Older mouse advice needed (long! sorry!)

Hi everyone! I've been reading through this newsgroup for a while now
and gotten some great advice and ideas. I have a problem I wanted to
throw out there. I hope I can get some advice from you guys.

I had three little sister mice. Got them when they were babies and they
lived together their whole lives (about a year). Sadly, a month ago I
lost one to cancer. Then just Sunday I lost a second one to the same.
So that left me worried about the remaining girl Tara being left alone.
She still seems to be doing decent healthwise, but definitely seeming
lonely.

So I decided to introduce two baby girls. I followed some of the advice
I found here on introductions and it went TERRIBLE. From what I read it
seems like squeeking and a bit of scrapping is ok but biting and blood
is bad, right??? Well, let me tell you... Tara was out for blood! The
new girls are tiny and fast so they escaped injury but Tara kept
chasing after them aggresively. Finally, I saw her actually flip a
little one over and try to bite her middle open, I said "No more!" So I
took the little girls back out.

My poor Tara :( I let her chill for a minute, then held her and
comforted her and gave her a treat and she calmed down. The little ones
are very resiliant and were a bit paniced for a few seconds, but calmed
right down, had a snack and took a nap ;)

So I really have NO idea what to do! And I only want to do whats best
for Tara. I have no problem keeping these little girls in a second tank
forever. They are more than welcome to join my room full of critters :)
on their own ... but this still leaves Tara lonely. It kinda seems to
me like Tara is lonely for her sisters though and has no desire for
anyone else :( Makes me so sad.

So ... do you guys think its fixable? Do I try again? Perhaps on
neutral territory this time? (I had cleaned the cage thoroughly, but
didnt read the suggestion about neutral territory until just now.) Or
do you think Tara was so aggresive that I should just let her be alone?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give!
Amy

In article <1115220249.227805.92450 DeleteThis @f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
sunnyspot DeleteThis @gmail.com wrote:

> I had three little sister mice. Got them when they were babies and they
> lived together their whole lives (about a year). Sadly, a month ago I
> lost one to cancer. Then just Sunday I lost a second one to the same.
> So that left me worried about the remaining girl Tara being left alone.
> She still seems to be doing decent healthwise, but definitely seeming
> lonely.

I had a similar thing happen, and I was amazed because I'd never had
females fail to work out their differences before. In my case I tried to
introduce a new (but old in terms of age) female to two sisters (also old)
who had been living together for more than a year, and the sisters went
nuts beating up the much smaller new mouse. I was convinced they'd work
out their differences, but then I came home from school and found the
newcomer hiding on top of the wheel (you have to admire her balance) with
blood all over her back and a chewed up tail.

So, it does seem to be the case that now and then, females don't get
along. That's the only time I've had that happen -- usually they squabble
for a day or two and then settle down and become best friends.

My advice would be to let Tara live by herself, at least for now. Give
her lots of attention, treats, and stuff to rearrange in her cage. I've
had solo mice before and though I know they prefer company, they seemed to
do fine with extra human attention.



Heather