Mice

[soilentgringa]

Oh I am sorry

[CallaLily]

Thank you, guys. I think she had a fairly good life considering she was a "feeder" mouse and there were a couple times last year that I thought I was going to lose her but she pulled through. I think, if I get another group of mice in the future, I'm going to try to space out the ages more in hopes of not having these back to back losses. Though I guess you never really know what's in store.

[Crabinski]

Oh, sweet Cheeseburger! So sorry to hear the news, CallaLily, but Cheeseburger battled her way through quite a bit, health-wise, in her little life. Very glad she had some joy with her new sisters in her twilight time.

[CallaLily]

Thank you, Crabinski.

Here's a few pictures from today's play time.

Hazel



Seren



Celyn and Rina


I'm pretty sure Celyn is the first pic, Rina the second. It's still hard to tell in pics that don't show the ends of their tails!

[CallaLily]

Pictures from today.

[Crabinski]

The girls seem to be taming up nicely so maybe Seren will adapt to the others and you could have a happy quartet living together!

[CallaLily]

Fingers crossed! I'm not going to lie, I'm super nervous about introducing them.

[wodesorel]

I can't get over how cute they always are! The are so adorable. I so adore your updates. I was tempted to find a way to adopt a couple rats or mice last weekend, but it was really obvious spending a few hours around them that I couldn't.

[CallaLily]

That stinks. Is it just rats and mice or do you think all rodents? I don't know how that works.

[KellyCrabbieLove]

So adorable

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[wodesorel]

That stinks. Is it just rats and mice or do you think all rodents? I don't know how that works.

I had major problems with gerbils, hamsters and guinea pigs before this. I was hoping since I had never kept rats or mice that I could get away with it for a few years, but no dice. Changing bedding and things like that didn't make a lick of difference. Strangely enough, my pet shop lady (who had rescued the mice and rats so they wouldn't be snake food) is also allergic to rodents. I get asthma attacks, and she breaks out in hives! I'm sure it's different for different people, but I think they're so closely related that's easy to cross react. I blame the rat and roach infested apartment we lived in when I was a baby for ruining any chances of keeping the pet kind later in life. (My mother has told me many stories.)

[CallaLily]

I read that living in situations like that increase your chances of developing an allergy. I was super curious after I read your post so I googled. I wasn't sure if that was fact. I've seen a few people mention on mouse/rat groups that they had developed slight allergies after a time. Things like hives/rashes after handling.

[wodesorel]

A lot of people have cockroach allergies from living in situations with them, which is why they are a standard part of the allergy prick test. The longer you're exposed to a potential allergen, the greater the chance you'll come down with an allergy to it. Laboratory workers, and animal and insect breeders/farmers have a very high allergy rate to the animals they work around, and it's been heavily studied since it's an occupational hazard. This describes how my allergies progressed with everything to a T: http://www.alnmag.com/articles/2010/09/ ... -allergens

There are some things you can do to prevent exposure and stretch out the "good" time if you're at risk. Wear gloves and masks when cleaning. Use a HEPA filter in the room. Little things to make it so the majority of time spent with them is for cuddling and being interactive.

I know a lot of people aren't at risk, which is awesome (and makes me jealous ). But for anyone with warning signs - asthma, rashes, eczema, other allergies - little things at the start can really make it be better for longer. I wish I had been more careful with the roaches! With some precautions I probably could have stretched it out to 7 or 10 years like others have done. I had a series of rodents when I was a kid (hamster, gerbil, dwarf hamsters) and then two dwarf hamsters when we moved in this house so by the time I got the last set of gerbils I was done for, but I think that was a good run.

[CallaLily]

I introduced all the girls yesterday.


Seren is the boss lady and she isn't so nice about it.


But introducing them all has quickly shown Hazel I'm not so scary. She's climbing onto my hands and arms willingly and so far :::knock on wood::: no flying leaps.














Also, I found this cute castle at a thrift shop for $3. There are 2 floors and the mice easily get up on the roof too.

It's so cute watching them pop in and out of windows.

[Crabinski]

OMG! Love that little castle! I can just picture them peeking out of the windows; I get all gooey watching my ladies peek out of the doors and windows in their plain old Petco Hamster House so I can imagine how cute they are in that castle .

Seren sounds a lot like my Anya: she is in charge on her terms, take it or leave it. Anya was the primary bully mouse when I combined the duo (Cordelia and the late Tara) with Anya's trio (Willow and the late Buffy) back in the late summer of 2014 -- she relentlessly went after poor Tara and, to stay on her good side, Willow and Buffy badgered Tara, too. It took quite a while for things to settle down and all to accept Queen Anya's rule. Tara and Anya eventually became BFFs. Buffy was the initial alpha mouse in the trio and periodically tried to regain her ascendancy but no one was willing to back her against Anya.