I am sooo sad

[sassysmama]

I just needed a place to say this where people would understand. I keep fancy mice as cherished pets. I breed for color and I also breed silkies. I love the brindle color and my last litter had a blue brindle in it, my pride and joy. I put them all in my reptile shed because it is freezing in the shed I usually keep them and my husband doesn't let me keep them inside. They have lived there happily since november. Well yesterday a guy at the pet store told me that some of my temps for my reptiles were a little low. I told him the size of my shed, the heat lamps I had going, and the species I was keeping and he made some recommendations for increasing my heat sources. I decided to try it out but by the time I got everything hooked up it was almost midnight. I was exhausted so I went to bed. Woke up this morning and I had killed 11 of my mice from heat stroke. I managed to save the other 7, but it wasn't any consolation. Why on earth was I so stupid? I feel so bad for not checking the temps after I turned the lamps on. I know better than to do that, but for some reason I did it anyway. At least I didn't kill anything else with my stupidity, but the weird thing is the mice are almost my favorites. I thought the blue brindle little boy was going to be ok, but he died a few hours later. I am feeling very sad and guilty right now. At least now I learned my lesson, but I wish I didn't have to learn it this way. Thanks for listening.

 

[dragonblade71]

I am very sorry about your loss. Though don't beat yourself too much over it. Once in a while, we all do things that seem illogical afterwards. Indeed, I have spent way too much time questioning myself over foolish things that I have done and thinking, if only I could go back in time and done things differently. Life is hard in this way.

 

[Laba-Laba]

I used to keep Satins . Mice are lovely, highly underrated pets... I feel your pain. The only thing you can do with a mistake like this is learn from it and grow. As a person, as a keeper.

 

[Laba-Laba]

I used to keep Satins. Mice are lovely, highly underrated pets... I feel your pain. The only thing you can do with a mistake like this is learn from it and grow. As a person, as a keeper.

 

[RoachGirlRen]

Terribly sorry for your loss, from one mousekeeper to another. Mice are great pets with a ton of personality, so losing so many at once must have been just horrible. I don't think that the dangers of high heat to mice are publicised nearly enough. Hopefully all of your survivors suffer no secondary complications. Have you considered keeping them in the other shed with a heat light or heat element on the tanks to keep it around 70 if even possible? They tend to be more tolerant of low temps than high, so unless you mean freezing as in literally below the freezing point, it might be the safer bet.

 

[Brad Ramsey]

Things like this often happen when somebody listens to "the guy at the pet store"
How warm did it get in that shed?

-Brad

 

[sassysmama]

Thanks for the kind words. And yeah, it was awful. They will be moved asap. I have no idea how hot it was in the whole shed, but most of the tanks were well into the hundreds. I'm guessing it was at least in the high nineties where the mice were. My poor nile monitor's basking spot was 115. Thankfully, he has a huge water area and he just went in there and hung out. I am very fortunate to not have many, many more losses. I am having another shed built right now for the mice, rats, and hamsters. Interestingly, I didn't lose any rats or hamsters, though their cages are lower and I have fewer of them. My only problem is what to do with them during the summer. It gets very hot here, and a closed shed with no ventilation will easily get up into the 120's. I have an air conditioner that I turn on in the reptile/invert shed so I will have to do that for the other shed. Might work out great though, I could keep my desert reptiles and other higher heat critters in one shed, and my rodents and cooler inverts in another. I can see that in a few years I will have like 20 sheds, one for each temperature group, or at least until my husband decides to let me keep some in the house, lol.

 

[sassysmama]

Forgot to say that one of the mice was my little buddy. She used to always sit on my shoulder while I cleaned cages, and she had her last litter while she was snuggled up to me. She was squeaking and wanting out, so I put her up on my shoulder, and about ten minutes later she started having babies on me. It was so sweet, she would just have a baby, clean it off and then crawl down my arm and lay it in my hand for safe keeping. When she was all done she took them back one by one and put them in the little nest she made in her cage. RIP Mrs. Whiskers.

 

[Thrasher]

It hurts to hear stories like this, Im sorry for your lost. I keep 2 rats in my room and they are sweethearts. Don't let this stop you from doing what you like and passioned for. I have never thought about breeding rats for color, that would be interesting, thank you very much for the idea. Don't stop, keep on going!

 

[SuperRad]

My condolences. I'm a mouse keeper too and can't imagine what'd it would be like to loose so many. I hope you and your pets get well soon.

You should take some comfort in the fact that this accident occurred because you were trying to do the right thing and be a good owner. Your mice didn't die of negligence or improper care, but because you over extended yourself trying to provide for them.