Mouse Companian

~Tucker&Me~

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#1
So I know male mice cannot live together withought fighting. I have a young male, who I think gets lonely :( . I still take him out quite a bit; normally every other day at least, though I feel bad for him. I heard that male rabbits (bucks) cannot be kept together, and Guinea pigs make great companians for them. Is there anything I can get to keep Sebastian (mouse) company that is relatively inexpensive, and small?

~Tucker
 

Squidbert

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#2
Male mice can be kept together.. it may take time and sometimes they will never get along but mice are very social creatures and thrive on company..
I would never suggest keeping any other kind of pet with the mouse unsupervised ever..
And male rabbits can certainly be kept together.. I have 2 neutered boys and they cuddle all the time! :)
Here's a link you might want to check out..
http://www.rmca.org/Resources/mousefaq.htm
Theres a section that tell you the best way to into a mouse to another mouse :)
Hope this helps :)
 

Kay

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#3
Male mice shouldn't be kept together, they are much happier on their own and are extremely territorial, like syrian hamsters.

male rabbits can be kept together providing they are neutered and properly bonded (It takes time), and guinea pigs and rabbits make very bad companions for one another. They do not speak the same language, have different nutritional requirements, not to mention the life threatening diseases a rabbit can easily pass onto a guinea pig (Like pasturella), antibiotics are very dangerous for guinea pigs also, so if the guinea pig gets pasturella chance of recovery are slim.

Rabbits are very dangerous to guinea pigs, and it is the exception that they don't harm each other, not the rule.

Cats and dogs are the only house pet that should be allowed to be kept together.

Rabbits, guinea pigs, mice, rats they need to stay with their own species.
 

~Tucker&Me~

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#4
The people working at the shelter I volounteer at told me that rabbits and guinea pigs make great companions.
Sorry :( .

I have been researching a lot, and from the information I have gathered, mice DO prefer to live with each other. People make great companions, but cannot take the place of a companion of the same species.
That is what I have have found from researching.
Out of curiosity Kay, do you keep or have kept mice?

~Tucker
 
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#5
I think they can be together too. I have had tons of mice and rats over the years. I keep one cage with boys and one with girls and never once had a problem. Males were always fine together. I also let my ferret play and sleep and hang out with the cats. Ferrets and cats usually get along well together and rabbits and cats. I know people who let their guinea pigs and cats mingle but I could totally see my cats freaking out over a guinea pig. I only ever owned one guinea pig and he was a dirty filthy thing thing that I fould on the side of the road. He was cool though and had that really lond hair that I had to brush.
 

smkie

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#6
~Tucker&Me~ said:
The people working at the shelter I volounteer at told me that rabbits and guinea pigs make great companions.
Sorry :( .

I have been researching a lot, and from the information I have gathered, mice DO prefer to live with each other. People make great companions, but cannot take the place of a companion of the same species.
That is what I have have found from researching.
Out of curiosity Kay, do you keep or have kept mice?

~Tucker
oh horrors someone needs to set them straight. My first loppy was one of two babies that were put in with the guinea pigs at the pet store. Only the fur on their faces remained, the rest had been ripped out and they had bite marks all over their bodies. The little bunnies had put their faces together i imagine to protect the only way they could.:( You can tell em that for me tooooooooo.:mad: the other baby died
 

Kay

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#7
Tucker&Me no need to be sorry, many people don't know the risks.

Shelters generally don't have much knowledge when it comes to small animals, unless it is a shelter/rescue specific to small animals.

Male mice are a huge risk to keep together, it is one's own choice to make that risk however they are generally happier on their own, from what I've been told by other people who have alot of experience in the matter, I have never owned a male mouse, only female. (Although I've learned if the male mice are together before 5-6 weeks old, they *can* be fine together for life)

Anotehr thing, cats are predators, rabbits are prey. Unless the cat has proven for a good long time not to care about the rabbit, they shouldn't be together, I know a cat who, while only playing, pounced on the rabbit, bit it once, the rabbit was put into shock, rushed into emergency, died the next day (Yes from one bite to the back of the neck, more than likely died from the shock though)
 

~Tucker&Me~

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#8
My mouse is almost 6 weeks, and I would like to try him with a companion. He is in a very roomy 'mansion', so space wouldn't be an issue. I have researched introduction methods. If they really didn't get along, I have 3 other cages :D.
Thanks for the info Kay :D.
Ya, the guy who said it deals mainly with dogs, so I can understand that being wrong :rolleyes: .

