Whew! Spiny Mice Update - Tonight's Big Deal

[Die Fledermaus]

What a job tonight.

I have three Habitrails with many add ons each with a Spiny Mouse family: pups, juvies, a few females, and a male or two.

I cleaned all of them after pulling the mice and keeping eacj group separate, and cleaning Habitrails is also a pain. At least the mice don't
pee in the tubes like dwarf hamsters do (and they do it a lot - why they are in bins).

I combined two Habitrails, connected them. But I need a connector with a couple of right angle openings to also connect add ons; it is hard to do that right now. If I did it would stretch seven or more feet long.

So, I sexed the mice, accurately I am fairly certain. Two juvie males are together; five females, several pups, and several female juvies are together in the two Habitrails, and three male adults were put into a 20L tank which had three other males in it who were moved into the third Habitrail. That way I could watch the strangers, the males, meet. One immediately became a bully chasing smaller ones; he got pulled and put into a bin where another male was, a male who was a smaller guy getting beat up by a different bully, a bully who is living alone (now there are two like that). The smaller guy was put in the 20L tank; that guy seems to be getting along with the other two.

And that is where we stand. Not a bad night; busy though.

All the females seems to be getting along. They have a lot of room.


P.S. In one Add-on, an Outpost, I found sitting there an AGOUTI mouse - an invader! He escaped, and I will have to take extreme measures to deal with the agoutis. (I am tired). I also found a dead agouti in there - attacked by Spiny's? Who knows. BTW, extreme measures means glue boards - but I have mineral oil ready and will check back and release (from the board) any that might be trapped.
They will end up in the wildest part of huge Prospect Park.

Busy night. Busy day, too, but that is another story! later. . .

[Die Fledermaus]

BTW, I will still need to check for any new babies as some of the females may be pregnant.

But at least this is under control.

The juvie males had to be pulled as adult males would attack them.

[Hamsters82]

Jeez, you had some night. That's good that the females are getting along.
Now just relax okay?

[Die Fledermaus]

Couldn't relax. Too much to do.

I had to finiish setting up the Habitrails:



There is a Safari loft to the far left. You can see the other stuff if youy look close. I will keep something covering the addons so they feel safer in them, maybe an old Yankee cap.

One male in the 20L got bitten. He will live alone, and as a 20L is too much space they will be moved out. What will go in here remains to be seen . How about me COMBINING all my fancy female mice and having thirty or so in one tank!?!?

In the third Habitrail one male got biten a little and slightly skinned. These guys were together for a month with no problems so I don't get it. The females are not that close. Maybe the new place freaked one out.

I also today chased down 15 agoutis in two tanks, with three escapes and four I will keep, and took the 15 to the deepest part of Prospect Park and let them go. It is very over grown and near a nice pond. Nothing else I can do about this. They are wild mice and uncontrollable here.

The four I kept, for now, are odd colors: three off-white and one a chocolate color. Curious those genes and how they work.

I also went to the gym, voted (I will miss no chance to vote against Hillary), had a long talk with a drunk on the street (interesting), have to clean the bathroom where I chased the agoutis (took an hour!), and I have two other agouti tanks to deal with later.

I am so tired my legs ache, and that never happens.

[Hamsters82]

Aww, poor you.

Isn't there any type of zoo that houses exotic or wild mice? I mean I bet those mice will be fine.

You have a nice home for them, that is the sort of wheel Chewie has and loves.

I remember the first time my feet throbbed, my aunt is a shopoholic and took my mother and I around everywhere! I sat down for awhile and my feet began to throb so bad I didn't want to get back up again. So I know how you feel, now...this time RELAX okay!!??

[Die Fledermaus]

I relax when I can!

BTW, I well know Spiny's are great climbers and in an ideal world they would have a lot of vertical space. But the world is not ideal and I do what I can.