Orphaned baby mice! help!!

[Bunnylady]

by the way, since there near weaning age how long do you think I'll have to wait to release them?

Maybe a week? I know the pet shops would buy 3-week-olds.

One thing we did when they were at that in- between age, was soak whole wheat bread in milk and give it to them. Can't leave it in the cage for too long, of course, but we thought it was a good transition from nursing to solid food.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Many years ago, I was in my early 20's, 1st house, etc....I found baby mice in my lawn mower bag I had forgotten to empty the last time I mowed. I dumped out the dry grass and 3 bald, pink, baby mice fell out. I set them up in a warm bird brooder with nesting material, bought milk replacement for baby animals to feed them, and tried to raise them, but they died anyway. I raised a baby Finch right out of the egg, about the size of my thumbnail, so I knew how to gently feed a tiny baby, but for whatever reason, it didn't work with the mice. Don't beat yourself up if they don't make it, it is not easy. The best thing to do would be to find a surrogate, which is no easy task, I contacted several pet shops that had mice, but no one had a mama nursing babies at the time. I contacted wildlife rehabilitators, but they didn't want to take in mice. Yours do have fur, so they are a bit older, but a pet shop wouldn't take them in anyway because they are wild, as there is always a risk of illnesses or diseases that are transferred to babies while still in the womb. Also, there's obviously the legal aspect of wild critters, you have to find a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, and they usually do not deal with mice, although you may find one that deals with baby squirrels or bats, that may have a kind heart to try with the mice, you never know. You are kind to care, many people view mice as vermin, as they do bring illness to domesticated animals. I live in the country now, and there are mice everywhere, they get into my pigeon lofts, running below the grated flooring, and the neighbor's cat stakes my loft out waiting for mice to venture outside, and I get an occasional snake visit. I know you will feel badly if the babies don't make it, but all you can do is try, you are kind to care enough to do that.

A little story I have to share....another time, when I didn't know much (not legal aspects of keeping wildlife, either). My dog cornered a young mouse in my house, I laid a long neck vase down and the mouse ran right into it! They cannot resist exploring a tunnel. I had a 29 gal aquarium with the metal screen top that wasn't in use at that time (used to have fish and newts that could get out) so I set her up temporarily. Our weather had gone from 60 degrees to a 2 foot snow blizzard overnight, so I thought it would be cruel to kick her out. I bought her a Habitrail and set her up for the winter. She loved apples, grapes, carrots, pelleted mouse food, my Cockatiel's Zupreem food, and seed with sunflower, and was happy running in the wheel and sleeping up in the little "bedroom" compartment. I set her up in my office, the furthest room from my bedroom, since she ran the wheel all night, being nocturnal. Once morning, I found I hadn't connected one of the tubes properly after cleaning the Habitrail, and she was not in her bed! I figured she was out in the house now, and I'd have to set a humane trap, or my dog would find her again. At that moment, I heard a little shuffle in the fax machine, right next to the Habitrail. I opened the fax, and right where you change the toner cartridge, I saw her tail! She didn't go far at all, she was sleeping in the fax machine! I unplugged the fax, grabbed a paper towel tube from the recycle bin, and made a "tunnel" leading from the fax to the Habitrail, nudged her tail, and she woke up, and crawled right down the cardboard tube tunnel, back into her Habitrail, and promptly climbed up to her loft bedroom to go to sleep. I thought she might be lonely, so I got her friend, a cream color mouse, female, and they got along fine. Brownie was so much faster than Vanilla, they way they walked, running the wheel, etc. There IS a difference in the domestic mice vs. the wild. Nilla would be trotting in the wheel, then Brownie would zip through the tubes, jump in the wheel, and get that thing spinning so fast it would literally kick Nilla out the side, then Brownie would run top speed a few minutes, then stop to check on Nilla. She'd lick her all over, like hey, are you OK, let me groom you and make you better, it was really cute. They were cool, I kept her for the winter, but in Spring she really became overly-energetic, then grumpy as she wanted out of that Habitrail. She'd zip by Nilla, knocking her over, then didn't check on her like she used to, so I knew it was time to set her free. I got another female companion for Nilla, a brown and white mouse, Oreo, and took Brownie to the park with woods, and let her go to find herself a boyfriend and live free like she should. I walked my dog every day after work, and would take some bird seed and Zupreem down to where I set her free. I know it sounds nutty, but I was just an animal lover doing what I could, and it felt good.

Best of luck to you, I know it is not easy, they are so little, and I think they need a mama mouse to lick them, groom them, so you might take a paper towel moistened with warm water to gently rub them, to simulate grooming, then they wake up and want to eat, and have the eye dropper with warm milk replacement ready. They may make it since they have fur, I don't know, all you can do is try.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Oh yes, how could I forget, they like peanut butter, too.
I'd put a little on a sunflower seed, they'd lick it off.
Putting a big blob of peanut butter isn't good, they get it all over themselves.

