# marty , my 1st ever mouse



## cristowe (Feb 13, 2011)

This is Marty, my 1st ever mouse.
I cant belive its taken me this long to own a mouse! I think he's lovely.
could anyone tell me his correct colour? his patches are not agouti more of a choclate brown.


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## The Boggit keeper (Mar 5, 2010)

Aww, he's cute!
Now this is where you problems begin... once you've had one mouse,they're so enchanting you'll just have to have another and another and another and..... :lol:


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## cristowe (Feb 13, 2011)

Yes lol. I am collecting 5 does from a breeder in april. i went with my friend to a petshop on saturday to get some mousey things. I saw this little guy who had been taken into the petshop by his previous owner and couldnt resist him. His old owner had kept him with another buck and he had been badly attacked by him. He has a bald patch on his back which wont grow back and a nick out of one ear. he is not a young buck and i thought he deserved a nice home for the rest of his days....im a softee lol.x


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## racingmouse (Jan 12, 2011)

Well done for giving him a lovely home! He`s a `broken marked` of some sort but not too sure which shade? Boggit Keeper is right, mice are addictive once they get under your skin! I love piggies too but I only keep mice (females only now) these days. Males (in pairs) can get on if they are brothers and together from birth, but as with all males, they always have a high incidence of falling out and when one starts to bite and draw blood on the other, it`s time to seperate them. Females are fine however. You might get the odd one that shows dominance, but females 99.9% of the time co-habit really well. Males do have a better character though and seem to want to interact more with their owners. Females are happy to do their own thing when they are in a group.


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## cristowe (Feb 13, 2011)

Thanks for the advice racingmouse.x
I didnt want mice with the intention of breeding them, but when i got my 1st guinea pigs they too were just for pets, but once i popped into a local show and i was hooked. I may be tempted to have the odd litter from my mice, but i dont want to get too many. The pet shop where i got my cage from said if i bred some they would buy the babies from me as they cant get mice these days, but i dont know...i would prefer to let them go to new homes where i could see the people buying them. i would worry too much about them lol.x


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## racingmouse (Jan 12, 2011)

It`s a matter of choice giving your baby mice to a pet shop as many end up as kids pets and pet shops know zilch about mice anyway and split them up even if they are females. This is so wrong. Females should always have company and even males should be housed in pairs as long as the new owner knows what to expect and may have to split them up if they fall out. But shops never pass on this information, they just want the money.

If you plan to breed mice, always be aware that you will have males in your litter and they are always the hardest to rehome, which is why many established breeders on here wil tell you, is why they cull them out. There just is`nt the good homes out there willing to take them. Handing them to a pet shop is`nt much better. I bought three female mice from a localish shop about three years ago and the mum was kept in a tank with baby mice running all over the place (males and females mixed) AND she had a pile of newborn pinkies on open display.  Needless to say, I never went back and have since found out they don`t have any mice because they can`t source any in this area, which is probably a good thing. For the mice.

Guinea pigs live longer than mice and are probably a more established pet anyway and would probably find homes far easier than mice, so there is a big difference. Nothing wrong with breeding a litter or two, just as long as you get plenty of help and information about how best to go about it and either keep all the mice that are born and split the males, or maybe know some people on forums who would be willing to take some of the babies and know what to expect if they did. A good breeder will always give advice and a care sheet.


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## nuedaimice (May 26, 2010)

I would guess by your description and the photos that he is probably a lovely chocolate boy. Congratulations! And welcome to the addiction, we have our mouse-aholics meetings every Tuesday night at 7 PM. You missed it last night, a lot of us had some huge breakthroughs, and then as soon as we got home and saw our mice, we fell off the wagon again. :?


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## cristowe (Feb 13, 2011)

nuedaimice said:


> I would guess by your description and the photos that he is probably a lovely chocolate boy. Congratulations! And welcome to the addiction, we have our mouse-aholics meetings every Tuesday night at 7 PM. You missed it last night, a lot of us had some huge breakthroughs, and then as soon as we got home and saw our mice, we fell off the wagon again. :?


Ha ha thanks for the welcome lol.xx


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