mice fighting or killing?

[Leapers]

Hi

i found one of my mice dead today in their little nest box i had two males living together from the same litter although one was the runt, he hadnt grown much since i had him about 3 months but the other has lots! I found him when cleaning them out and he had no head it had obviously been eaten by my other mouse but i dont know whether he died naturally being the runt and all he might have had other problems or whehter he just got smothered while sleeping or i dont know if he got killed by the other they always seemed to get on fine togehter i had never seen them be even the slightest bit aggressive to each other so why did he eat him??
its really upsetting me as it wasnt nice to find him like that as he was always the more friendly one to me he would love to come sit with me and crawl up my arms.
any ideas what might have gone on as i have never had mice before and so far being my first two hasnt been so successful?

also is it pretty obvious that i couldnt get another one as they would just fight wouldnt they??

thankyou!

[wolf63]

I am more a 'carnivore' sort of girl and know nothing about rodents. I have to say, though, that I think that finding the little body would have freaked me out a bit. I am not too sure that I could still look at the remaining mouse in the same way after such an incident.

I hope you get some helpful answers to your question.

[Leapers]

Thanks i am finding it hard to look at my other mouse without the thought that he did kill my other especially as he is not the slightest bit interested in spending any time with me he hates being handled at all! and yeah it was a little freaky at the time but he was such a lovely mouse i couldnt help but want to give him a last hug good bye before i burried him!

[mrs.chappie]

Sorry I can't give you any helpful advice, Leapers ... just wanted to say how sorry I am to read about the poor wee mouse.

Must have been absolutely awful for you to find him like that. :o(

[B00]

Yep, if one is considerably weaker than the other, th other will kill it and eat it. I've nearly always had rodents and soon learnt that having just one of them at a time is the wisest move, as you've recently discovered, it's pretty gruesome finding a headless body in a cage!

[wolf63]

They look really cute and innocent - but then so do my cats and they are built for killing.

Why eat the head though? Surely the body would have more meat.

[Leapers]

Thanks everyone, guess he will just have to be quite lonely now apart from my company which he doesn't really like anyway!
And i think the head is supposed to be the best part of the body to eat which is why cats bring home mouse and fish heads to their owners as they are supposedly saving you the best bit as a present to their leader sort of thing, thats what i have heard anyway.

[BIGDOGY]

Mice & Rats are very sociable animals together in their respective species & rarely fight to the death, but if one dies the rest will eat it!