My pet mice are very squeaky! Should they be separated?

Question
Hi there!

I bought a female mouse (Cheez) about two weeks ago, and she was very scared, so I bought another female mouse (Whiz) about four days later.
Unfortunately, I had not read anything about "introduction periods" so I just plopped Whiz in Cheez's house and watched them. They had a little bit of a rough start. There was squeaking and tussling, but no blood and nothing too serious. In a few hours, they were sharing a bed and everything seemed yippee skippee with them.

Now, last night, I was woken up practically every hour by squeaking. I sprung out of bed and shouted at them to knock it off, and they seemed fine for about another hour until it happened again.

I shouted at them because I was afraid they were fighting. I couldn't actually see what they were doing because it was very dark, but it didn't sound good.

When I checked on Cheez and Whiz this morning, they were cuddled together like best friends.

But here's a weird thing about Whiz: Whiz likes to take the food pellets from the bowl and put them in the tube. Could htye have been fighting over the food? I try to always find the food and put it back in the bowls...

I really don't know what to think about the squeaking. I am a total "mouse-noobie." I'm so worried about them. Should they be separated? Please ease my nerves!

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!  

Answer
Dear Ali,

Your two  mice are trying to decide who is dominant.  Maybe they had a decision at first and then one changed her mind.  Sometimes dominance issues come up over and over.  I have a little girl who checks in about once a week by chasing each other mouse until they squeak.

Chasing and squeaking is just a mousie thing to do.  Mostly the squeaking is communication, and it certainly isn't pain if nobody is getting hurt.  My rule of thumb is if there is blood I separate them.  Otherwise all I do is intervene from time to time by taking out one of the mice so the less dominant one gets a rest.  I yell at them or tap the cage when they do it when I am trying to sleep.  That stops them pretty well.

Have tons of fun with your little friends!  Take some time to browse through my old answers to read more about mice dominance issues, keeping mice together, cage setup, handling, and health issues.  

There are two national mouse and rat clubs in the U.S. They are more geared to rats but there is a lot of information about mice:

This one even has some cute mouse fiction on it, as well as care and handling of mice:

The Rat and Mouse Club of America:
http://www.rmca.org/

This one is for fancy (show) mice and rats  but the care and handling issues are the same.  It also has lots of fun mouse and rat merchandise:

The American Fancy Rat and Mouse Association:
http://www.afrma.org/

Enjoy!

squeaks n giggles,

Natasha