Anyone know about mice??? Pet shop query

Hello
Strange thing to post on a bunny forum, but thought some of you might know about mice too!

I went into my local pet shop today and was disgusted by the number of mice in one tank- about 50 of them in a really small one. But the thing that really disturbed me was that they were mixed sexes of all ages- adults, adolecents and very very small pinkies (several nursing mothers also). A couple of the pinkies were struggling around on their own.

I complained to the manager who said that he was actually being generous with space (!) as government guidelines allowed for half of this and insisted that as mice are social animals, this works for them. I don't know much about mice, does anyone know if this is true? I told him I thought he should have seperated the females when pregnant, but he insisted that they wouldn't be accepted back into the group. He also said female mice feed each other's babies.

Other than this they were not fighting at all and were clean.
Any thought?? Thanks

I'd contact the Local Council, they licence pet shops and their licence conditions will specify exactly what they can and can't do and what size the cages have to be. I don't know anything specifically about mice though, sorry :?

I had a 'friend' keep her 'pet' mice in the same way (and funnily enough she had a few snakes too :roll: ) and I definately couldn't condone it. The mice will interbreed, which can lead to deformities, the mums can stress out because of competition for food/water/space and eat their babies, and they'll breedback (get pregnant straight after having their litter), giving their poor little bodies no time to rest. On top of that, females will be getting pregnant as soon as fertile, which will be younger than ideal, which will put more strain on their bodies.
Males can become aggressive to each other on their own, so put females in the mix and you'll most likely get fights over that too.
Although he's right about the mums feeding the other babies, there caqn be downsides to this too. Some mums may not be so keen on sharing and kill other babies, others may get TOO keen and steal everyone else's babies and lead to malnourishment of themselves AND the babies, and nasty accidents can happen if mums are having a tug of war with babies :?
I'd definately doublecheck the recommendations with your local council, and I'd also see if there's a regulation on how many animals per cage.
I know petshops are also only licensed to sell a certain number of animals so this may be something else to catch him out on.
I'm pretty sure you're not allowed to breed your own pets in a petshop without a special license too, but not 100%..

I was thinking that too Karly, about them getting pregnant again straight away and the other young ones.

Thank you both of you, I will contact the council when they're back open on tuesday, and I'm never going to buy anything in there again. I will follow the rest of you and start buying off the net!

Nice petshop. 'Being generous'? How about we lock the manager in a porta cabin toilet for a few months with three other people! Scumbag!
They should not eb kept together, mice are worse than rabbits for breeding believe it or not. I had two female mice for a while (I was babysitting lol) They were the sweetest things, very smelly, but gorgeous and should not be kept with opposite sex as they will just keep producing more and more babies and get ill. I'd call the rspca and ask them if they know the law on it, I think the pet shop person was talking ****.

I just rang the RSPCA and they said they would send an inspector out to the pet shop.

I've asked them to let me know the outcome, and they said if I don't hear from them for a while it may mean the pet shop is being prosecuted.
The lady on the phone wasn't sure what the laws were but was concerned.

Well good for you for doing something about it, keep us posted if you hear anything.

I went into a pet shop to buy a mouse as a friend for mine. And they were in the same sort of conditions there but sexes were kept seperate but that didnt mean that the werent female with babies hanging off them in the same tank as others. I thought this was wrong. but then again he also had a lizard in with a tortouise(sp) which i thoufht was strange

http://www.lewes.gov.uk/Files/env_petshop_conditions.pdf this thread shows the amount of space required by Lewis council for each individual small animal. I would guess this is about the same for every council.

Sadly I think this is common, as shops often breed for snake owners ( ) I love mice - I have 2, but won't ever buy from a pet shop again. There is just too much inter-breeding, as they don't think the mice are going to live long lives anyway. I just wish I could save them all, as mice are my absolute favourite pet.

Mice are very sweet! I hate seeing them suffer and the thought of them breeding solely for snakes upsets me (I realise snakes have to eat)
Some pet shops just have no ethics, whether that's the law or not, it's blatant they are unhappy and don't have enough space!

I was hoping that even if the RSPCA visit doesn't lead anywhere, perhaps it will scare the pet shop owners into thinking more about the animals welfare.

Just an update on this in case anyone thinks i have forgotten about this awful pet shop.

I have tried calling the RSPCA several times, finally got through to a lady who said an inspector would call me....still no call :roll:

i haven't been in there since, but I hope something has been sorted.

Pink_Princess_Linzi said:

I went into a pet shop to buy a mouse as a friend for mine. And they were in the same sort of conditions there but sexes were kept seperate but that didnt mean that the werent female with babies hanging off them in the same tank as others. I thought this was wrong. but then again he also had a lizard in with a tortouise(sp) which i thoufht was strange

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Mice are often available in rescue. Try to contact small animal rescues instead of purchasing from pet shops if you can.