Orphan mouse stopped eating; skittish

Question
Hi Natasha,

I found an orphaned mouse in our house two days ago. Its eyes weren't opened and it seemed very weak. It took to baby formula and water well and seemed to improve. Yesterday, it slept a lot but ate regularly with bouts of exercise just before and after feeding. I have been feeding every 2-3 hours as the mouse didn't seem to want to eat when I fed more often.
Late last night it didn't want to eat at all so I decided to let it eat more later. That was probably 8 hours ago. It seems to have become way more energetic but it wont eat the formula at all.( I did switch from cheap baby formula to KML powder formula, both were always mixed 2x the requested amount of water. ) It wont eat the formula any more.
Also, before it seemed very relaxed in my hands. Since it opened its eyes (only a tiny bit so far!) its seemed very skittish and unsettled with me.
I'm not sure what to do. I've put some nuts and a  of bread in its box in the hopes it just wants something different. Please advise!!

Answer
Dear Caroline,

The second question is an easy one: A few days after baby mice open their eyes, they realize how terrifying the world is. They may even go into the "popcorn phase" (or "flea stage") where they can jump as high as two feet up, with their strong little legs, and bodies which weigh basically nothing.

Although it can take fancy mice a week or two to come out of this phase, orphans who were raised from very small seem to have a very short one, 2-3 days. But because your little one was so old (!) when you found it,  it is hard to know how long it will last - or whether it will become tame again at all. It may have been tame partly because it was unhealthy.

Now to get it to eat. Again, it is lucky that it is so old.  Although it should not be old enough to want solids, it may be simply deciding you are not its mouse mommy. Hopefully it will change its mind about that again.

You can try to tempt it with a little flavoring. Try watering down some commercial peanut butter - like Jif or Skippy - very, very thin! and mixing it with the formula. You can also try the formula at a higher concentration, since the little thing is (again!) so old. Try, again an extremely small amount, real vanilla:  make the vanilla water mixture first and then use it. Also see it if will lick butter off of your fingers. Make it some watery cream of wheat with the formula. Try that with a teeny bit of butter. Or vanilla. Put bottle caps with each of these things in the cage as well. And soak some pieces of a crisp bread such as Wasa in formula in a small lid in the cage. Also throw in some soft vegetables such as cucumber in the cage. Or berries. Some dry cracker such as Saltines. The nuts were a good idea.  In other words, try everything!

I hope it decides to end its hunger strike soon. Much as I keep saying it is old, it is too young to survive a very long hunger strike. But remember that the reason it ended up where it did may have been due to it being sick or injured.

I wish the little creature the best of health and luck. I hope it decides to eat very soon. If it stays tame it will be a great pet. If it stays wild, you will need to set it free.

Squeaks,

Natasha