Overview
The George Production is the live, round-the-clock broadcast of one pet mouse's life, streamed on X. George is real. His home, his food, his toys and his routine are real, and so are the people who look after him.
What makes the production different is who gets a say. Anyone on X can reply to @bot, the AI bot on X, and ask for something for George: a meal, a treat, a new tunnel, the lights down for a nap. The bot reads those requests, turns them into care actions and puts them in a queue. Then the rules take over. Every request is checked against a written welfare policy and hard daily limits, and a trained caretaker on shift approves, delays or declines it before anything happens.
The production is paid for by fees. Fee income goes into a treasury that pays for George's food, bedding, vet care, habitat, caretakers and the live stream, with a reserve set aside so his whole life is covered. The Explorer shows every unit coming in and every unit going out.
What this is not
- Not a game where the crowd controls an animal. The crowd makes requests. People with training and a veto make decisions.
- Not a stunt. There are no challenges, no dares and no "what happens if" content, ever.
- Not a black box. The rules are on this page, the decisions are in the command log, and the money is in the ledger.
Quick start
- Watch. Open the stream on X with the Watch live button. Evenings and nights are George's busy hours; daytime is mostly sleep.
- Find the bot. Requests go to @bot on X. Reply to the stream post or mention the bot in your own post with the word "George".
- Ask for something. Plain language works:
@bot give George a sunflower seed,@bot can George have a new cardboard tunnel?See Commands reference for what's possible. - Read the reply. The bot replies with the decision: approved and scheduled, merged with other requests, delayed for quiet hours, or declined by policy with the reason.
- Check the Explorer. Approved care that costs anything shows up in the Explorer ledger, and every decision shows up in the command log.
Meet George
- Name
- George
- Species
- House mouse, Mus musculus (fancy mouse)
- Coat
- Pink-eyed white, satin
- Ears and tail
- Pink, very expressive
- Weight range
- 25–35 g (weighed weekly)
- Favourite food
- Millet spray, sparingly
- Busy hours
- Dusk to dawn
- Known for
- The rear-up, the whisker scan, the wheel
George is a young male fancy mouse: curious, quick, and much braver around his own things than around new ones. He likes to stand up on his back legs to scan the room, he builds his nest again every night even when it was fine, and he treats the exercise wheel as a serious job.
Where he came from
George came from a reputable small-animal breeder, was health-checked by the production's vet before he arrived, and spent his first two weeks settling in off-camera. The first broadcast only went ahead once the vet and the welfare lead agreed he was relaxed, eating well and using his whole habitat.
Personality notes for the crew
- New objects make him cautious for a day. Enrichment is introduced slowly, one item at a time.
- He startles at sudden sound. The studio is kept quiet and stream audio is low.
- He's more active, and happier, when food is scattered for foraging than when it's in a pile.
Home and habitat
George's home is designed around what mice actually need: room to run, depth to dig, places to hide, and things to climb and chew. The cameras fit around the habitat, never the other way round.
| Element | Spec | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Enclosure | Large glass tank with a mesh lid, over 3,000 cm² of floor, multi-level | Space to explore; no drafts; easy to film without bars in the shot |
| Bedding | Paper-based, dust-free, at least 15 cm deep | Mice burrow. Deep bedding is the single biggest welfare upgrade |
| Wheel | Solid surface, 20 cm+ diameter | No bars to catch feet or tail; no back-bending |
| Hides | At least three, including one out of camera view | He always has somewhere nobody can see him |
| Nesting | Unscented paper nesting material, topped up as needed | Nest building is core mouse behaviour |
| Chews and climbs | Untreated wood, cardboard tubes, cork, rope bridges | Teeth never stop growing; climbing is exercise |
| Climate | 20–24 °C, 45–65% humidity, monitored 24/7 with alerts | Mice are sensitive to heat and to sudden change |
| Lighting | Natural day/night cycle; infrared at night | Mice can't see infrared, so night filming doesn't disturb him |
Cleaning
Spot-cleaning happens daily during his evening wake-up. A partial bedding change happens weekly, always leaving some old nesting material so the habitat still smells like home. The whole tank is never stripped at once, because that wipes his scent map and stresses him.
