orphan mouse

Question

female mouse  

female mouse   Hello, I found a baby mouse while cleaning up an old lilac bush. it came running out of a hole and have three dogs near me I quickly picked it up so they wouldn't get it. When I looked for the hole it came out of I found it collapsed. so I brought it in the house and put it in a butter container with tissues. I found on the internet to give it kitten milk, that it was about two weeks and it was a girl. I have had her for three days and her eyes have just opened. So my questions are, is it normal for baby mice to have a slightly puffy neck? Are they supposed to shake when they walk at this age? and if I run out of formula is there anything I can give her as a substitute till I get formula. Thank for your time.

Answer
Dear Elizabeth,

Aww cute little thing!

Make sure you don't run out of KMR. Switching formula often leads to diarrhea, which kills. The closest next thing to use would be soy infant formula, but avoid the switch!

Puffy neck.. not sure. It might be a little wobbly.

I hope its mom managed to save its siblings. Probably they are deep enough down that it wasn't a problem.

I run a group on Facebook for orphan mice. If you friend me and pm me I can add you and assign you an orphan helper.

https://www.facebook.com/natasha.millikan

Here is some reading/videos:

The Rat Fan Club: Raising orphaned rats or mice
http://ratfanclub.org/orphans.html

American Fancy Rat and Mouse Association: Caring for Rat & Mouse Orphans
http://www.afrma.org/rminfo8.htm

Allexperts.com: Guide to orphan mouse pups
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Mice-3824/2013/4/guide-orphan-mouse-pups.htm

Raising Orphan Mouse Pups: ten videos about raising orphans from day one (1/10 through 10/10) by Aud Fischer, member of RAA
http://m.youtube.com/user/CreekValleyCritters/videos?query=raising&desktop_uri=%

The Fun Mouse: Caring for Orphaned mice
http://www.thefunmouse.com/info/orphanedmice.cfm

Best of luck!

Squeaks,

Natasha