Ok I am soft on mice but this is kind of sad.

[oesdog]

Ok I am soft on mice but this is kind of sad. You all know by now how soft an idiot I am for critters! - Excluding wild RATs, Nasty Ferrets and all species of Spider!!!!

My feeder storage tubs are quite deep and consequently when they start to run very low my theiving little varments get caught as they can get in but they cannot get out!!!!!
I have two young mice I know of that do this all the time since they were born - their mum has not been about in a long time so I think the cat must have got her.
Anyhow I have been lifting these two out of the feed store tubs for a longtime and since they are used to that they now start to come jump om my hand to get lifted up.

I took all the hay out of the store and the plastic that their mum made her nest in after the grew. I wanted to discourage nesting in the food store, but I didn;t mind turning a blind eye to the two little ones. Well yesterday I caught one again and thought to myself gosh you got so fat its a wonder you got in the food store at all!!!!! I lifted her out and that was fine. I check every few hours because its so cold here I know they would die if they were left and could not get out. So I checked late last night and there was no one in it at all!

This morning I checked again and -
There was a pile of blue tiny baby mice without any cover and no mummy mouse at all. - I thought cause there was NO bedding there they wouldn;t do the nest thing. I thought the babies were dead as they were stone cold. I lifted them up and looked at them and they were dead. So I put them in my pocket to throw when I finished doing the hens. But when I lifted them out they were pink! All 5 were pink as I held them in my bare hands ( Yeah I know my mistake!!! But I thought they were dead!) Two of them went really red and started to cry OMG!!!!!!! - I rubbed at the other three and one seemed to be going a darker red but the other two are still pink no sign of life but Not blue like before either??? Anyhow I got hay from the garage and put it back in the feeder store in the exact place they were found and then I warmed one of those heat pads and put it under the whole lot I put all 5 little ones into the hay so they are covered and have heat from the pad comming through. I am hoping that their mum will hear them and come looking as the mice are always about!!! - Also because they are used to my smell having been lifted up - maybe just maybe she wont reject the babies?????

Anyhow they will die if she doesn't come back. - She can get in and with the extra hight of the hay she can easily take each baby out with her and take them to her own nest. I hope she would have one someplace cause there is NO nesting materials at all in the feed storage place. I deliberately took all of that away once those babies left their nest. I told them strictly NO nesting once the snow had gone!!!!!! I think whats happened is this mommy got into the storage bin cause she was hungry and then started to have the babies - she was trapped and couldn;t get out. But once she had them somehow she managed to get out - maybe she even took one baby with her who knows? - I just happened on the other 5. Maybe she will come looking and hear them crying ?????? If she doesn;t that will be it for them I guess. I think I have given them the best shot I can.

I cannot look after baby mice - simply I don;t have the time or the skill base. Especially with a disabled 23 yr old and a tiny baby human here! I also go away soon and I just know the disability care worker WILL NOT FEED MICE! I guess nature/ our lord is so good about these things cause somehow there seem to be so many replacements - when us bumbling humans mess up!!!!!

I feel bad and I was tempted to put all the nesting stuff back but I can;t I have to keep the feed store free of as many mice as I can. Sure I don;t mind one or 2 especially when they climb on my hand to get rescued and are so tame - but this 5 if they grow will become more and more. - I can;t feed them all - but I hate to see the mom lose them - especially when I walked back into my kitchen to see my grandbaby all tucked up warm waiting to be fed!!! - She is just a mom trying to do her best just like the rest of us.

I really had no idea mice could get soooo cold and survive? - I wonder if Mommy mouse knows that and didn;t think they were dead like me???

Oesdog - sure hope she comes back???

 

[3goodeggs]

It could have been her first liter, and she abandoned them. plopped them out where she was when she went into labor. They may not have ever have had a chance.
Put them in a a warm place and let nature slip them away. do not feel badly. These things happen.

Oh, you are so like me. I too am soft on mice. We used to take the corn out of the steel can when we fed the sheep and leave some for the mice. ..and then more mice...and then MORE mice. Then one day every mouse disappeared. Mouse plague or snake. I don't know. It is funny though, my husband and I miss them. It was a highlight of our workday to play with the mice.
I guess we got our Beatrix Potter on.

