Keeping males in same cage

[luna]

Hi, as the title says....is keeping 2 male mice together in the same tank ok ? 
Tiger and Loki were in the same tank at the petshop, but I have been told that keeping males is a big no, no, due to them fighting.  Is this right ?

[andy]

As a rule no you should not keep males in the same cage. You can try to keep brothers together if they have grown up together it doesn't always work though and you have to keep a close eye on them when they start to mature. If Tiger and Loki were in the same cage at the petshop are they still together now? I would not try and reintroduce them if they aren't currently together.

[mousekateers]

I agree with Andy.
If the boys were together when you bought them and they are ok, then leave them together. If you notice as they get older their play fighting becomes severe, as in blood and badly beaten, then I would separate them.

There are a number of things which lead to fighting:-

1. proximity to females
2. illness in the other mouse (you may not realise at the time)
3. external stimuli which can incite aggression ie wild mice
4. thoroughly cleaning a cage, destroying all established scent
5. dominance or laidback nature of the males.

As well as a myriad of other things.

[luna]

Thanks for that !! atm they are still in the same tank, I will keep an eye on them and as I have them out everyday, will be able to notice bite marks ect and will separate if necessary.

Thinking back now I've only had female mice before and the only male small fuzzys I've had are male rats, and with the rats, the rule of No Blood, No Foul worked out well, and I had 2 large cages with 4 boys in each. I guess it's not the same for mice...ohh well good job I have another cage, incase

[andy]

It's definitely not the same for mice unfortunately. It sucks when you are breeding because you have to house most males separately

[greydawnbreaking]

I'm currently trying an experiment where I've two brothers to their older uncle who was living singly after being bullied. There was a lot of squeaking and tussling the first night, but the second night I saw them snoozing in a fleece tunnel together.

As per my setup, I think in the "pro" column is the fact that two of them are brothers and younger, making dominance a little bit less of a controversial topic to be settled. Also, these are Zen mice, so just genetically I don't think they'll be as aggressive as a pet shop mouse. There's three of them, so no one mouse is picked on for long like in a male-pair arrangement. And they're in a 60L tub which is fitted out with (at last count) three hanging tunnels, two cuddle sacks, two egg cartons, a plastic nest container, four tubes, two separate types of food dishes, a wire second level holding a Maccas takeaway drinks holder, and a wheel. So there's a lot of stuff to keep them occupied, and plenty of scope for individual territories.

On the con side, they're housed right next door to a bunch of females, so there's constant aggression potential in the way of scents, sights, etc. As big as the cage is, it can't hold multiples of everything so introducing the wheel as I did tonight caused some drama. Also, the two brothers are young and therefore less assertive than their uncle; as they grow and everyone becomes the same size (and the brothers hit the 6-month "puberty") I suspect that more serious dominance fights may occur.

But by that time, their uncle may have a young set of sons to keep him company. Anyway, so far so good, I'm keeping an extremely close eye on them and so far I haven't seen any serious red flags. I've been very pleased to see there's been no real violence, just dominance displays and chasing, and I've seen all of them groom, eat, sleep, and explore new items in the cage regardless of the presence of others. Plus all of them are comfortable being held and enthusiastically swarmed my arms when I opened the cage lid. I know they all spent the day sleeping in an egg carton, so hopefully this arrangement works out.

[andy]

I kept a group of 8 males together I got them all young and kept them in a really large tub and all worked out. Sometimes you get lucky

[greydawnbreaking]

Sept 3, 2013 19:59:45 GMT 10 andy said:

I kept a group of 8 males together I got them all young and kept them in a really large tub and all worked out. Sometimes you get lucky

Well, not in this case, sadly--something went badly wrong very quickly, and I'm honestly not even sure what. When I went to sleep last night they were all perfectly fine, and when I woke up there were mysterious ants all over the cage, the water bottle was leaking, and the formerly dominant male was huddled in the wheel, fur scruffy and face bitten, grooming vigorously and refusing to come to my hand. :/ I think maybe poltergeists possessed my mouse tub for a night, since I do NOT have ants in my apartment and they don't seem to have come from anywhere. [baffled] But the damage is done, I guess. They're all separated now, and everyone's recovering nicely so far. The brothers are actually friendlier and bolder and less skittish, and Poseidon is doing his best brave-little-toaster routine in his solitary cage.

And the ant-infested cage is outside on the balcony awaiting a thorough bleaching. Ugh.