tiny bit of butter would work. You'll have to let me know if the Wii Fit works out.


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## shadowmouse (Sep 17, 2010)

I won't have a chance to weight them until later, but I think I have a lovely new problem... Mites! They are running around then stopping suddenly to scratch themselves. I just use the iver-on, right? Is that safe since the one female may be preggers?


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## Rhasputin (Feb 21, 2010)

Iver-on diluted 3 parts water to 1 part medicine and dropped between the shoulders of a mouse is perfectly safe for pinkies, and pregnant mothers. For the mom, use about 2-3 drops. If you want to get some on the pinkies, just BARELY touch them with an eye dropper of medication, and it'll get on them enough to ward off the mites.


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## bethmccallister (Mar 5, 2010)

Iver-on is fine, I've even sprayed it on newborns with no issues...as long as it's diluted 1 part to 5 parts water. I spray the heck out of the cage too after a fresh clean out and then follow up once every week for 3 weeks. I've never had mites but I get wild mouse visitors regularly so I treat often or I'm sure I would have them.


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## shadowmouse (Sep 17, 2010)

Got it. I will spray the cage and treat the 2 new ones tonight. Bander is not scratching and I'm washing in between handling the different mice. Should I still treat her too?


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## bethmccallister (Mar 5, 2010)

> Should I still treat her too?


It wouldn't hurt her to do so


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## shadowmouse (Sep 17, 2010)

Here's a new video of Princess Ella...



See if you can see if she still looks preggers today. She looked thinner to me this morning.


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## bethmccallister (Mar 5, 2010)

Well, I didn't think about it much before but perhaps she is bloated from parasites. She still looks pregnant to me though. The Iver-On will take care of worms too so you've got all your bases covered with that.

Your video was hilarious, you had me and my boyfriend rolling when your son fell from something and you said in the sweetest little voice..."That's what you get for sitting on things that were meant to be chairs"...LMAO! We have 3 kids ourselves and can relate!


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## WillowDragon (Jan 7, 2009)

I was just about to say that Beth... if this girl isn't pregnant (I'm not sure she is either, she looks the 'wrong' kind of fat) then I would definately treat her for worms.
But I think Ivermectin kills internal paracites too.


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## shadowmouse (Sep 17, 2010)

LOL. Beth. My son loves to sit on everything.

Heard squeaks this morning. I have the tank covered on the sides with a towel and I'm leaving them alone. Maybe in a day or 2 I will check and see what's going on.


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