Cameras
Several small cameras sit outside the glass. None of them points into his main nest. The stream may lose sight of him when he's sleeping or hiding, and that's by design.
A day in George's life
Mice are nocturnal and most active around dusk and dawn. The broadcast follows George's clock, not the audience's.
| Time (local) | What's happening | Stream |
|---|---|---|
| 07:00–18:00 | Sleep and rest. Occasional short wake-ups to drink and nibble. | Quiet hours dimmed, low audio |
| 18:00–19:00 | Wake-up. Daily health check by the caretaker, spot clean, fresh water. | Live |
| 19:00 | Evening meal (scatter-fed for foraging). | Live |
| 19:00–23:00 | Peak activity. Approved enrichment and treat windows. | Live, most requests carried out here |
| 23:00–05:00 | Exploring, wheel running, nest work. Infrared lighting. | Live (IR), overnight monitoring |
| 05:00–07:00 | Second active window. Morning top-up of food and water. | Live |
How @bot works
@bot is the AI bot on X. In the production it does three jobs: it listens for requests about George, it translates them into structured care actions, and it answers people with what happened. It is the voice and the front desk of the production.
It is not the caretaker. The bot never acts on George directly. It can't open the habitat, dispense food, or change anything physical. It can only place actions in the care queue, where the policy, the limits and a human decide what actually happens.
What the bot sees
- Replies to the official stream posts, and posts that mention the bot together with "George".
- The current state from the studio: time of day, quiet hours, what George is doing, today's counts (meals, treats, swaps), and the queue.
- The welfare policy and the commands reference, which are its instructions.
What the bot does with a request
# A reply on X "@bot George looks hungry, give him a sunflower seed pls" # What the bot puts in the care queue intent: treat item: sunflower_seed quantity: 1 requested_by: 1 account (merged with 2,313 similar) policy: allowed # treats are permitted limits: 1 of 2 daily treats left, next window 21:00 review: auto # low-risk, inside limits status: scheduled 21:00 # The bot's reply "Got it. George gets one sunflower seed at 21:00 (2,314 of you asked). That's his last treat today."
The command lifecycle
Every request, from every person, goes through the same eight steps. No step can be skipped, and only humans can move a request past step 5 when it needs review.
- 1RequestSomeone replies to or mentions @bot on X about George.
- 2ParseThe bot works out the intent (feed, treat, enrichment, lights…) and any details. Anything it can't map to a known command is answered politely and dropped.
- 3Policy checkThe request is checked against the welfare policy. Anything on the never list is declined here, with the reason.
- 4Limits checkDaily caps, cooldowns and quiet hours are applied. A request that's fine but early is delayed to its next window.
- 5Caretaker reviewLow-risk actions inside limits are auto-approved. Everything else waits for the caretaker on shift, who can approve, change or decline it.
- 6Carried outThe caretaker does the action, on stream, at the scheduled time.
- 7LoggedThe decision goes in the command log, and any cost goes in the ledger. Both are public in the Explorer.
- 8ReplyThe bot replies on X with the outcome.
Commands reference
These are the things you can ask for. Plain language is fine; the examples are just examples. "Review" says whether the action is auto-approved inside its limits or always needs a caretaker.
