Mouse help...Kadee

February 25, 2007

Hi! We caught a mouse sometime last night. We've identified it as a

house mouse, which apperently doesn't do well when competing for food

with other types of mice (like wood mice). So I don't think our drop

at a hay barn is going to work. Plus it's snowing here. We want to get

a cage until we decide what to do with it. Questions...what should we

do when we catch another one, which I'm sure we will. Can they be put

together? How do we stop them from breeding? Dumb question, I'm sure.

What about food? I guess we'll ask the employees at the pet store, too.

February 26, 2007

You can most likely find a 10 gal. fish tank on Freecycle, and then you can just

buy a mesh lid at Petco or Petsmart, or pretty much any pet store. They're only

about $10. You can just tear up paper towels or toilet paper as bedding, or if

you want to buy something I would recommend aspen. Cedar and pine are very bad

for them. He/she would probably appreciate a wheel, and they also like to have

things like toilet paper tubes, small boxes, or bottles to hide in.

If you end up catching another one, compare the two. If you can, put them each

in separate clear containers and look at their private parts. If they don't look

exactly the same as far as the distance between the two holes, don't put them

together unless you want lots of pet mice! Babies born in captivity won't last

long in the wild.

If the mouse you have has visible testicles (little boogers sometimes draw them

up and you can't see them), don't put another mouse in with it, even if it's

another male. Even domestic mice will often kill each other, and wild mice have

this instinct much stronger. Male mice are pretty mean when they decide they

don't like each other!

Depending on how long the mice will be with you, you might be able to keep a

male with a female. If you'll have them less than about two and a half weeks,

you can put a male and female together and then release them, and the female

will have enough time to find a good nesting spot and have her babies. If you'll

have them longer than that, it'd definitely be best to keep boys and girls

separately or the female might eat her babies since she doesn't know you're not

a threat to her, or the babies won't know how to survive in the wild and you'll

have a whole litter of pets.

Another thing you could do is Google AFRMA or RMCA and see if you can find a

breeder listing. If there's a mouse breeder near you they might actually want

males if you catch them. Wild mice have much longer lifespans than domestic

mice, so some breeders like to outcross with wild mice.

As for food, it can probably just eat whatever you eat. Nothing really spicy,

and no onions or dry beans. Other than that, human food is what the little guy

came to your house for in the first place, wasn't it? You can also mix up

some finch food, rolled oats, and dry brown rice. That's really cheap and good

for them. I also add flax seeds. You can add in pasta, grains, just whatever. I

never feed the stuff they sell at the pet store, it ends up being really

expensive and it's mostly artificially supplemented corn, which isn't bad in

itself but too much can cause health problems. Real food is better for them, and

it ends up being cheaper. Plus whenever the mice are gone you can just feed the

rest of the bird seed to the birds. If you do end up getting food for them at

the pet store, read the ingredients list for ethoxyquin and if it has that in

it, don't get it!! It's a rubber preservative and it's really cheap and it's

used in most brands of rodent and even dog food. It

causes cancer and it's really bad!! Bird seed with rolled oats and brown rice

is really good and much more useful once the mice are gone.

Big rant... sorry! I'm a little bit wild about mice... speaking of mice, I just

found out why the water bottles are dripping so much. My girl Glenda is climbing

on it, sticking her foot into the spout! Silly mouse. They're such fun though.

Lisa Veg*n <vegetariankids wrote: