Orphan wild mouse becomes hard to handle

Question
I have four female orphan mice that I saved from a cat and have raised from before they even opened their eyes. All four survived and I love them dearly. They used to play and eat out of my hand and run around in a box while I played with and held them. I thought they really liked me. Recently, however, they only want to hide... They come out at night but almost never during the day, and have no interest in playing with me. They will play with each other but they've learned to jump very high and I am worried they will jump out when I try to open their cage to play with them. Cleaning their cage is extremely difficult now as it takes almost an hour to coax them into my hand to get them out of the cage.

So here's the question...

Do you think the mice will ever be friends with me again? I love them and don't want to have to let them back into the wild. They have a great home and are loved dearly. Any tips to get them to like me again?

Thank you!

Answer
Hi Lilly,

If they are between the ages of 14 days (the day their eyes open) and 28 days, they are in the "popcorn phase" or "flea stage" (can you guess why it is called this?). Before they open their eyes, they are happy in their nice, blind world. But when their eyes open, suddenly the world becomes terrifying. Within about three days they can go a little nuts. And since they have very powerful hind legs, and weigh basically nothing, they can jump straight up about two feet! It may even be possible that wild mice can jump higher; tame mice certainly have not been bred for leg strength.

It's so funny how I get exactly the same question at the same time, when I have almost never had it! This morning someone who knows me on Facebook and is raising an orphan field mouse, had the same problem.

In any case, the main thing you need to know right now is how to pick up and hold a crazy baby mouse. If you have trouble picking it up, a toilet paper paper roll usually does the trick. Put it in the cage, carefully coax or chase the baby into it, put your hands on the two sides and pick him up. If that doesn't work well, you can pick it up by the BASE of its tail by its rump. Any higher, and the tail may break off or the skin may slide off. Immediately put the palm of your other hand under the baby; don't ever dangle him.

Now that you have it out, set it on the palm of your right hand and hold onto that base of its tail, gently but firmly. Keep your hand closed when it is being crazy, and open your hand as it calms down. You can kiss the mouse like this, but petting is out of the question unfortunately. There is also something else you can do to calm it down and have it be with you. Lie or lean on your back and roll it up in the bottom of your T-shirt. You can do this will several of them together. Give them lots of room but make the boundaries by holding your hands and arms on top of the shirt, pressing it down to your tummy. If one pushes real hard at a boundary, give in a slight bit but don't let it out. Again, they should become calmer, and they are remembering that your smell is something safe. And there is nothing scary to see.

I hope this helps, and they calm down again. It might take a few weeks. Don't make the mistake of not holding them because they are so crazy. If you want them to end up tame, you have to keep at it.

If they get to about 6-8 weeks old and they are still nuts, and are also trying to escape, they want to be free. Although setting a mouse free will certainly shorten its lifespan, better a short but happy life than a long but frustrated one. Still, before you resort to that you should have them in a very big cage. A 30 gallon aquarium is ideal. They sell these for reptiles. A wire cage will probably have bars too wide apart to keep those guys in, even when they are grown. If you want to go with wire, the best thing is to convert a large multi-bird cage into a several story mansion. For some reason (some?) bird cages have bars extremely close together. And even then, it is so easy to bend the wires apart a teeny bit by accident; even the space where you would put the water bottle spout would need to have extra reinforcement (a bit of wire wrapped perpendicularly on the bars right by the spout entrance).

I wish you the very best of luck. I hope they calm down and become good pets again.

squeaks n giggles,

Natasha