~Tucker
 
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#9
I think it also depends on the mouse and how you went about getting them together, or any small animal. If you just plop full grown adults together and throw some food and water in and ignore them til tomorrow (possibly in a shelter environment or ignorant people) then there will probably be some issues. Also the number that are living together can make a huge difference. Two male mice being the only small animal in the house and getting a ton of socialization and love from you may be fine but 10 males living in the same cage where you cannot possible give them each the amount of attention could be very different in their behavior towards each other.

I think it all depends on the situation. I don't think anyone can say a definate yes or no on mixing them. Just do it the right way, introduce them slowly like any other animal, monitor them together, socalize them etc... and they should be fine, not always but they should be.

Just be smart about it.
 

smkie

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#10
From my experience, and with rats and mice that was in the shipments in the thousands, male mice and rats will fight to the death. Please never ever put two adult male mice together in a living situation like that.Maybe not at first but once they develop the need for territory, fights will break out. No amount of socialization will deter the instincts and harmones that drive them to be so darn successful at what they do. That goes for hamsters too. I have had seen many a gimpy and blinded hamster because during shipping and caging afterwards, it happend.
 

Kay

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#11
Rats don't fight when introduced properly (Which is generally easy)

ALL rats need a same sex friend, they are extremely sociable, they will be depressed alone.

I currently have 3 very happy male rats living together.
 
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#12
smkie said:
From my experience, and with rats and mice that was in the shipments in the thousands, male mice and rats will fight to the death. Please never ever put two adult male mice together in a living situation like that.Maybe not at first but once they develop the need for territory, fights will break out. No amount of socialization will deter the instincts and harmones that drive them to be so darn successful at what they do. That goes for hamsters too. I have had seen many a gimpy and blinded hamster because during shipping and caging afterwards, it happend.
I still think it completely depends on the rats/mice/hamsters and how many there are. My first two hamsters loved each other, both males, the groomed each other and slepts all curled up in a ball. Then I got mice and kept maybe 3 or 4 females in one and maybe 3 or 4 of males in the other. Never once had a problem. Now I have rats. I still keep the males all together and the females together. They love the company, play together and eat together and sleep together. Never a problem. So again, I think it depends on the animals. You said you had shipments of males in the thousands, that is what I am talking about when it would be expected that they fight. But two or three males living together keeping each other company is usually fine.
 

Squidbert

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#13
male mice and rats will fight to the death.
Holy he11.. sorry you had such bad experiences!
Male rat can DEFINITELY be kept together when intro'd properly.. and SHOULD have at least one playmate.. I currently have 9 males living together in a gigantisaur cage and they all love each other and are very very happy little men :)
I've also known mice breeders who are able to keep male mice together..
I agree that it does depend on the individual mouse.. some males really will never allow another to live together.. and it would be completly drastic to just drop a strange male into a cage with another male.. you NEED to carry out proper intros.. it may not always work but it certainly does sometimes..
 

Kay

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#14
Well it should NOT depend with hamsters. In the wild, mice do live in colonies.

In the wild, syrian hamsters live ALONE. That means they prefer to be alone.

Dwarfs however can often be kept together.

Squidbert!!! 9 rats :p I'm soooo JEALOUS :p
 

Squidbert

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#15
Squidbert!!! 9 rats I'm soooo JEALOUS
Heehee.. that's just 9 boys :p
I have girlies as well, 5 of them ;)
I LOVE them so much.. they get the best of everything :)
I bred one rattie litter a little over a year ago.. the local breeder and a close friend of mine decided to stop breeding so I hoped to pick up from her.. My rats came from her (not related, knew the lines etc :) ) and I had a litter of 14!!! They were the most beautiful babies! 7 of them went to carefully screened homes and 7 are still with me. Unfortunately I moved from that province shortly after that first litter was all grown and everyone really started to get interested in my litters.. Maybe if I can ever find the demand here I might try breeding again.. the only ratties anywhere in Newfoundland that I know of are pet store babies.. We'll see what the furture brings..
Here's a link with LOTS of baby pics if you wanna see em!
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v215/Glideriffic/Ratties/
 