So, I just read through all of the other comments now...so yes, I hope you are getting the info you need, and I wish you the best of luck with the babies, and I think you have a much better chance than I did, pinkies are very difficult to raise vs. babes with some fur, plus my experience was in 1986, I didn't even own a computer then. Look what I just found by searching the amazing internet:

http://www.rmca.org/Articles/orphans.htm
https://www.wikihow.com/Care-for-Baby-Mice

 

[Birdinhand]

by the way, since there near weaning age how long do you think I'll have to wait to release them?

I would wait till they look basically full grown/fully mobile and for their sake, which is probably a matter of a another week or two or three... they mature really quickly. let them go at night so they have a chance to find a decent place to make a next by the time they have to sleep in the morning.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

Mice are so destructive. Feed them to the chickens.

 

[Tale of Tails Rabbitry]

@Maddison I do apologize. When I was much younger, I probably would have tried doing what you are. However, if you had ever seen fire breakout in the night in a building where families, babies and children, were sleeping caused by mice chewing on wires--seen desperate parents trying to throw their screaming children to neighbors and strangers out of windows to save them--you might understand why I did not and will not offer advice in how to save even one mouse.

 

[cassie]

@Maddison I do apologize. When I was much younger, I probably would have tried doing what you are. However, if you had ever seen fire breakout in the night in a building where families, babies and children, were sleeping caused by mice chewing on wires--seen desperate parents trying to throw their screaming children to neighbors and strangers out of windows to save them--you might understand why I did not and will not offer advice in how to save even one mouse.

What about squirrels? That is what was chewing the wiring in my attic before a black snake moved in. You have a point, but there are a lot of other things that destroy wiring besides mice. When I was a kid our house caught on fire. Faulty wiring was the cause. Mice had nothing to do with it. The wiring was not properly secured, wind caused a wire to move and rub on something, wearing off the insulation. That caused a short and that caused the fire. I have lived in two houses since, including the house I am living in now, where the wiring was so bad the fact that the house hadn't yet burned down was a miracle. Wasn't mice or squirrels but faulty installation. In the first case, my husband came down out of the attic white faced and immediately went to the hardware store. He came back with an armful of wiring, insulators etc. and fixed the problem then and there. In my present house, I ended up having my house completely rewired. It wasn't cheap but I considered it to be money well spent.

I admit I would raise orphan mice I found out in the woods or sheds, but I also control mice that are in my house. The last time someone had to go up in my attic to check the ducting I handed the man a bag of mouse bait and told him to scatter it about. People don't even think about it, but if you have to go up in the attic for any reason, it doesn't hurt to look around and inspect any wiring you can see. In fact, do a general safety check while you are up there. Doesn't hurt to scatter around a bag of mouse bait, either.

 

[lena_]

I believe the op lives in Australia. Please stop suggesting to feed them to the chickens. It's really unhelpful. The OP has already stated that there are pages of arguments about diseases and laws. They are mice. Nobody is going to fine you for that. Here in new zealand, it is legal to catch and keep almost any bird (except native ones) However in america (I'm not too certain though) you can only raise/keep pigeons and sparrows.
When I was about seven my mother found some tiny mallard ducklings on the footbridge when we were walking across. We saw about three seagulls attacking the ducklings. It was duck season then, and one of the babies was being eaten alive by a gull. My mother took them home and rang a wildlife rehabber, but they said they only took in native birds. We raised the ducklings and two left, but Miss Mallard stayed. As for actual info on raising the mice, I am lacking however I would just like to say that this thread will probably be closed by a mod if the bickering continues.

 

[cassie]

Bickering? I thought it was a discussion.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

A bit off topic but Cassie you made me remember...in a house I rented, about 1983, I kept hearing a snapping sound and smelled a slight burning odor, like when you plug in a new iron, but it only lasted seconds, then was gone. I figured it might be the light-switch going bad, since that is where I smelled and heard it. I asked my dad to check it since he was a builder. He checked the switch but that wasn't where the sound and smell were coming from, it was further up. When he cut away some drywall, we found that someone had driven a nail, missed the stud, but hit the wiring leading to the light-switch, and it had actually skinned off the wire coating at that spot. So there was a metal nail touching bare wire, and the nail pinned the wire against the stud. It is a miracle there was never a fire. The wood stud was all blackened around the wire and nail. The wire was not severed so it still carried electricity to the lightswitch. This was not a newer place, so this was like that obviously for years. My dad removed the nail, rewired and drywall patched, spackled and painted, so it was safe from that point on. There are many workers when building a house, and you never know what is really going on behind those walls!