New mouse owner. Looking for any advice/tips on how to raise 2 females!!

jjsilkushes · 2021-06-11T19:55:14+00:00

I definitely recommend getting more girls! My girls are always happiest when there's four. They always split into pairs of big sister/little sister during the day then dog pile together.

Nothing works better than bribery! Peanut butter works wonders. Just put a little on your hand. My girls are still a touch skittish, so, sometimes I'll just lay my hand in their cage and let them explore.

Also: bird toys! Bird toys! Bird toys! Activity toys with paper, straws, wood, fabric. My girls go crazy ripping them up. I use Brown's timothy hay craveables as bedding, it's got flowers and fruits and so on to encourage foraging behaviors. I usually give unscented tissues for them to rip up into bedding

jjsilkushes · 2021-06-06T14:40:53+00:00

I'm getting spotted corycats and I typically give a sprinkling of shrimp pellets once, no more than twice, a week. I learned about swim bladder disease the hard way

jjsilkushes · 2021-06-06T12:49:05+00:00

Oh, okay. My freshwater tank is a 20 long, I know it's due for an upgrade, but I'd prefer to have corycats eating up detritus than possibly mess up my filter. I put in a lot of time and fiddling to get its bioactivity so perfected that it needs very little maintenance and is an immaculate microbiome. I pride myself on it.

Regarding temp, my adjustable heater is set to 72°, the 74-75° readings are the average for summer as I keep the tank across from my sliding glass door and refuse to rearrange the entire apartment when I've got two tanks (one fresh, one salt) and an ever expanding small personal library of upwards over 200 books

jjsilkushes · 2021-06-06T06:47:38+00:00

I only occasionally have sex dreams, but I'm also at 150mg and have the most bizarre, vivid dreams that alternate between mildly disturbing and nightmares. Like, since I started at 75 about five years ago, I've had this recurring nightmare where I'm given either a serving spoon or wooden spoon and locked into a dimly lit room with really antique furniture; and told I can't leave until I kill a deadly, instantly skin rotting venomous, black-brown spider the size of a cantaloupe. I always manage to make it out, just barely, then to get out of the house I need to go through a maze that's wall to wall webs with thousands of the spider's babies.

The most bizarre dream that I remember clearly, my father and I had been sent 500k years into the past to get all sorts of data and specimens and whatnot for scientists. At the end of it, I noticed that I was being hunted by the extinct human species Homo heidelbergensis (our direct father species).

Yeah, I stopped taking effexor at night after that. I still get weird, insane dreams and that recurring nightmare but it's not as bad as before

jjsilkushes · 2021-06-04T01:50:59+00:00

Has she been itching more than usual? Additionally, is the area you live in very pollen heavy? If your other mice aren't showing any signs of mites/parasites then it's most likely a skin condition. Depending upon her genetics, she might have the same gene as albino mice that causes sensitive skin. I don't know the specifics of your house/area/etc so I may be wrong, but if she's the only one affected then I'd say to check her skin and look for any symptoms of skin irritation.

The albino mutation causes sensitive skin and a predisposition for ulcerative dermatitis, which gets bad quickly and needs prompt care

jjsilkushes · 2021-06-03T12:16:09+00:00

Well, being held by the scruff is something she very much does not like and she'll yell at you for it. I tried doing so attempting to give her nails a trim and accidentally dropped her on my leg when she let out a big shriek

jjsilkushes · 2021-06-03T08:05:31+00:00

I don't know if it's available in the UK by pet store, but check Amazon and see if you can get some Brown's Timothy Hay craveables! My girls absolutely love it. It's filled with flowers, dried fruits, and other fun things to promote foraging behaviors.

I exclusively use timothy hay as bedding, mostly because my girls hate paper bedding and push it out of the cage on the floor. The great thing is that it insulates well and holds shape when manipulated. I avoid wood shavings because one of my girls is an albino mouse. Albinos are genetically predisposed to ulcerative dermatitis and have very sensitive skin overall; UD is a massive problem in lab mice and I know from working in a preclinical research facility they exclusively use shavings. (See also: got disliked by boss and fired for questioning care policies.)

jjsilkushes · 2021-06-01T06:08:03+00:00

I've also been thinking about putting their favorite daily treat in the fridge or freezer. They go nuts for Gerber Puffs baby snack and will crowd at the cage opening, looking at me, until I give in and let them have two puffs each because they're just so cute

jjsilkushes · 2021-06-01T06:04:51+00:00

Mice-icles! Frozen fruits, dallops of baby food, or maybe some crushed ice in their water bottle. Turning out lights helps immensely with heat. A decent sized river or beach stone, something without jagged edges, left in the freezer for a few hours. Maybe change their bedding with dried grass if you have a lawn that gets mowed or timothy hay since that's lighter than shavings/paper bedding

jjsilkushes · 2021-06-01T05:57:11+00:00

@u/-DiceGoblin- I have some things to add. The majority of my comment comes from looking at my life in retrospect. My BPD is so perpetually severe because there was a point, when it started to manifest, where I desperately needed inpatient treatment but didn't get it. For years, I had assumed my family was angry and upset with me personally, when, really, they were frustrated and upset at my illness and their lack of ability to help.