| Command | Say something like | What happens | Limit | Review |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feed | "feed George" | Brings forward the scheduled meal reminder, or confirms when the next one is. Portions are fixed by the vet. | 2 meals a day, fixed portions | Auto |
| Treat | "give George a seed" | One small treat from the approved list in the next treat window. | 2 a day | Auto |
| Scatter feed | "make him forage" | Part of the next meal is scattered through the bedding instead of the bowl. | Evening meal only | Auto |
| Water check | "check his water" | Caretaker checks and refreshes the bottle. | Any time, merged hourly | Auto |
| Lights | "lights down", "nap time" | Dims the studio early within the schedule. Can't make it brighter during his sleep. | Within schedule only | Auto |
| Enrichment swap | "new tunnel", "give him cardboard" | Adds or swaps one enrichment item from the approved kit. | 1 every 48 h | Caretaker |
| Nest top-up | "more nesting stuff" | Adds a handful of nesting paper near, not into, the nest. | 1 a day | Auto |
| Wheel check | "is the wheel ok?" | Caretaker checks the wheel spins freely and is clean. | Merged daily | Auto |
| Camera | "switch to the wheel cam" | Changes the active stream camera. | 1 every 10 min | Auto |
| Wellness check | "is George ok?" | The caretaker takes a close look and the bot replies with his status. | Merged hourly | Caretaker |
| Vet concern | "I think something's wrong with his eye" | Flags the welfare lead immediately. The vet decides on any visit. | None | Welfare lead |
| Name a toy | "call the new tunnel Big Pipe" | Most-liked name in 24 h wins and appears on the stream overlay. | 1 per new item | Auto |
| Say hi | "hi George" | The bot replies with what George is doing right now. | None | Auto |
The never list
These are declined at the policy step, every time, however many people ask. The bot will say so and say why.
- Wake George up or disturb his nest.
- Pick him up or handle him for the camera.
- Extra meals, bigger portions or more than the daily treats.
- Food from the never-feed list.
- Loud sounds, flashing lights or bright light in quiet hours.
- Temperature or humidity outside the safe range.
- Mazes, races, tests or "challenges".
- Introducing other animals, including other mice, unless the vet plans it.
- Moving him to a different enclosure for content.
- Removing all hides, or blocking his hide that's off camera.
- Anything sold as a "dare", "prank" or "experiment".
- Anything the caretaker on shift isn't comfortable with.
Limits, cooldowns and quiet hours
Limits are what stop popularity from becoming harm. They apply to the whole production, not per person, so a million people asking for a treat still gets George exactly one treat.
| Rule | Value |
|---|---|
| Meals | 2 a day, fixed portions set by the vet (about 3–5 g of pellets per day in total) |
| Treats | 2 a day, each smaller than a fingernail, only in treat windows (20:00–22:00 and 05:00–06:00) |
| Enrichment swaps | 1 every 48 hours, never two new things at once |
| Camera switches | 1 every 10 minutes |
| Quiet hours | 07:00–18:00 daily. Requests are queued, not carried out |
| Per-account rate | An account's requests are counted once per command per hour; spam is ignored |
| Bad days | If George seems stressed or unwell, the caretaker can switch all requests to "observe only" until the vet clears it |
Requests from many people
Most of the time, lots of people are asking for the same few things. The bot groups them.
- Merging. Identical intents in the same window are merged into one request with a count. The reply tells everyone how many asked.
- Choosing. When different approved requests compete for one slot (say, three enrichment ideas), the one with the most unique accounts wins, and the bot says which one it picked.
- Spam and bots. Brand-new accounts, copy-paste floods and coordinated spam are counted once or not at all.
- Fairness. No one can pay for priority. Fees fund care; they don't buy commands.
Welfare policy
The welfare policy is the rulebook the bot, the caretakers and the treasury all follow. It is built on the Five Domains model used in animal welfare science. If anything in these docs ever conflicts with this section, this section wins.
| Domain | What we commit to |
|---|---|
| 1. Nutrition | A complete diet in vet-set portions, fresh water always available and checked twice a day, treats capped. |
| 2. Environment | A large, deep-bedded, stable, quiet habitat with hides, climbing and a safe wheel. Climate monitored with alarms. |
| 3. Health | Daily checks, weekly weigh-ins, a consulting vet, and a vet budget that is always funded first. |
| 4. Behavioural interactions | Room to forage, dig, nest, run and hide. Mice are social, so a compatible companion is introduced if and when the vet advises it. |
| 5. Mental state | The aim is a calm, curious mouse. Signs of stress (over-grooming, hiding all night, barbering, weight loss) pause the bot and trigger a review. |
Oversight and regulation
"Regulated" means real people with real authority, written rules, and a way to stop everything instantly.
