Taming or releasing frightened rescued mouse orphan

Question
Hi,

Exactly a week ago, we found a baby mouse outside and took him in (knowing the odds were against him).  He was literally on the verge of death.  His eyes were still closed, he had fur, and he was trying to suckle in our hands.  We fed him formula with an eye dropper and he took to it.  Amazingly, he survived the night, so we gave him some carrots and lettuce and continued to feed him kitten milk.  He opened his eyes and started walking and getting along fine.  We got him a cage, gave him a little house, a wheel and mouse food.  He's doing so great (runs on the wheel, climbs the cage).  My question is:  can he be tamed?  The poor little guy seems SO scared of us.  We love him so much now and would love to keep him, but not if he can't/won't be tamed.  In that case, we will release him, but I'm also concerned he won't survive in the wild. . . any ideas on what we should do?  He seems to be about 3 weeks old, in that popcorn/hopping stage.  He hides when we come near him.  Thank you for any information you might have!

Answer
Dear Jessica,

If you want to put some work into it, I made a very complete set of instructions on how to tame a mouse in the following post:

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Mice-3824/2011/7/frightened-mouse.htm

With any pet store mouse that would work; and my guess is it will work for this one too. But if you have no success at all after a month, and she spends her time trying to get out of the cage, then you will need to let her go.

If you let her go, be sure to leave her a temporary home, bedding, and food. Bring her somewhere where you can leave her a cardboard box with lots of warm, easily movable bedding from their cage and lots of food. There should be two mouse-sized openings, because mice feel safer that way. You can return for the box later when she is gone, probably after a week or so.

If you want to go all out, make this release shelter:

http://mouseranch.com/FYI/releaseShelter.html

If possible have her spend a day or so in the box beforehand, or have it in her cage, to get used to it. The bedding in it must contaian her used bedding.

I hope she gets tame.

squeaks,

Natasha
<:3   )--~


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