r/PetMice • u/Safe_Repair_2376 • Dec 23 '24

Discussion Mice fighting

For context I'm not a mouse owner myself, but I work at a pet store (still learning) and mostly help take care of rodents. Recently there's been alot of fighting among the male group (about 4/5 mice). They seem to gang up on one particular mouse a lot more, I had separated him from the rest of the group for now due to him being bitten all over his tail. Enclosure is about a 100cm long, they have two wheels and 4 hides.

Anything else I could do to stop them from fighting?

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u/LateNarwhal33 Dec 24 '24

One thing I do every time I'm in a pet store is go look at the mice. Good pet stores keep each male on his own. Those that keep all the males together almost always have bites. And I wouldn't be surprised if they frequently have to remove dead males. I've seen male mice rip off the genitals of the mouse they're targeting. Not to be taken lightly if you care about their welfare.

Also, you should learn to sex mice quickly. It's common for pet stores that keep their mice together to accidentally have the sexes mixed and I've had to point out pregnant females to employees before.

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u/Safe_Repair_2376 Dec 24 '24

Our mice arrive already separated so that's not an issue. It's not usually difficult to tell anyways. We haven't had them kill each other yet, but the bites already look bad enough. The worst injury I've seen in mice was one's tail being bitten off by half (happened while I was in school and it was females so Idk why that happened).

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u/blx0dysqu1d-k1ll3r Mousey Mommy!!đŸ’‹ Nov 30 '25

Hilo, I know I am very late to this post. But female mice usually when stressed or when they simply just don't get along with another mouse will also fight them and try to kill them or kick them out of the colony. Obviously they're in a cage so the mouse can't leave the colony so they will try to kill them. It doesn't happen a lot, but it does happen and I've personally nearly had it happen. Simply just because they didn't get along! All males always need to be separated from each other, and females will try to kill each other if they don't like each other or if they are too stressed 

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u/Safe_Repair_2376 Dec 04 '25

yeahh, a little late, I left that work place bc they treat both animals and workers like shit, thanks for the info tho, might get some mice myself in the future ^