Uploaded July 2017 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
More of Bella, Amelia and Humphrey: Bella and Amelia have become the best of friends and are so cute together, Amelia still hates Blossom and Humphrey is becoming very friendly :)
On a sad note:
Little Lily is no more. It was a mistake separating her from her family for practical reasons. Mice bond very closely to family so when I moved her into the large table mousery with Bella's family she kept looking over towards where her mom's mousery was. The next day I found her in the middle of the living room floor, not a mark on her but passed away.
Open concept mouseries always hold some risk, especially if the mousery is in a room that cannot be made escape proof and they can get access to the rest of the house by squeezing under the door. Most mice will never jump but occasionally one will. Sandy was my last jumper, she must have accidentally fallen off and then discovered how much fun being totally free is and there was no holding her anymore on a table mousery. She would jump and then run off pop-corning for the joy of being free, much like horses do when they escape, they go wild with the intoxicating feeling of being free. She had to spend the rest of her life in the large terrarium.
The first time Sandy escaped, I found her the next day pop-corning happily beside Butterfly the cat. Butty knows my mice are off limits so that time she just sat there, looking mildly bored with Sandy right in front of her nose. But with Lily things must have been different. Butterfly has a super strong hunting instinct and she must have momentarily forgotten herself. Once she realized what she had done she left Lily and did not eat her like she usually does with her prey.
It is so horrible when this happens, you feel so bad. But despite the risk, open concept mouseries will always be my favorite way to keep pet mice. Once every few years I will lose one, but so many more mice get to live longer because of the greatly reduced risk of respiratory illness. The air quality is the best in open concept mouseries and way fewer mice end up dying young of respiratory illness like they do if kept in tanks. The quality of life is so hugely improved with all the extra space, that the risk is worth it. The occasional jumper is just the sacrifice one has to accept for the overall benefits of keeping mice this way.
I am in the process of building a new studio that will be 100% mouse proof, like the studio I had in Quesnel. This will make keeping mice in open concept mouseries safe, since then if they do jump, they will not be able to go anywhere unsafe and run the risk of encountering the cat.
It was so hard losing Lily, she was showing so much potential with that cute little personality of hers, I had had such high hopes for her. RIP little girl, you will not be forgotten.
More of Bella, Amelia and Humphrey: Bella and Amelia have become the best of friends and are so cute together, Amelia still hates Blossom and Humphrey is becoming very friendly :)
On a sad note:
Little Lily is no more. It was a mistake separating her from her family for practical reasons. Mice bond very closely to family so when I moved her into the large table mousery with Bella's family she kept looking over towards where her mom's mousery was. The next day I found her in the middle of the living room floor, not a mark on her but passed away.
Open concept mouseries always hold some risk, especially if the mousery is in a room that cannot be made escape proof and they can get access to the rest of the house by squeezing under the door. Most mice will never jump but occasionally one will. Sandy was my last jumper, she must have accidentally fallen off and then discovered how much fun being totally free is and there was no holding her anymore on a table mousery. She would jump and then run off pop-corning for the joy of being free, much like horses do when they escape, they go wild with the intoxicating feeling of being free. She had to spend the rest of her life in the large terrarium.
The first time Sandy escaped, I found her the next day pop-corning happily beside Butterfly the cat. Butty knows my mice are off limits so that time she just sat there, looking mildly bored with Sandy right in front of her nose. But with Lily things must have been different. Butterfly has a super strong hunting instinct and she must have momentarily forgotten herself. Once she realized what she had done she left Lily and did not eat her like she usually does with her prey.
It is so horrible when this happens, you feel so bad. But despite the risk, open concept mouseries will always be my favorite way to keep pet mice. Once every few years I will lose one, but so many more mice get to live longer because of the greatly reduced risk of respiratory illness. The air quality is the best in open concept mouseries and way fewer mice end up dying young of respiratory illness like they do if kept in tanks. The quality of life is so hugely improved with all the extra space, that the risk is worth it. The occasional jumper is just the sacrifice one has to accept for the overall benefits of keeping mice this way.
I am in the process of building a new studio that will be 100% mouse proof, like the studio I had in Quesnel. This will make keeping mice in open concept mouseries safe, since then if they do jump, they will not be able to go anywhere unsafe and run the risk of encountering the cat.
It was so hard losing Lily, she was showing so much potential with that cute little personality of hers, I had had such high hopes for her. RIP little girl, you will not be forgotten.
