u/CosmicToken69

Hey mouse people! My sister has 2, female, adult mice and 5 of their female babies. The babies and mommas have been living in separate cages a few feet away (only enough to maybe smell or hear.) The babies are 6 months old now and I was wondering if the two groups could reunite with intros and everything. Considering the large final size of 7. And I do worry about introducing such a big established colony to just the two moms. I feel like the moms would get overwhelmed as they are pretty laid back mice. I will say my sister was not very well informed on mouse care (little clutter, huge open spaces, ect) the first month or so, so both groups are extremely social and act alot less like prey animals than all of my mice have ever acted. I feel like 7 is getting close to the group splitting range, idk. Looking for any thoughts, thanks!

Hey. I just wanted to see if anybody had any advice or any resources to fill in some of my knowledge gaps on this as I'm planning to get 3 ASF's for my 8 month old, solo fancy boy.

Some info:

- The boy is incredibly sociable and has been living in a 200+ gallon enclosure for most of his life and is used to having a ton of space. (He is un-nuetered)

- I plan on buying a few glass tanks in this endeavor as I only have one currently (60 gal)

Questions:

- It is turning out very hard to find any ASF's in my area that are bred as pets/ for temperament. Will feeders be socially fit to be my boys companions?

- I know ASF's can chew well and I currently have 2 plastic wheels and one wooden wheel (all 1ft diameter) in my boys cage. Would any of them work. I specifically am scared of the nitengal silent runner with its thin track. The other one is a very thick plastic kaytee wheel but it is bright green so I am worried about chewing colors/dye on that one.

- Could the boy being used to such a huge environment impede the introductions or overwhelm him.

- Do ASF's chew like gerbils or just strong mice, meaning if I have a lot of cardboard and destructible clutter, will they just shred it straight into dust? This definitely factors into my end tank size as i rely heavily on handmade safe chewable clutter to fill the big tanks I have and I'm not sure how I'd manage that if these guys chewed up my creations with the same vigor as gerbils.

My Current Plan of Action: (Blanks are questions)

1. Get 3 female ASF's from the same litter at ___wk's old.

2. House the ASF's in a temporary ___gallon glass tank with abundant food and water, one hide and little enrichment till I know they all established hierarchy.

3. After a ___week quarantine I will start to introduce the group and the boy in a 20 gallon enclosure with minimal substrate and one multi entrance hide (food&water)

4. This is where I get very cloudy on how or when to exactly transition them to their new home together

If anybody has a resources they could point me to that would be very helpful, for example I'm not sure of:

- When I introduce them do I do it over multiple sessions where each group goes back to their respective enclosures in-between or do I just one shot it unless there are separation worthy fights?

- Do I start adding enrichment to their shared introduction tank (20g) first to see how they handle it before I transition them into their larger tank.

- I want them to end up living in an 80-100 gallon environment so should I add a cage in-between their intro tank and their final tank? A medium sized one to get them used to it.

If you read all of that, thank you so much. I really don't need anybody to spend their time writing me an essay if they don't want to. (I totally don't mind reading one tho) but if you have any helpful resources or tips that would be awesome. Thanks!

TLDR: Need tips on ASF & Fancy mouse

I clean it fully monthly but haven't cleaned it an about a month. It is quite large with a completely mesh top so it's pretty much maximum ventilation. I'm not sure what this could be though I've never seen anything like it. Maybe dust from food? I feed them 70% pellets and they do look like that when chewed up. It could maybe a different chew as I have given them a few that they could maybe make look like that but I feel like that would require a lot of not eating the actually food and it's all at the bottom.

(Video in thread)