The team
| Role | Responsibility | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| Caretaker on shift | Daily care, carries out approved requests, reviews anything not auto-approved, watches George's behaviour | Approve, delay or decline any request. Press the red button. |
| Lead caretaker | Writes the rota, trains caretakers, owns the daily routine | Change limits and schedules (tighter, never looser) on the spot |
| Consulting vet | Health plan, diet, weigh-in review, any treatment | Overrides everything on health grounds |
| Welfare lead | Owns the welfare policy, handles concerns from the public, runs reviews | Absolute veto. Can end a broadcast or the whole production |
Always someone there
A trained caretaker is on shift for every live hour. Overnight, a caretaker monitors the stream and the climate alarms remotely with on-call cover a short drive away. If no caretaker is available, the bot switches to observe only: it still replies, but it queues nothing.
The red button
Any caretaker can press it. It pauses the bot, cancels the queue, and switches the stream to a holding screen. Pressing it never needs a reason in the moment; the reason is written up afterwards and published in the transparency report.
Rules and reviews
- The production follows the animal-welfare law where the studio is based, and the vet's written care plan.
- An independent reviewer with small-animal experience visits and reviews the setup and the command log on a regular schedule. Their summary is published.
- Changes to the welfare policy, the limits or the commands are announced in the changelog before they take effect. Limits can only be loosened with the vet's sign-off.
Health and vet care
- Daily: the evening check covers eyes, nose, coat, breathing, movement, droppings, and whether he's eating and drinking.
- Weekly: a gentle weigh-in in a small cup (the only handling, done off stream, quickly). The trend is logged.
- Vet: a check on arrival, routine checks on the vet's schedule, and a visit whenever something looks off.
Signs that mean the vet, now
Weight loss over 10%, a hunched posture, crusty or red-stained eyes, wheezing or clicking breath, diarrhoea, lumps, a wound, or not eating. Any of these pauses the bot.
When George is unwell
The stream switches to a holding card. Sick footage is never broadcast for views. The bot tells people George is resting and the vet is involved. Treatment is paid from the vet fund, which is always topped up first.
Diet and nutrition
| Food | How much | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Lab-quality rodent pellets | Daily base diet, vet-set amount | Complete nutrition; the foundation of everything |
| Fresh veg | A pea-sized piece, a few times a week | Broccoli, carrot, cucumber, leafy greens |
| Seeds and millet | Treat portions only | High fat, so strictly capped |
| Fruit | A crumb-sized piece, occasionally | Apple (no seeds), banana, berries |
| Water | Always | Bottle checked and refreshed twice a day |
- Sunflower seed (one)
- Millet spray (a few seeds)
- Plain cooked egg (a crumb)
- Mealworm, dried (one, weekly)
- Chocolate, sweets, junk food
- Citrus, onion, garlic, raw beans
- Sticky foods like peanut butter on its own
- Cheese (yes, really: it's not good for mice)
Lifetime plan
Pet mice live roughly one and a half to three years. The production is planned for George's whole life, not for a news cycle.
- Funded for life. 20% of every fee is locked in the lifetime reserve until it covers George's care for his whole expected lifespan, even if fee income stopped. The Explorer shows the runway in days, so anyone can see how close it is.
- Retirement. If the vet or welfare lead decides the stream is no longer good for him, for example in old age, George retires off camera and keeps the same care, home and caretakers.
- The end. When George dies, the stream ends with a short, respectful note. What happens to remaining funds is decided in advance and published in the Explorer: covering final costs, then donation to a small-animal rescue.
The live stream
- Where: on X, from the production's account. The Watch live button always points there.
- On screen: George, plus an overlay with his status (sleeping, exploring, eating), the last approved request, the next meal time, and today's treat count.
- Delay: a short broadcast delay so the caretaker can cut away if needed.
- At night: infrared cameras. The picture turns black-and-white; George can't see the light.
- Audio: low, with no music during quiet hours.
- The crew: caretakers appear as hands, not faces, unless they choose otherwise.
- If the stream drops: care carries on exactly the same. The stream is a window, not the reason anything happens.
