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No luck....

BuckeyeSnake

New member
keeing my mice in their cages. :realhot:


Alright, so more than a month ago I lost one of my mice. I'm honestly not sure when it got out because I forgot all about it till I saw her running across my floor one day. I felt like it had been at least two weeks since she got out(and that was a month ago or so). I could have sworn this mouse was dead as I haven't seen it in weeks, but sure enough this morning who do I see dart across my floor?

Then, my first mouse has her babies. I put her in a new cage which I had made out of some plastic storage type unit(3 levels). Well, I had 3 mice living in the top level, so when she got pregnant I threw her into the middle section to be by herself. She ended up having 10 babies then escaped. I guess the top and middle sections are slightly different on the top of each level. There was enough space for her to get away and she did. I ended up feeding off all of the babies. FWIW, I saw her running around once or twice, then never saw her again.

I've also got a set of four ASF's 2.2. I've got a couple of those "My first home" cages empty, but I've been worried to put them in there due to the bottom being plastic. Well, my ASF's must be odd, because I haven't seen them chew much of anything at all. So, last night I put them in the new cage and figure I'll just let them try it out and see how it goes. If they started to chew, I'd just put them back into their 20gallon tank.
... Guess who woke up today to see his little albino ASF running across the floor? :angry01:
So I run over to the cage to find only one(my other male) ASF sitting in the cage.
"Oh ... not this again"
I ended up catching the little albino male and one of my females, but one is still missing and I haven't seen any sign of her. They didn't chew the cage at all, but I guess the bar spacings were just wide enough somewhere for them to squeeze out.

I've got to say, I was about ready to grab all of my roomates 3 cats and just set them loose on everything in here(barring my snakes of course :D). I'm not ever going to catch those mice. They're so ungodly fast it's not even funny and I'm pretty sure they've been out of the cage so long they've gone wild again.
The ASF's were easier to catch cuz they're a good bit larger and not as quick. I'm hoping to find my other female soon, but i'm not even sure she's in my room. I know keeping the two males with one female will only cause problems(and alraedy has). Sadly, I also know that every minute she's gone makes it even harder to introduce them all together again.
I think I'm a lost cause at this. And sorry for writing so much.:crazy02:
 
adding to this...

What should be done about my ASF's? Assuming I never see my other female again, should I leave both males in with the remaining female? I've always read that males will fight over a limited supply of females. Even with two females in there, the males were starting to squabble the past few weeks.

I'm affraid it's going to get more intense with just one female in there now, but I don't want to seperate out one lone male(as he'd end up in a cage by himself and be impossible to reintroduce to another colony).
Any advice?
 
Okay, escapees are a pain. I have a few in the mouse shed, hence why I choose to put them in the shed. Those little buggers can seem to magically appear anywhere. What I like to do is use the little humane traps, can get a rat size one at the farm store. Put it up against the wall(mice and rats use the walls so they can feel secure) near the tank. Right now thats the place the mice/ASF knows there is food. Place some peanutbutter on the trap switch then add some food(whatever you feed them). This has worked for me.

As far as reintroducing, I would go down to 1.1 and the other male, break down and get him a female or wait. ASF's do not seem to be as hard to intro as mice.
 
ASF's do not seem to be as hard to intro as mice.
Really? I'm glad to hear this. I thought I read somewhere that they're a nightmare to introduce after a colony has already settled.

I think I'm going to give in and get some rat traps. The only thing currently holding me back is that little female ASF. I'd prefer she live, but I can't have colonies of mice setting up in my home, haha.
 
Well, i'm pretty sure I just discovered the fate of my ASF female. I live with 4 other people(two guys/two girls).

I was just out in the kitchen cooking when one of the girls comes out and tells me
"Yeah, I guess Nick found a mouse downstairs and tossed it outside. It was white and gray."
.... :headbang:
Well, looks like I have to find another female. I guess I can't be positive which one it was though. The female mouse I lost was white and gray as well. :laugh:
I'm assuming it was the ASF though because he was able to catch it. There's no way he would have caught the mouse.
 
Cats can be useful. Ok it depends, I had an ASF escape and my cat chased it for 2 nights without catching it. But, she did at least alert me to the fact something had gotten loose. I ended up cornering it in a snake rack slot, and catching it myself. Basically if you can get any type of container over the rat and then slide the lid on underneath and flip it, they are not that hard to catch.
I had a mouse get loose the other day. I hadn't even noticed but I was cleaning the tank and I took it off the table it is on to empty the shavings. When I turned back around the mouse was sitting right there on the table waiting and let me just pick it up. I guess that one wanted back in the colony LOL
 
Alright, so get this:


Two Days ago my roomate texts me and tells me
"Hey, your rat got back into the house so we put it back in the cage."

I'm thinking, how in the heck does an ASF wander her way back into my house so conveniently. Turns out my roomate left the door open for a good amount of time and I guess she snuck back into the house.

I was worried the entire time I was gone that the others would attack her since she was away from them for a few days. I came home today to notice her seemingly sick. Very sick.

She almost lookes poisoned. She's trying to walk around, but seems very dazed, keeps falling over and can't seem to focus her eyes on anything. It's pretty sad to see, honestly.

Question though, is she fine in there? At first I was worried that maybe the others attacked her to the point of being disabled, but I haven't seen them do anything aggressively towards her since I got home.
Any info on what action I should take?
 
Okay, new thought as well. I'm not worried that this little female could have picked up some sort of parasites while outside. She was out there for something around 24 hours.

Is there anyway to know?
 
If I had an extra tank I would seperate her. From the sounds of it it might be that she ate something poisonous or some trauma happened to her while she was out. It won't hurt to quarantine her. I hope she pulls through but you don't want to take the chance with the rest of your colony that whatever it is could spread.
 
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