I previously bought a feeder mouse with one eye. She has been a lone mouse for 1 month. I got her 3 friends 2 Friday and 1 on Saturday. I have introduced all of them and all went well with minor chasing and squeals with the newest mice each introduction, until last night. Last night 2 of them got into it pretty bad, both have a bite mark to show for it. The original mouse was SO submissive at initial introduction with this mouse with consistent and repeated crouch and freeze. Now they are both causing fights with each other. The other 2 are very passive so just stay out of the way. Both of the fighting mice instigate so it is not one or the other. I removed the original mouse last night from the cage and put her in the 10 gallon I used for them to get aquatinted after introductions. Introduction was in a storage tub, aquatinting over night was in a 10 gallon tank, new tank is a 55-75 gal I am not for sure that they all went into the same time last night as it was a new to all of them cage. All cages/tubs were cleaned with a vinegar,water, dawn dish soap solution before putting them in.
How should I re introduce? Do I start over like they never met before, or does this require a different form of introduction. No fighting since the one has been removed. I also removed the wheel and a foraging bath before I took her out to see if that fixed things and they still went at it. I am not going to put the wheel back in for a couple weeks as that is the true instigator. Everyone is popcorning in their new enclosure so it kills me to take her from there.
Let me know what you think!