 

[oesdog]

Thanks for that thought so many folk don;t like them or are afrade of them. I find them funny creatures with great personalities.
Trouble is as you say they breed like mad!!!!!!! I am pretty sure this was her first litter because she was only born maybe just before Christmas. As I pretty much cleared the feed store once those two left the nest I really don;t think its any other mouse then them. Must have been a boy and girl!!!! See I accidently lifted their Mommys nest when they were little and had to put the top back on. Their mom was fine and kept comming back but her nest was down the back of the feed bin while these babies were just dropped in the empty feed tub, it just had dreggs in - and deffinately no shelter or warmth and nothing to make a nest with just a big plastic tub really!!! It is the high sides they get stuck on - when the feed is high its no issue but as the feed goes down they can't get out. Anyhow I am pretty certain its her first litter and I only noticed how fat she had got last night. I am so daft it really didn;t twig on me she was pregnant cause she is still small herself. I think she must be only 6/8 weeks old herself.
Yeah I feel bad - but it was a bad choice to lay her babies there and if she had stayed like usual and got her morning lift out then I would have seen the babies with her and she would have kept them warm!!!!

- I dare not go back and look again. I will leave it until tonight when the Hens need fed again. The good thing is the Mommy is used to my smell and the disturbance of me going in and out the feed store on and off all day so that wont or should not scare her off. Anyhow food is a good encouragement for her to come back and stick around.
Anyhow I am not going to move them out from where they are as they are in the same place she left them only in hay on top of a heat pad. Its their best chance really that she comes back and finds them. If I move them then she wont. - here is hoping they cry and get her attention??? I sure cannot be a mouse mommy - I know how hard that is and all the work needed feeding and all the rubbing tummys to make them pee with Qtips - I can;t do that from Spain next week!!!!!!! Ain;t gonna happen!

If I was here on my own I would have given it a shot - but life goes on !!

Oesdog

 

[turney31]

Good for you, you ole softie! I have a sign that has hung on my pantry door well over 20 years.

May the mouse never leave our pantry with a teardrop in his eye.

 

[WIChookchick]

WHen I found some newborn mice I brought them home for my snake.
Other times I let the mice out (if old enough) and let nature take its course.

You are encouraging the mice to be un-afraid of people and you will get a small varmit problem.
You can try to put humane traps out or try storing mothballs in a pan or plate IN the grain bin to discourage the mice.

Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[pdsavage]

For every mouse you see there are prouble 10 - 15 more hidding.
It's ok to be a softy but not at the sake of your health.

There are six major problems caused by rats and mice:

They eat food and contaminate it with urine and excrement.

They gnaw into materials such as paper, books, wood or upholstery which they use as nest material. They also gnaw plastic, cinder
blocks, soft metals such as lead and aluminum, and wiring which may cause a fire hazard.

Rats occasionally bite people and may kill small animals.

They, or the parasites they carry, (such as fleas, mites and worms) spread many diseases.

Rats can damage ornamental plants by burrowing among the roots, or feeding on new growth or twigs. They also eat some garden vegetables, such as corn and squash.

 

[farmerlor]

I used to breed mice (physiology II genetics experiment) and they are SO sweet and cute it's hard not to get attached. I'm sure you did the best you could but you have to let Mother Nature take it from here.

 

[oesdog]

Quote:
you make me smile - If I were afraid of every little germ some critter may or may not bring into the house I would never have had any animals or kids here at all!! I don;t encourage wild Rats - for sure - but have been known to have a good few hooded listers about over the years ( That's a domesticated Rat!) We don;t have RABIES in the UK!!!!

My grandaughter and Disabled son also contaminate stuff with urine and excriment but I don;t think I will put them out with the trash!!!
As for distroying stuff we have two Dogs that make a good go of that !!!!!You mention Fleas , mites and worms - well chickens get those too and so do cats and kids!!!!!! Whats the difference?????? We don't have ornimental plant life we would value more than a living creature!!!!! Thankfully I am not a tree hugger!!!! Our chickens sure make quick work of taking any new growth off anything that grows unsecured in our yard!!!! I doubt if they would leave anything for any rodant to eat!!!
I laugh because I grew up in a little coal miners cottage in a small country village and yeap it was FULL of mice!!!! They didn't kill us and they gave us loads of joy and pleasure through the years. - We do do an occational cull here especially round the coops, which is as you say important as the numbers can get out of hand if you don't - but having the view that anything small and fluffy will put you at risk is sad - I want my grand kids to grow up with a healthy love and respect for nature not be afraid of it !

oesdog

 

[BayouPoules]

oesdog,..

,. I'm so glad there are people like you in this world.

 

[oesdog]

Quote:
thanks - i need to discourage them from the feed store! It is good that you were able to use the baby mice you found for a food source for your snake. Not much else you can do with them if they are abandoned so young. Though personally I would probably make sure they were dead first. I don't hold much hope that the mom will come back for these. I like mice and certainly don't mind them being un-afraid of me. - I always had mice in every house I ever lived in!

oesdog