# What to do with a vicious mouse...



## Awaiting_Abyss (Nov 19, 2012)

I usually always put my young does in with my elderly does... so that's what I did. However, Aylithe (a year old doe that I have in this cage because I never want her bred) has become vicious and it keeps getting worse. This is the first time she has ever visibly wounded another mouse..... She has nearly killed Nemo. Nemo's back end is stripped of hair and bloodly. Her back leg injured to the point where she can barely move...

I'm debating if I should just put Aylithe down.. I was once so close to her...but this is like a totally different mouse.


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## Awaiting_Abyss (Nov 19, 2012)

I currently have Aylithe in a pet carrier, since all of my tanks amd bins are full after splitting up little ones. I have more bins, but I haven't made them into cages yet.

I feel like the easiest thing to do would be to cull her.. I don't like the idea of her living alone....
But its a hard decision simce she was once my favorite mouse.


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## Cait (Oct 3, 2008)

Is she aggressive to people or just other mice? If she's ok with you and she's a pet then you could just keep her alone. If you breed for exhibition and practice culling, then yes this is a mouse who would normally be culled and never bred from, which is what you seem to be thinking already. It's your decision.


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## Awaiting_Abyss (Nov 19, 2012)

She's only aggressive to mice.

Since separating Aylithe, the three sisters are now sleeping under the log with the elders, Mithe and Myrre.

I fear that little Nemo's foot may be broken... She isn't moving it or walking on it. She hobles on her ankle joint.


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## mich (Sep 28, 2013)

Possibly you could re-home her! m :bash mmmm pause for thought.


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## PPVallhunds (Jul 26, 2010)

Id say it depends on why you keep them, if you keep them for your pets and have the space to keep her alown and give her more attention then that's an option, However if her behaviour has suddenly gotten a lot worse there could be a problem causing it like pain.
For me I keep my mice as stock not pets and don't realy have space for spare mice (saying that I still have my old buck hanging about) and a mouse like that would be culled in my shed.


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## moustress (Sep 25, 2009)

Mature and older does can be very territorial. I routinely separate does from their daughters as they sometimes become ubermoms who attack The Hand That Feeds them, usually with just a little nip. And I think the younger does pick up on Mom's behavior and begin doing that as well. This is consonant with what I have read about communal nesting in wild meeces. Conflict between mousies has been one of my pet obsessions in the sixteen years I've bred meeces, and I spend time watching whenever I rearrange populations of meeces.

I had a doe killed by a group after being ill and then reintroduced to the same group (this was 13 years ago). when I checked on the tank a few hours later, she was on her side, dead, and a flap of hide was hanging up and over the spine, her gut open to view. The incisions were going with nigh onto surgical precision, and the organs were undisturbed. the rest of the does were standing by, as if inspecting the entrails like medical students or medical examiners. It was one of most shocking moments of my career as a mousekeeper

To address your issue of what to do with the bitey mousie; I'd cull her unless I felt I couldn't live without her. If she's gotten bitey with cage mates, she may have some unseen problem causing the behavior and maybe isn't feeling well. I have had to move does to different tanks to separate a troublemaker, and whenever this happens, or I decide to rehouse different populations I always trade them from their home tank into the one used by the others, and vice versa, so that they smell somewhat the same. Or I put them in a small container with litter from the tank they are going into.


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## Awaiting_Abyss (Nov 19, 2012)

Oldish thread revival.

I culled her. I had her separated for a while, but I really hate having mice living alone.. She became very depressed so I culled her. I loved her, but her personality changed. She was no longer the mouse I fell in love with, so I said my goodbyes to her and put her to sleep peacefully.

I keep mice as pets first, but I breed them to better their health and body form.. and I use the culls for my ferrets, cat and snake.


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