iheartsammy

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#17
I have a male rat! he's fat too..:p I wanted to get him a friend, but my mom said no because they will fight :confused: how do you introduce properly?? also i had 3 young male rats once (brothers) and one was a evil little thing! he would bite people and even killed his brother! not only did he kill him, he ate him too :eek: that poor thing was nothing but a pelt when I came home and saw him! they were fine when I went to school, then I come home to that poor thing looking like a bear skin rug! We took the other one out right away! I don't know what happened, they had food and water and always got along!

my mom is getting a rat from a friend at work. she can't keep it cuz she's having a baby and her bf is freaking out cuz they have a rat..:confused: but it's a female and I was wondering if I could put their cages next to each other? not RIGHT next to each other, but at least so they can see each other???
 

Southpaw

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#19
iheartsammy said:
OMG!!!! -*dies from baby rat cuteness*-


hey squid, what do you have to do to breed rats???where you get them from? is there a rat akc?? lol
Breeding rats is like breeding dogs :D The main thing is no breeding pet store rats, or any rat that you don't know the background of and such. It's actually pretty serious!

I want more ratties...I just have one male now, he'll be 2 years old in a couple weeks. But my mom will never let me get more, the reason she let me get Lucy is because she thought if I had another dog I wouldn't miss having rats. :rolleyes:

And btw I had 2 males housed together with no real problems...they had their wrestling matches lol but nothing serious enough that they needed to be seperated.
 

Kay

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#20
iheartsammy said:
I have a male rat! he's fat too..:p I wanted to get him a friend, but my mom said no because they will fight :confused: how do you introduce properly?? also i had 3 young male rats once (brothers) and one was a evil little thing! he would bite people and even killed his brother! not only did he kill him, he ate him too :eek: that poor thing was nothing but a pelt when I came home and saw him! they were fine when I went to school, then I come home to that poor thing looking like a bear skin rug! We took the other one out right away! I don't know what happened, they had food and water and always got along!

my mom is getting a rat from a friend at work. she can't keep it cuz she's having a baby and her bf is freaking out cuz they have a rat..:confused: but it's a female and I was wondering if I could put their cages next to each other? not RIGHT next to each other, but at least so they can see each other???
Your mom is wrong, rats are *incredibly* socialable and aren't very happy alone.

Your male rat is an adult, so your best bet would be two get two male babies and introduce them.

All you do is introduce them together in the bathtub, once they are fine there, then get all smells off the cage they will be in, and put them in the cage together.

Often the resident rat will pin the new rat down, which can look scary as the rat being pinned will be squeaking like mad, but this is called power grooming and is an act of dominance, generally introducing rats should go off without a hitch, it is difficult at first to not jump in and seperate them at every squeek....But they WILL be doing alot of squeaking, and power groooming the first couple of days lol.

You can also put vanilla extract on all the rats (Including their bottoms) So they all smell the same.

Or, cover them all with cool whip. By the time their done licking it off each other they might already be bonded lol

Here's information on introducing rats:

http://www.petratscanada.com/ratcare.htm#social

Look under the title that says "Introductions" it has a few good links.

The female rat will also need a friend. Rats are NOT happy alone. Even if you think they are, you will see a huge difference in personality when they have a friend.

What you could do, is get your male rat neutered by a rat- savvy vet, then wait 4-5 weeks (I think thats the time after a neuter that they are still fertile, but ask your rat-savvy vet) and then introduce the neutered male and female.

There is the *VERY* rare rat that doesn't like other rats, as in every social animal, but almost every rat is so socialable that denying them a companion is like denying them water - It's a need that has to be met. (Unless in southpaw's case, where he/she has an older rat and they don't plan on getting anymore after him......Then it's best to spend as much time as possible with him until the end )

Also, the cage needs to be big enough for the number of rats in it.

Check this rat-cage calculator, it will say how many rats can comfortably fit in your cage:
http://www.rattycorner.com/odds/calc.shtml

Make sure you have the option set to "2 cubic feet"
 

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