In Memoriam...

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My mouse, Socrates, passed on in the wee hours of the morning. I could see she wasn't doing well at all. I suspected she was dying as she looked like she was in a lot of pain and was very tired. She was kind enough to bear with the brief red flash of my camera so that I could remember her a little better. This is the picture I took:



It's a bit hard to see, but Socrates is at the food bowl. She is survived by her cage mate, Ben (who is also female).

I went late this morning, after cleaning out the cage and santizing it and then finding a proper burial box for Socrates, to Petco where I had originally bought her, and purchased another white mouse from the feeder tanks. I had promised when I bought Socrates, that whenever I bought a new mouse, I would buy it from the feeder tank, to save it from the belly of a snake. I realize snakes gotta eat, too, but I like saving SOME mice to have a long, nice life. The pet Fancy Mice are fairly safe from this. I buy the feeder mice. So, I purchased a little teenage female white feeder mouse and named her Jerry. (I am in the habit of buying female mice and giving them male names: Socrates, Ben, Jerry, etc.)

Jerry is now exploring her new home, getting to know Ben, and running the wheel. I purchased all new "furniture" to replace those things which I could not bleach (as I'm not exactly sure what Socrates died of). And I also bought another wheel, since I know Ben hogged the wheel constantly and Socrates barely ever got to run.

I will be burying Socrates this afternoon over at my mother's place.

R.I.P., Socky

I'm sorry for your lose.

My older son kept feeder mice for a while. He had a little black one name Jamica and a white and brown one named Morgan. They made wonderful additions to our family. Morgan in particuluar was a very curious, interesting being.

I'm glad Socrates had you for a keeper. It sounds like she had a active life, a good life for a mouse.

BeeBee

Ben, my other mouse, was a "feeder mouse" per se, but really she was of Fancy Mouse stock since her litter was too big and Petco put her and some of her siblings into the feeder tank, because no one would buy them. Ben is brown. Socrates was a normal feeder mouse though: white.

I sincerely believe Ben will live much longer than Socrates did. I have heard the life span for a mouse can be about 1.5-2 years. Socrates was just about one and a half. Ben is a little over a year. But the pet mouse stock is MUCH stronger (Socrates was a very nervous individual; Ben is active, runs on the wheel, and eats as much as she can). Feeder mice are not meant to live a long time in contrast I think, and so their bloodlines are a bit weaker. I suspect Ben will go the full 2 years or even more.

I never thought about that but you are probably right about the bloodlines. I thought both Jamica and Morgen were feeders since they were in the feeder cage but maybe not.

How is Ben doing with the new roommate?

BeeBee

Oh, they ran around quite a bit inspecting each other and the cage. Now, they are asleep it sounds, being daytime and all.

Funny, when I bought Socrates, I didn't realize (for some weird reason) that mice were nocturnal. So I got the joy of the squeaking wheel throughout the night. I've gotten used to it by now. Ben is a wheelaholic, hehe

Sophist? I know nothing about any kind of
mouse, rat, or rodent. I can say my
sister's goldfish died many times and that
is the extents of my knowledge of caged
pets. All I can say is I'm sorry your
feeder Rat???? died.

I am a cat person, and I hope this helps?

Fascinating?
Ghosthunter

I am sorry to here about your little Socrates. I once had a white mouse given to me. Well actually it was given to a little kid by another little kid at their school. The Mum comes along to pick up kid from Kid's Club where I was a leader. Mum screams "your not taking that thing home!".

I told kid I would look after it for him.
It was young and I named him Zac. ( All my childhood pets were named Zac) My daugther did not have a name for 3 days because I could not call her Zac. That seemed to have broken the habit.

As I was of no fixed address, he lived on me.

Later when I did venture back home to my parents, we had him in a tank with no lid. There was a cable that ran down that corner of the room from the ceiling. A house mouse would come down and visit Zac and play for a bit and the go off up the cable, and off into the ceiling. Zac never left via the cable, though it was his free will if he chose to.

I have also owned two snakes and had to purchase feeder mice. I did not like that part so much, though nature is nature so thats how I handle that. Kind of. My second python was raised on already dead mice, so it was a little nicer to buy them frozen. Oh this is because I would have to knock the live ones out. That's the bit I hated.

You were rescuing the little guys I was purchasing.

I see nothing wrong with what a snake has to eat. I find snakes beautiful, too. I just don't think it is as natural for a mouse to have NO chance of getting away like it does in the wild (one must admit, cages are a little unfair for the prey). I like the idea of the frozen mice better, though if I found out they died very unpleasantly before being frozen (as in not so peacefully) I wouldn't like that either. But I was pleased to hear Petco is really thinking about the suffering of the mice and might only be offering frozen ones in the future.

Ghosthunter, the term "feeder mouse" is only used to specify a certain type of mouse (usually albino) that are raised and shipped to various stores solely for the purpose of becoming snake food. Generally, very few people buy them for pets.

Update: currently, Jerry is very skittish and is finally snuggling up with Ben (I was relieved when I saw them both in the little wooden house this morning since Jerry was spending a lot of time sleeping in the cardboard towel roll). Neither of them has used the new wheel I purchased (of course, since I purchased the most expensive wheel-- $7.99-- that they had which is blessedly silent. And they still both love the squeaky cheap wheel. Life!). Today I went to the store and bought a veggie mixture for the meeces and will be giving that to them tonight along with the usual seeds, etc..

So, I buried Socrates yesterday behind my mother's home and was fairly depressed until I fell asleep last night (I have never witnessed death in a creature or person I knew before and the change of the body after the being has passed. It is a depressing thing, because they look enough like the creature/person you knew, but then again, they don't look anything like them at all. I didn't like the experience and I went to bed thinking heavily about death and its unpleasant side). I have seen creatures dead before. But I never knew them when they were alive. I dislike the CHANGE. Oh well. That's Life (and Death).