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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To buy more mice??

64 replies

Snappymcsnappy · 27/11/2018 19:06

Hated them.
I have never experienced such stink ever before, they peed in their food and water, all over their cage and one ate the face of its deceased companion. Vom.
Fortunately when DD was at school..

Was so pleased when they passed over.

My DD saw my DH taking the cage to charity shop tonight, he told her not to worry, he was just taking them to the vets.
She knows they probably aren’t coming back.

It’s been an hour and a half and she is still hysterical screaming and crying, keeps saying ‘mice’ sadly.
My heart breaks for her.

I feel like should buy more of the smelly cannibalistic little bastards but DH will go absolutely batshit...

OP posts:

Moretinsel · 27/11/2018 19:52

Two year old, sad but understanding that the hamster had gone to heaven. Be honest, much better.

CheshireChat · 27/11/2018 19:54

Rats seem lovely, I'd really like one, but sadly so would my cat!

Careful if you look at rabbits, they're high maintenance apparently. Quite a few at shelters because of it.

But I agree, you should've told her, though not about the cannibalism bit!

Yulebealrite · 27/11/2018 19:56

If you don't tell her the truth then you risk her not trusting you about other more important things in the future. You can tell the truth kindly.

Flewog · 27/11/2018 19:59

Rats seem lovely, I'd really like one, but sadly so would my cat!

Careful if you look at rabbits, they're high maintenance apparently. Quite a few at shelters because of it.
I appreciate that you're not actually getting one, but just to point out (for your later reference or anyone else's):

You should never get just one rat - always at least 2;
Rats are, in my experience, more high-maintenance than rabbits.

Amazing pets if you have the time and space though.

WiddlinDiddlin · 27/11/2018 20:00

Always tell kids the truth about pet death, lying to them sets up a world of other problems and frankly, is horrid. Kids deal with death far better than many people expect.

Cheshirecat - get rats (but not one, get several). Most cats won't go near 'em and most rats will tell them to fuck off through the cage bars and even try grabbing fur or dragging cat tails into the cage, I find this puts cats RIGHT off the idea very quickly.

Rats make fab pets and do not smell anywhere NEAR as strongly as mice - I have kept both.

MeredithGrey1 · 27/11/2018 20:01

Guinea pigs you’d need a new cage for I assume. Small hamsters would probably work well in the cage you have (Russian dwarves are particularly lovely in my opinion, roborovskis are notoriously hard to tame and very small and very quick for a young child to handle), plus they don’t smell and you can just have one.

I do think you should say something to her about the mice though, especially if you are planning on buying another small pet, as lots don’t have a massive life span

Frlrlrubert · 27/11/2018 20:23

Rats are the best. I can't have them anymore because I became allergic but I'd recommend them if you've got time (they really need a few hours out each day) and space (much bigger cage than you'd think).

They will eat their dead friends under certain circumstances, it's a 'don't want that to attract predators' survival thing, but in the thousands of rats I worked with cannibalism was a fairly rare occurrence. Of my pet ones, most went to the vets before they died, only two went on their own, nobody ate them.

But yeah, I think kids need to be told when things die, we told DD (2.2) that the cat died when she asked, she was fine, so I don't think she really got it, but I don't think disappearing pets are a good thing at any age.

Nunya · 27/11/2018 20:42

Your DD at four years old is certainly old enough to be told the truth about her pets though, OP. Especially if you're going to have small pets with short life spans, you can't lie about taking them to the vet and never coming back with them. That's not good. And no, in this case, I would not be buying more mice to take their place

QueenOfCatan · 27/11/2018 20:55

Of course you tell her that they died ffs. My 2yo knows that one of our rats died a few weeks ago. Facts of life, better that they learn it young than later on!

Stormwhale · 27/11/2018 21:06

We recently had to tell dd that our dog had died. She is 5. It was hard, and we all cried, but I'm glad she knows the truth. She understands that I can't get her back, that I haven't chosen to send her away anywhere, and that I'm feeling sad like she is. I think if I had told her a lie, she wouldn't have been able to process the feelings associated with the loss. Instead we talked about our dog dying, and how that made us feel and she is moving on well. She still gets sad here and there, but is mostly ok. She needed the truth.

CheshireChat · 27/11/2018 21:13

Flewog Good to know, double the cuteness.

LoudJazzHands · 27/11/2018 21:19

Carry on and I’ll be reporting you.

We're ratsitting at the moment. They're lovely.

QueenOfCatan · 28/11/2018 06:05

Re rats, I'd always recommend three rather than two. We were in a dicey situation with our first pair when a freak accident led to risky emergency care for one of our first babies when he was about 3/4 months old (eye removal after we think his brother accidentally poked it) we had a couple of days frantically messaging breeders within a few hours radius trying to find somebody with babies to keep our second rat company in case first died! We didn't need it in the end thankfully, he survived and lived to nearly 3 years unlike his brother who needed the same op at 18months and sadly passed during it (by this point we had about 10 rats so didn't have an issue there).
Other issue with rats is that they can have impressive vets bills for such little things. The above rat had chronic respiratory illness throughout his life, antibiotics every 3 months, along with two or three emergency vet trips. Most rats are fine though, we've had a few who have never seen a vet or didn't until their last few months and that was to keep them comfortable before we decided to PTS, tumours are a common rat issue though haven't dealt with too many of those thankfully. We had 3 special needs rats over the years who saw the vet regularly again but we took those on knowing that they had issues and likely wouldn't live long (18months, 12 months and 2 respectively!)

CaveDivingbelle · 28/11/2018 06:21

OP I think you need to be honest that they died..I know 4 is young...and you didn't want to upset her.

I'd not get more mice,you need to like the pets you have,it's likey you'll be doing the looking after of them rather than her. Maybe rats as PP suggested. Or have you seen Degus? Giant gerbils...

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