I found a baby mouse in the street. How do I take care of it?
Question by Music4eva: I found a baby mouse in the street. How do I take care of it?
I’m keeping it in my room in a box with a lamp an making sure the temp stays at 100 degrees. But when I go to feed it with goats milk, I’m not sure if its eating, because it doesn’t look like it is, but there’s a small hole in its mouth when I put the brush up to feed it. But when I run its belly with a q tip, it won’t poop or pee. Am I doing something wrong?
Can you help? Leave your own answer in the comments!
2 Responses to I found a baby mouse in the street. How do I take care of it?
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Once the baby is fed, you need to stimulate a bowel movement. To do this, put some warm water in a small bowl and dip a cotton bud into it. Then, put the cotton bud between the baby’s back legs and gently turn the bud around. You should see a little brown staining, that is their poo. Dip the other end of the bud into the water and gently stroke the baby’s body, this emulates the mother licking them. After all that, tuck baby up in it’s soft bedding and place in a warm spot. This is the basic routine that needs to be repeated every couple of hours during the day and at least 2-3 times during the night, especially around 1am and 5am.
also to help with feeding try using an eye dropper/small syringe(baby syringe)
to get it in its mouth better, Feed them puppy or kitten milk replacement, kitten being the best(can get at any pet store pretty much). Put them near a hot water bottle covered with a dish towel. Put the bottle on one side of a box, so they can crawl away from the heat if needed. Cover them with a towel or light blanket. Once they are warm enough, they will start to move around.Feed them every 2-3 hours or when needed.
feed 1 or 2 drops of the milk at a time into the baby mouse mouth. When the mice are really young, they might not open their mouth. Be careful not to get the milk up their noses, they will splutter/cough if you do. It can be dangerous for their health if you do. The way I fed the mice was to put a facecloth down on a table and to put one mouse at a time onto it. Then you can gently hold the baby’s head whilst you administer the milk with the dropper. You’ll get the hang of it with a bit of practise. The baby might not seem to be taking much milk, don’t worry. Very young babies may only need to get a drop or 2 on their mouth/tongues until they can take more. The main purpose here is to keep them hydrated with a little drop at a time every couple of hours.
Once the babies start to bite your fingers quite firmly when you feed them, they may be ready for a little solid food. They will also be starting to open their eyes (12-14 days old) Start very slowly with this. Try some baby fruit puree to start or natural rice pudding. The food should not be chilled. Let them lick it off your finger. Avoid putting the purees onto a dish for the mice to feed from, as they might get messy and end up with matted fur, which needs to be avoided. Some other foods to graduate to are porridge, banana, tomato, dried oat flakes, strawberry. Just go real easy with the food and keep it simple and easily digested to start with. Congratulations! You’ve actually made it to the weaning stage, which is quite something with wild baby mice.
Continue to provide a safe space for the mice to sleep and once weaned, they will be able to come out at night to feed. Give them a little dish near their bed so they can feed during the night. At least you can get some sleep now! Continue to offer the milk during the day and provide some water for them. Usually, wild mice will still have some mothers milk up to about 4 weeks of age.
Now you have to decide whether to keep them or release into the wild. I don’t know how many mice have been successfully hand-reared and released into the wild. I would think it unlikely that they can survive. However, you’ve done your bit and if they seem strong and healthy and quite active, it might be possible to release them. Or, you can keep them as pets.
edit:Also, don’t be afraid to touch the mice with your hands because, if they were ill, they would already have died. You should antibacterial your hands because the mother has been licking them and the mother could have been sick/germy. just wash hands after handling and before so you dont get the mouse sick and mouse doesnt get you sick
Lyndsyuse
December 23, 2013 at 4:47 pm
Well, first of all I wouldn’t touch it.It could be sick, have diseases, or could just be on a rome. Its family could be looking for it. To be honest, I don’t know a lot about mice. I would say look it up, or you should go to a pet store and ask.
I’m really sorry I couldn’t give you the BEST answer… But I tryed!
Thank you- Brianna
Brianna
December 23, 2013 at 5:18 pm