u/Zealousideal-Log8644

background: i got three mice from a feeder bin a few months ago. Bonnie (light orange, bottom left second pic). Maddie (siamese, top right second pic). Alexis (not pictured). about a month ago, alexis suddenly got sick. she just became lethargic and weak, didn’t eat, looked like she was in pain. she was gone by the next day, before i could even take her to the vet. a little while passed and i adopted three rescue mice, a little older than bonnie and maddie, to be companions. Ginny (orange, bottom right second pic). May (black, both pics) and Hayley (grey, both pics).

less than a week ago, Ginny suddenly got lethargic and sickly. she was still new and therefore shy, it was normal to not see her at every feeding time, so by the time i went looking for her she was in rough shape. i tried to get some food into her and keep her comfortable, but when i woke up the next morning she was gone.

Yesterday, May got lethargic. she looked the same as ginny. i kept an eye on her overnight but this morning she was looking the same, so i separated her along with Hayley. just now she passed away too. four days apart.

Does this sound like any known mouse illness? my leading theory is that the feeder bin mice have some dormant illness, it got to Alexis because her immune system was weaker (i think she was super inbred) and then they passed it to my new mice upon introduction. but is that even a thing that happens? has anyone else experienced this? i really just want to make sure my remaining three mice are going to be okay.

to preface, i’m well aware that agouti fancy rats exist, and i know there’s about a 99% chance he’s just one of those. but the way things add up makes me want to question it just a tiny bit, he’s almost got me wondering if he was an orphaned wild rat raised from infancy or a hybrid or something.

he’s a rescue and we don’t know his history, only that he was found as a stray in an abandoned building and it took them a month to catch him. he’s a very feisty guy and squeaks when i pick him up, if i can even get my hands on him to begin with. he’s social, i can pet him, but he’s very independent and doesn’t like being handled, picked up, or grabbed at. i know fancy rats can easily have feisty personalities too, but it’s worth noting.

the thing that has me questioning is that when i looked up the difference between wild rats and agouti fancy rats on a whim, the main difference i saw talked about was the eyes. i read that wild rats will have more protruding bugged-out eyes, which my little guy here has. he’s got little ears and a lighter belly and a sort of striped pattern down his forehead and snout almost like a chipmunk (which shows up oddly in these pics, i can grab better ones if needed)

again i know full well he’s probably an agouti fancy rat, i just want some input to sate my curiosity lol. someone out there’s gotta know how to tell the difference better than me (a guy who has never seen a wild rat in real life before). and wouldn’t it be neat if i had a wild or hybrid without even knowing it lol.

hands IN the food. for what reason, even.

she doesn’t love to be picked up but once i’ve got her she just goes boneless

i like to sprinkle food dust on them because i think it’s funny. and they love it, they go nuts

valentine has chewed a hole in every hammock they have. i call it “the valentine special.” every hammock has gotten the valentine special.

I have never owned a pullip doll or even heard of them before this. this one is an isul but I don’t even know what that actually means. I just collect dolls in general and thought she was beautiful. I did a little bit of research though, and apparently $15 is a steal. I feel really lucky. Of course she didn’t come with a box, her clothes are falling apart a little bit, and I’m sure she’s missing some pieces, but it still seems like I got a great deal. these dolls are adorable and i’d love to start collecting more of them

yesterday evening when i picked up my baby girl valentine i noticed she had a shallow but very large wound on her tummy. it looked to be at least a day old, it had a thin scab. she’s been sick for a long long time and she’s skin and bones, her skin is paper thin and she scratches easily, but they’d recently finished intros with some minor hiccups and i worried one of the newcomers had done it to her. i rushed her to the emergency vet, where they luckily told me that it wasn’t severe, they said her skin had degloved over that spot. she also lost some weight again even though she’s getting critical care food daily. they gave me some anti-infection cream and told me to keep her separate. she’s in the hospital cage now, but i put her big brother beef in there with her, because beef is old now and i trust him to be gentle with her, they’re the last two left from my old group and they’re super-bonded, and beef is an incredibly protective rat in general, it’s better for everyone that the two of them stick together even though they both haaaaate the hospital cage lol. i feel so bad, but i keep telling them they’re just getting a big brother little sister vacation sleepover together, and they’re both getting so many treats, i’ve decided it’s worth beef getting a little fat if it means i’m getting food into valentine, he’s old enough that i’d rather he maintain a good weight too. they do get supervised free roam with their other siblings, but they miss their home and i hope she recovers soon so they can all be in the big cage together. please wish her well, this sweet girl has been through so much. but she’s still acting like her normal happy little self, climbing all over the walls and jumping everywhere, like girl no you are wounded you can’tttttt do that lol

little Valentiny is so precious to me, she will always be my little baby no matter how old she gets

ignore my laugh in the video please 😭

this was after she had already taken many paper towels to her secret stash hideout beneath my bed, she thought it was only fair for me to have some too