# Can a female mouse ever live alone?



## SablePanther

Sorry this is so long, I honestly cannot cut it down any more than it already is. And I'm tired and ill, so forgive any spelling or grammar mistakes.

I have a colony of 8 females who live, on the whole, happily together. But there's one, Morena, who is quite the troublemaker and I'm not sure how to proceed.

She's not the smallest or largest of the colony, none of them are ill, she's medium in age (I have two older than her, one the same age and four younger than her in the colony) and I raised her from birth (her mother was pregnant when I rescued her) so nothing horrible has ever happened to her... so none of those things really have a bearing on her behaviour, that I can see.

She's always been quite an argumentative girl, and always had to have the odd time-out night alone when she gets over the top. That usually helps her, she seems to need her space. But when we put the colony together properly, she started harassing Misha (smaller but older than her). Literally, she would follow her around, nipping her, grabbing her food, waiting for her... generally bullying her. Misha started getting really jumpy and looking out for her. The day I noticed this I decided to give them a couple of hours while I was around to cool down, or I'd remove Morena. In that time morena managed to grab Misha and got vicious with her. I got her out fast, but poor Mish was still bleeding in three places. (Misha was fine, I monitored her closely and she healed and has no lasting psychological damage.)

After a week in her own tank with her mother Meridon for company I reintroduced Morena to the colony and all was fine. Fast forward to about two months later.

Morena is, as mentioned, always argumentative but she has suddenly started attacking one of my agoutis... I can't always tell who is who from outside but both agoutis are younger but MUCH bigger than Morena. She also started pulling out her own fur and has a huge bald patch. Fearing she'd come off worse in a fight I scooped her out and isolated her. Rather than a bare environment or anything, I put her in her own tank, the same size as I use for my solitary boy, with plenty of toys etc.

Four days later and she's showing no signs of stress. Her fur is growing back. She is happy and lively and friendly. She is not jumping up or throwing herself at the sides of the tank. She has stopped pulling fur and is not scratching or biting at herself. I had two girls when I started out with mice, and one of the sisters died, the remaining mouse Mariko was alone for a month (I had to find new mice and then quarantine them) until she had company again so I definitely know the signs of a lonely female mouse.

This is the girls' home:










The tank Morena is now in is the same size as the top one, there.

My question is, after so much story, sorry about that: Can female mice ever live alone? I know it is supposed to cause psychological problems for them but honestly Morena seems SO much happier. I could try different females with her as a pair but for one thing, I don't want what happened with misha to happen to anyone else (Misha has developed back problems since, too, that may or may not be to do with the fight but I don't like the coincidence) and for another thing all my other mice are so, so happy in the colony I don't want to take that away from any of them to make them live with cranky Morena.

My other option is to switch her - two weeks in, two weeks alone. Or one week in, one week alone. But I'm worried that would be too much of an upheaval for her, I know mice are very sensitive to change.

Have any of you ever had similar problems? What did you do? I feel like she's so much happier alone but am I inadvertently damaging her?


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## Cait

I think you've already given the answer in your post - if she's happier alone and even healthier (not barbering etc) then I'd just let her be. She may well be one of the rare exceptions to the rule. The only thing I did notice in your post though, was that she seemed to be ok when it was just her and her mother in a cage. This would seem to be the other option for you if you feel you want to give her permanent company. Switching the does around every week or two would probably just cause all the mice stress.


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## SablePanther

Sorry, I wasn't clear there (sleepy typing never comes out quite right, lol)... she was ok with just her and her mother, but her Mother was not. She showed signs of mild stress despite it only being just less than a week.

By switching the does I just meant I would have to do it until I found one who would work with her longterm. But I don't really think it's fair on whoever that ends up being, to miss out on the colony life.

I thought she may be an exception but I wanted to make sure I'm not anthropomorphasising or inadvertently being cruel. I'm happy to keep her apart but people are so adamant females can;t live that way that I want to be sure I'm doing the right thing.


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## Cait

It sounds like you have tried several times to put her with different mice and she simply prefers to be alone. I think that yes, does in general should have company, but there's no point in forcing one who doesn't like it to have a companion. The set up you have for her sounds fine, so unless she shows signs of distress try not to worry too much.


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## candycorn

I had a zebra finch once that killed anything I put in with her. They are supposed to be colony birds so I tried several times to give her company. The second or third birds were always dead by morning. She lived her life very happily alone after that. I think there are always exceptions to every rule!


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## SablePanther

Thanks for the input, guys 

I think I'll leave her living alone unless she shows distress. She's still very happy for now. And I can always playdate her with the others when I do group playtimes/photoshoots. Then she'll get some interaction but live alone as she likes it.


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