Well I got 2 mice..

[Betrisher]

Names? We must have names! I vote Casanova for the boy. If you get the fancy mouse, do it soon before the baby's testes drop. It's awful when the boys fight and even more awful when you have to keep them alone and separated. Mice need family to snuggle up with. If you do get the black boy, I suggest Nero (Italian for black).

 

[SpotsandSally]

Hmm...

Girl -
Hopper
Stumpy (one has no tip to her tail)
Milk dud
Snow
Angel
Frosty
Stinker
Mink


Any other ideas?

Id need to convince my parents to get the boy.. Not sure how old he is.

 

[Betrisher]

But... but.. what about Patricia??? Snif.

The best way to convince your parents is to tell them mice need a community to snuggle with. A lone mouse is a miserable mouse, believe me. So, your baby boy needs a friend, but if it's going to be an adult mouse, they need to be introduced before the baby reaches sexual maturity (which will be very soon by my count). If two boys are going to live together, you have to do it very carefully. Male mouse fights are very ugly and they will usually keep at it till one doesn't survive. So get the new boy as soon as you can or not at all. You could show my post to your parents if you think that would help?

 

[SpotsandSally]

Goodness gracious! Lol, I forgot. Ok Stumpy will be Patricia - miss no tip of a tail

Yeah, that's probably the best way. I emailed them and the baby boy was born on November 5/6th. So I'm guessing he'll be sexually active soon? It'll still be another week - week & a Half to before he can be separated, will that be too late?
He's only 8 dollars, and I've started working at my moms work so I can pay for food - $7 for like 5 weeks of food. But well have like 6 mice after that so who knows how long it'll last.

Oh here's a pic btw. I could always get 2 of the boys and set it up so that the brother can see his sisters and interact sort, but still.. Ugh, wish I had gotten 2 boys!

I actually just rechecked and there's 1 boy with a brown butt, 1 boy with some brown splotches and 1 black boy - I thought it was brown butt, black and all white. It's only 20 for all 3.... Lol.

 

[antoinette]

They are so cute OMG
So small and so bald LoL
It's amazing how quickly they change daily
Keep us updated please

 

[Betrisher]

I reckon you should be OK, so long as you get your boys together ASAP. Here's a pic of my three boys Stewart (white Dutch), Finbar(PEW) and Fergus (Black Belted) sleeping together inside my watch. These three boys lived happily together for three years until poor Stewie passed on. They were unrelated, but got on perfectly well in a large tank.

 

[Betrisher]

Having trouble adding photos, but here's a pic of the boys' cage as well as the arrangement I made for putting drink bottles inside the tanks (used cottage cheese containers). Thought it might be useful to you!

You can get a better look at the pics if you go to my album and view them there. Sorry - I dunno what I did wrong...

 

[SpotsandSally]

They're 24 days old now. Should I separate, or wait a couple days?

I'll add a few pics soon


Adorable mice you have there!

 

[Betrisher]

Yep, I'd be separating ASAP. Can't wait to see pics of these gorgeous babies!

Sadly, all my mice are long, long gone and buried under the apple tree in the back yard. They were adorable, though. Little Stewart (the black Dutch) learned how to walk a tightrope and open a little door with a latch on it. They were Gifted and Talented mice. RIP Stewie, Finbar and Fergus.

 

[SpotsandSally]

Yes, separated them! Thanks!

And that's adorable. Rip little Stewie!

They never stop moving, the only half decent picture I could get

 

[SpotsandSally]

Ok, so the little boy seems so sad. I left the girls with their mother and he's running around crazy. I put a hand warmer wrapped in a paper towel to comfort him, but then I thought what if he managed to chew through it and burnt himself or what if he ate it or what if...

So I've been cuddling him for a while. Poor boy!

We couldn't get the boy mouse - they never emailed back, sadly

 

[antoinette]

They are too cute
How many mice do you have now?
Had a good laugh about the food colouring LoL

A friend of mine used a different colour nail polish on each one, to keep track of who was who.

 

[Betrisher]

Aaaw! There's nothing quite as sad as a lone mouse. They really need a colony to snuggle with and, for obvious reasons, it's the boys who suffer the most from loneliness. Why don't you contact your local petshops and see if they've got any males (most have heaps of excess boys)? Any old one would do, but your baby boy needs someone to help keep him warm and feeling safe at night. He's incredibly vulnerable right now, but quite able to impregnate every one of his sisters and his Mum to boot! He can't live with them unless you're hoping for a few hundred more babies :EEK:

Does he have a nest? He's probably too young to make one yet, but y'never know. Give him a nest-box and some paper towel to shred - that'll keep him busy for a while. I used to give my lone boys a small cream cheese container with a hole cut in the side (looks like an igloo! LOL!) Even a toilet roll cylinder will do at a pinch, although he'll probably end up shredding that in the end.

Just FYI, you can make really, really neat mazes out of TP cylinders. You glue them together with hot glue (making carefully sure the glue is scant and absolutely unreachable - the mousies'll eat it if they can get to it). Friends of mine used to sew theirs together with string, but I wasn't that dedicated. Slinkies make a great toy for mice. If you string one across their cage/tank, they'll quickly learn to bounce on it and derive huge enjoyment from it. It's a nice alternative to those awful wheels, which serve no purpose other than to give the mice a serious case of wheel-tail (where the tail becomes permanently held forward in the position determined by the wheel) and anxiety when you take it out for cleaning (the mice become wheel-addicted and show neurotic symptoms when it's not available). For the same reason, it's not kind to use the clear 'exercise' balls people use for mice and hamsters.

You'll have great fun devising toys for your mousies! They like things they can climb on, hide in and swing from. Small lidded containers make great condos - you just cut an access hole in the side of each one, then glue them into a tall condo. The mice will sort out who owns which flat and you'll have fun watching them play. I used to fill each second one with water and freeze them. In that way, the mice could sit in air-conditioned comfort on the hot Australian summer days.

Oh dear. I can feel an essay coming on. I'll shuddup now. But do ask if there's anything I can help with. And do try and get a friend for your little boy ASAP. Don't wait too long!