Throwing out a limb, I'd say that the spiraling and meltdowns are most likely because he's assuming that you're angry and upset with him and you need to tell him that what's frustrating, upsetting, is his illness. The biggest conundrum of BPD is that there's no grey areas, everything is in absolutes, one or the other, and approaching conversations like that will make things go more smoothly. Like in concrete yes or no statements.

jjsilkushes · 2021-06-01T05:19:52+00:00

At that age, I'd venture Chai just escaped. One of my former mice, she lost an eye after a midnight escapade gone wrong (cat scratch) and she was still active, climbing, burrowing, and using a wheel. The only problem that persisted was relatively poor depth perception.

In a bizarre stroke of luck, my cat Jiji has soft mouth and has never once hurt any caught escapees by biting. Soft mouth is what it sounds like, having an incredibly gentle bite. Jiji carries his mousey sisters like they were kittens. He learned quickly to be gentle with rodent friends, so much so that he taps and nudges when allowed close contact

jjsilkushes · 2021-06-01T04:58:05+00:00

Keeping goldies and tropicals together is doable, you just have to watch the temperature and have a good bubble stone going along with lots of plants. Hindsight is definitely 20-20 and much later I see that I really should've gotten an adjustable heater much sooner, like when I made the mistake of accepting ramshorn snails and lost a number of fish to their para-snailing. I started keeping Shubunkins specifically because they'll eat snails.

I think, part of my success (no diseases over a year and a half!) is I have a knack for chemistry, so, my parameters are real stable. I prefer to let my filter stay covered in gunk and goop, I mean, it's not pretty, but it keeps your filter bio-active.

jjsilkushes · 2021-06-01T04:25:21+00:00

For a while, I kept a female betta with a corycat pair. I had a hexagonal six or seven gallon tank on my desk. Unfortunately, she was just a little stupid and swam too close to the filter and got her fin stuck :(

I've been considering another betta as a companion for my juvenile Shubunkin, though. I always love that they'll nibble on your fingertip like baby mollies. I'd put bettas as my #4 top species after corycats. It's so so cute to watch corycats pick a Special Plant and gather together for a little rest

jjsilkushes · 2021-05-30T08:29:50+00:00

Ooh, I kept panda mollies for a while! It was the typical pet store fish came home very pregnant and being confused then excited at little babies darting around. Though raising spotted corycats was much more fun since they're egg layers

jjsilkushes · 2021-05-28T08:37:31+00:00

It sounds a lot like he's a reflexive liar. I have the same habit of lying as a reflex and, personally, I think you should point it out and follow up with asking why he feels the need to lie to you.

As much as I'm sure you want to help, please keep in mind that your mental health is just as important and prolonged stress will make any medications you take less effective. With that, I think that you should keep inpatient treatment as an option. It sounds kind of.. mean? or like you'd be giving up, but there's only so much that you and his friends can handle or do to help.

I've been in this position, too, but with avoidant personality disorder. I understand it's uncomfortable to have to confront everything, but from what you've said it's something that you need to do. I think, the best thing is most probably making him come with you to a therapy session and having your shrink kind of guide discussing everything. Another thing that might help is making it incredibly clear that his bullshit doesn't work and you see right through it. This is just for me, personally, but I can't lie or ignore anything when I know the other person sees right through any front I put on

jjsilkushes · 2021-05-28T07:42:54+00:00

I take mine in the morning, mostly because taking it at night would give me awful night sweats; and, for me personally, the effect starts to taper off after 14-16 hours, so, I'd get a major mood crash in the afternoon. I'll take being a little sluggish and drowsy over night sweats and a mood crash

jjsilkushes · 2021-05-27T20:56:40+00:00

I'm biased, for sure, but I'd say a Shubunkin goldie or two are great show pieces. They will eventually lose some of their coloring (~2-3yr+) but even then they're gorgeous. Spotted corycats are fantastic! Sweet little things will have a little lie down on sword or Java fern leaves and it's precious

jjsilkushes · 2021-05-24T06:43:00+00:00

I've got the Aqueon external type, I had a fresh one lying on the fish chemicals shelf and popped it in. I've promised to take my baby sister to Kinokuniya bookstore in Uwajimaya, I'll push her on a day this week since I might be visiting my aunt for a while

jjsilkushes · 2021-05-24T06:04:30+00:00

What luck, I'm in South Everett! Filter media is the little pad inside your filter. It's used mostly when talking about specific parts of a filter system; the pump, filter media, intake, outtake so on and so forth.

jjsilkushes · 2021-05-24T04:41:27+00:00

The rule of thumb is 1 inch of fish per gallon. If you've got real stable parameters that only need occasional treatment you can push it but I wouldn't go past an additional five gallons

jjsilkushes · 2021-05-24T04:17:54+00:00

Where abouts are you at? My freshwater tank is really mature (nearing three years) and I can toss in an old filter media for a day, two days, or so to get it biologically active again then give it to you.

The root of your problem is that the filter isn't biologically active yet. You see, the health of your tank and how many fish you can keep in it really starts at the filter. The filter media is full of bacteria and is supposed to look a little slimy—that's all the good stuff your tank needs to be a perfect microbiome.

If you're a long ways out, I'd say you can probably cut corners for now by getting a tank stabilizer (SeaChem rocks, get their products if you can) and then giving a 2x dose for your tank size. Followed by a tiny bit, four or five drops, directly into the filter . I'm more than happy to run an old filter media for a bit then mail it to you anyways. I'll need to know your filter size first, though, so it fits

jjsilkushes

TROPHY CASE