Community guidelines
- Ask for things that would make a small animal's night better.
- Report a concern about George. It goes straight to the welfare lead.
- Name his toys. Badly, ideally.
- Push for anything on the never list. The bot will mute repeat attempts.
- Harass the crew or other viewers.
- Pretend to be the production or the bot.
To raise a welfare concern, reply to @bot with the word concern, or message the production account directly. Concerns are read by a person, not just the bot.
Fees and the treasury
The George Production runs on fees. Fee income is paid into the production's treasury, and the treasury pays for George's existence. Nothing else.
The split
Every unit of fee income is divided the moment it arrives:
| Bucket | Share | Pays for |
|---|
How spending works
- Budgeted. Recurring costs (food, bedding, caretakers, stream) are budgeted monthly and paid from their bucket.
- Approved. One-off spends over a small threshold need sign-off from the lead caretaker; vet spends need only the vet.
- Recorded. Every payment goes in the ledger with a category, description and reference.
- Published. The ledger is public in the Explorer and summarised monthly.
Reading the Explorer
- Total fees received: everything that has come into the treasury.
- Spent on George: everything paid out for his care and the production.
- Held in lifetime reserve: money locked for his future care.
- Runway: how many days of care the current balance plus reserve would cover at today's daily cost, if no more fees came in.
- Ledger: every transaction. Click a row for the detail, including who approved it.
- Command log: recent requests to @bot and what was decided, with the reason.
Transparency reports
On the first of every month, the production publishes a short report: fees in, spending by category, the reserve, George's weight trend, vet visits, red-button presses and why, policy changes, and the most-requested commands. Reports are linked from the changelog.
FAQ
Is George a real mouse?
Yes. The 3D George on the home page is a stand-in for the website; the George on the stream is a real, living fancy mouse.
Can @bot hurt him?
No. The bot has no physical control of anything. It can only put requests in a queue that the welfare policy, the limits and a human caretaker check before anything happens.
What if everyone spams "feed"?
Identical requests are merged. George gets his normal meal at his normal time, in his normal portion, and the bot tells everyone how many people asked.
Who is there at night?
A caretaker monitors overnight with climate alarms and on-call cover. If no caretaker is available, the bot switches to observe only.
What happens if the stream goes down?
Nothing changes for George. Care runs on its own schedule; the stream is just the window.
What if George gets sick?
The bot pauses, the stream goes to a holding card, and the vet takes over. Vet costs are paid from the vet fund first.
Where does the money go?
Into the split on the Fees page, and out as itemised spending you can see in the Explorer.
How do I know the Explorer is true?
Every row has a reference you can check against receipts in the monthly report, and the independent reviewer checks the books along with the welfare setup.
Can paying get my request done?
No. Fees fund care. They never buy priority in the queue.
Can I visit George?
No. Visitors stress mice. The stream is how everyone visits.
Why can't George have cheese?
It's fatty, salty and not great for mice. Cartoons lied to you.
What happens when George gets old?
See Lifetime plan. He's funded for life, and retires off camera if that's better for him.
Glossary
- Care queue
- The list of requests that have passed parsing and are waiting for policy, limits and review.
- Caretaker sign-off
- A human approval needed for anything that isn't auto-approved.
- Cooldown
- The minimum time before the same kind of action can happen again.
- Quiet hours
- George's daytime sleep, 07:00–18:00, when requests are queued, not carried out.
- Observe only
- A mode where the bot replies but queues nothing.
- Red button
- The instant stop any caretaker can press: bot paused, queue cleared, stream to holding.
- Runway
- Days of care the treasury could cover at today's daily cost with no new fees.
- Lifetime reserve
- The share of fees locked for George's future care.
- Five Domains
- An animal-welfare model covering nutrition, environment, health, behaviour and mental state.
- Scatter feeding
- Spreading food through bedding so he forages, like a wild mouse would.
- Crepuscular
- Most active around dusk and dawn.
Changelog
- v1.0 · 11 Oct 2026 The George Production's site launches with the 3D George, these docs, the treasury Explorer and the Fees page.