# Experience with deer mice in captivity



## Rhasputin

So I just thought I'd start jotting down my thoughts about deer mice. 
I have a trio. 2 males an one female. The female was wild caught, turned out to be pregnant, and had a litter of 6, of which I got to keep 2 of the males. They live quite happily in a 5 gallon tank. They loooove to shred stuff. I give them shred-a-bed blocks and they completely destroy them. They build extremely intricate nests with tons of tunnels and chambers. I hate cleaning their cage and avoid it as much as possible because of the intricacies! They even have one chamber just for storing food, I don't feed them as often because they store it all away. They pick up a load and stuff it in their cheeks and hide it away and come for more!

Their cage stays really clean, I think they might have a chamber just for using the bathroom. I only clean their cage about once every 3 times I clean, because it just doesn't get dirty. Even when I clean it, it never stinks.

Glass water bottles are very important. . . They CHEW. . .

More thoughts to come.


----------



## Rhasputin

I hang their bottle horizontal, because the glass bottle is too long to stand upright in the 5 gallon tank. The bottle is suspended by 2 wires, wrapped around the neck, and top of the bottle, which just hook over the edge of the glass tank, under the lid. Works really well, and it even makes them a little shelf to climb on, lol, they love it.

One day I noticed the bottle in the bedding. I figured it must have just fallen, from them climbing on it or something. But when I went to hook it back up, the wire on the top of the bottle was too short, hmm.

Turns out they CHEWED THROUGH the wire, and dropped the bottle that way. :roll:

When I say these mice love to chew, I mean it!


----------



## MoonfallTheFox

Those are some tough little mice.

Are yours friendly at all?

...also pictures please. <3


----------



## Rhasputin

They're not mean, that's for sure. I am very accustomed to handling ASFs (african soft furred rats) which are not very tame either. I would put them in about the same category of tameness. The deer mice do not bite, and won't jump, but prefer not to be handled. I have held the boys before (the captive born ones) and they'll climb all over me, they have extremely sharp and long claws (one escaped once, and climbed up a slick wooden table leg!) but I never leg go of his tail, because I know he was just looking for any way down he could find. 

I'll get pics soon, looks like they've added new rooms to their nest. I'm hoping they'll breed at some point. With them inbreeding, it would be exciting to see if any recessive traits pop up. I know the colony that some college has (University of . . . massachusettes? Something?) has tons of colour variations that all popped out of the original colony they were given years and years ago.

Would be cool if some recessive spotting, or albinism popped up.


----------



## MoonfallTheFox

It is likely that there are recessives, but you may not see them for a while. It would be cool if they popped up. What is the goal with these guys? Pets?

I'm glad they seem to settle to captivity well. They can live in colonies? (males don't fight?)


----------



## Rhasputin

Yes I'd like to breed them to be pets. The males rarely fight, mine have never even tussled.


----------



## MoonfallTheFox

That sounds like a great idea, especially if boys can live in groups. They wouldn't get so lonely. I feel like Augustus gets lonesome sometimes but I can't exactly put him with my girls.


----------



## Rhasputin

I contemplate if they'd be able to cohabitate with house mice, or not. This will be something I will weigh heavily upon.

Speaking of cohabitation 
Recently had pygmy mice escape, and found that one was living happily in a tank with a male and female house mouse. Even nesting with them!


----------



## MoonfallTheFox

That is very strange.. I've never heard of anything like that before. Pygmy's are super tiny, I'd imagine a house mouse would kill it.


----------



## Rhasputin

I think if it had gotten into any other cage, it would be dead. Had an escape before, and found blood in a cage, but no pygmy mouse. I assume it was killed, but I have no idea, honestly.

The mice it got in with, are so relaxed that they didn't care. It's a pair of nearly elderly, obese, angora squish butt mice. I truely think it was a miracle that that one got in there, and not somewhere else. One was found dead, killed by a cat, and another was found near death in the animal room, not sure what happened to it though.


----------



## maddeh

I have heard of wood mice in the UK being able to live with fancy mice, although I only know of it being done when the wood mouse was very young. 
I find the cohabitation of different species fascinating, please keep us updated!


----------



## Frizzle

Could someone give me an update/advice on this subject? I've had someone contact me looking for two fancy mice to live with a female deer mouse, 5 weeks old, that has been hand raised, and is "very tame," and therefore prolly not releasable. I'm just wondering if I should go ahead and supply her? What concerns/advice would be helpful for her?


----------



## sys15

Frizzle said:


> Could someone give me an update/advice on this subject? I've had someone contact me looking for two fancy mice to live with a female deer mouse, 5 weeks old, that has been hand raised, and is "very tame," and therefore prolly not releasable. I'm just wondering if I should go ahead and supply her? What concerns/advice would be helpful for her?


they are different species and not entirely compatible. peromyscus in general are much, much less prone to agonistic social behavior and the peromyscus mouse is very likely to be dominated and intimidated by the domestic mice.

i won't say that they can't live together, but i don't believe the deer mouse would be "happier" with the company of a larger, more aggressive species than alone. and there is a significant risk of either species killing the other.

in my opinion, if she wishes to release the deer mouse, she should. it is not likely to be severely disadvantaged by her time in captivity (and really, like 90% of this year's babies will die by next spring anyways). if she wishes to keep it as a solitary pet, she should. and if she wishes to catch another deer mouse to keep it company, she should do that. but i would not recommend housing it with rodents of another species.


----------

