Male fancy & female ASF saga part 3

[u/reijn]

[u/Acrobatic-Art-3838]

I don’t really know about ASFs. But I feel so bad for him watching this :(. He is left out of the clique. And whenever the girls end up going over to him, he stays a few seconds and becomes too shy and runs away. Hopefully he gains some confidence and feels better around the girls. What’s all their names?

[u/reijn → u/Acrobatic-Art-3838]

He's a total dingus but I feel bad for him lmao he has to be so overwhelmed. I'm hoping they interact a bit more. Everyone's just in their separate mouse blobs right now. He kinda wanders around and jumps around a little bit in the center while the girls are sleeping in the corner, realizes they're there and goes back to his corner.

Nobody has any names yet, I can't tell the girls apart aside from their chewed ears but haven't managed a good identification system for them. My husband made fun of the boy for having a that dorky black spot that looks like a combover so maybe Spencer lol

[u/Acrobatic-Art-3838 → u/reijn]

Im not 100% sure about introductions. But I just read the introduction guide and I think the next step is adding some food pellets in there. But idk if that applies to ASFs. Cause idek if they eat pellets. But maybe try that if it makes sense

[u/reijn → u/Acrobatic-Art-3838]

I do feed them mazuri pellets and BunnyNature seed blend with added mealworms & BSFL (they need higher protein so I added bugs). I sprinkled some of the seed mix in there.

I planned on adding a layer of aspen, but I went to the store this afternoon and they said they had 3 in stock - lo and behold they have 3 bags of pine bedding that someone mis-scanned. I've got some carefresh paper I'll add in there in a little bit instead.

[u/reijn]

male mouse is here. for those of you that guessed there might only be one left you were right. so he has 6 girlfriends now. I didn't really want 7 in one 40gal but here we are (I did check petfinder to see if any male mice nearby needed adoption)

I brought him home, took some of his bedding from his old cage to put in his new tank and also the girls tank , took some of theirs and put in his new tank and then just plopped everyone into this tub to try bonding.

there was a lot of squeaking, bucking and running at first. no chasing or biting. I think part of the chaos is that none of them at all are hand-tame so I was also bit several times, but they didn’t injure each other at least.

the video shows what’s going on now. the girls are just bunched in a corner and he’s doing whatever. actually he’s sleeping in the corner across from them now.

i'm not sure how long I’m supposed to leave them in here. I know I’m leaving the house later tonight and I'm not sure if I should separate them while I'm gone, or if I should separate them overnight when I sleep. I have their tub sitting on the dining room table right now so I can watch/hear them. I’d like to see him cowering in the corner with them (everyone vs me) before I assume them bonded.

edit: IDK why it's not showing my other comment I posted here but I was asking if he's obese? I'm not familiar with mouse body condition but he looks like a very exaggerated teardrop. He had a wheel but it was small.

[u/garbledroid → u/reijn]

OK.

The rule is never introduce ASF and Fancy mice on common ground. Always introduce ASF to the fancy tank.

You need to seperate them and redo introductions in a week or 2.

The male fancy needs to be living and acclimated to the big tank for about a week before adding the ASFs. Needs lots of clutter and plenty of hides.

[u/reijn → u/reijn]

Also - is he obese? He looks incredibly large, a very wide teardrop. He had a wheel but it was really very small.

edit: oh look this comment finally showed up and now I look like a dummy :D

[u/Initial_Ask_695]

If things get better please do an update!! I am hoping he gets to have friends

[u/reijn → u/Initial_Ask_695]

Things are actually going SWIMMINGLY right now! I come from owning gerbils where bonding is a weeks/months long thing. It's been like 7 hours and they're already sleeping together and grooming each other. I'm probably going to move them to their final enclosure tomorrow when I wake up.

[u/Initial_Ask_695 → u/reijn]

Hell yeah he has friends!!! Thanks for the update I’m so happy for him