Picking up jumpy orphan baby mouse

Question

baby mouse July 16th   QUESTION: Hi there, I think from researching I have found we have a baby deer mouse, and it's a female from the dots on her belly. My Husband found her july 14th at his work. Since then she has gotten much more interested in eating, and seems more energetic. We tried her with kitty formula first that we had to mix she didnt seem to like it much. we use goats milk now and she looks for the paintbrush and does pretty well at drinking. Her eyes are still closed & I was just wondering when we can start to feed her solid food. She is still in a little box with a heating pad under it, which she has gotten out of once so we plan to change it. Would you reccommend releasing her back to the wild or keeping her.  Any other suggestions would help. We clean her with a warm qtip after every feeding and she has done well with pooping and peeing haha.. on my hand, twice.  Another thing im worried about is the hantavirus stuff ...I looked it up and apparently deermice carry it. I haven't taken her to the vet since Im pretty sure she's too small for them to do anything with.

ANSWER: Dear Kayla,

First please forgive any strange typos and the brevity of this answer because my internet is out and I am using my phone.

You are doing an awesome job!  Unfortunately you have at least another week with the 2- hourly feeding. When she opens her eyes she will be 14 days old. She will probably want to nurse for another week. You can try giving her an ever stronger mixture of her milk and cream of wheat from your fingers. You can also put the milk in a tiny bowl or bottle cap and soaking a piece of white bread in it. Once she has figured that out you are all set. When she is three weeks old you can start putting solid foods in the cage and she will soon eat them. No harm in doing.that early; she may be precocious.

As long as she is thriving on the plain goats milk that's great. But if she is at all skinny,  you should switch to a homemade formula that I described in a very recent post. I hope you don't mind researching yourself instead of me giving a link. Just read the last few.of my questions about orphans.

ITS THE ONE CALLED ORPHAN MOUSE HOW TO RAISE.

She will not be well equipped to live in the wild. Unless she begins to seem unhappy, doesn't like to be held,  and spends her time trying to get out of the cage, she will be a very happy and loving pet. Field mice also live longer than pet bred mice, which is great, because the only disadantage to mi e as pets is their short lifespan.

Let me know if I have missed anything or have been unclear. Hopefully I will get my internet service back soon.

Please send me updates on how she does. It really helps me to help others if I get feedback.

Squeaks n giggles,

Natasha

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Baby Mouse opened her eyes today!  But now she seems very nervous of us and doesnt like to run around in our hands like she used to. It's almost like she's trying to get away. My husband got her to eat some baby cereal with formula yesterday but then he also accidentally dropped her on the floor   he said she seemed out of it for a while it must have knocked her out :( .. Im very worried about that but he said she's okay.  She seems pretty small to be 14 days old.. What do you reccommend we do ? I bought cheerios to see if she would try them. Should we try to give her some fruit or veggies?  Her poop doesnt look as solid anymore its more watery I read that's not a good  thing.

ANSWER: Dear Kayla,

It's not surprising that her poop is funny but you are right that it's not good. Is she skinny? Small is fine; wild mice are quite a bit smaller than pet mice. But skinny isn't good. If she is skinny I still recommend using the home made formula with the cereal. I doubt she can eat anything solid right now, though the cheerio soaked in formula might work. No fruit or vegetables yet, especially since her poop is runny.  Except for bananas.  If you can mash up a bit of banana with her formula that might help. Another thing to try is cooked white rice soaked in formula.

Even baby pet mice get very jumpy when they open their eyes. And they can really jump! Two feet up in the air. It is called the "flea stage" or "popcorn phase." They have strong legs and they weigh nothing. Mice hand fed since very young such as a few days old probably don't go through this stage. But this girl was pretty old (as pups go) when you got her. Be sure to always hold her over the bed and you may even need two people to feed her: One holds the base of her tail with one hand while the mouse rests on the other hand, and the other feeds her. I do hope she didn't get  hurt with the fall, but if she landed on her feet she may be fine-- as I said, mouse pups weigh nothing-- and it is possible she wasn't hurt but just terrified.  

Remember, it's very hard to replace a mouse mom and you don't know what dreadful experiences and stress she might have had before she met you-- or why she was lost or abandoned. If she doesn't make it don't blame yourselves.

I wish you and her the very best of luck. Keep me posted even if it goes wrong. Kisses to her.

Squeaks,

Natasha

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Again,
 So the little mouse seems to still be doing okay, but she doesn't like us to try and pick her up anymore and even seems scared We moved her to a bigger box just cut it down a little.... It is kind of empty though besides her teddy and some tissue paper. There is no pet store in our town so we are ordering mixed mouse food online and a special cage for her with a wheel and tunnel. She is fine once we pick her up and still eats from us but runs away when we first try to pick her up. We put cheerios in her box but she doesn't eat them  we put baby cereal with formula in a bottle cap and she has eaten it.  I really want to do the best I can and keep her alive But it's hard when I feel like she's scared of me. Should I hold her more often?

Answer
Dear Kayla,

If she is scared to be picked up, but fine in your hands, she is like many other mice. They are programmed by nature to be terrified of anything coming in at them from above. The easiest way to pick up a mouse who doesn't crawl into your hand-- and I myself don't even always train them to do that-- is to gently coax it into a toilet paper tube and put your hands on both sides of the tube to pick it up. Then depending on the size and temperament of the mouse, and the size of your fingers, you can either carefully slide your fingers into the tube and GENTLY pull the mouse out with your fingers completely under her; or gently tip the tube upright and see if she will come out the bottom or the top (some mice choose one way; some the other); or put the roll carefully on a surface you are controlling and let her walk out on her own.

What you *never* want to do is chase the mouse around the cage with your hands. If you are going to scoop her out without the toilet paper roll (by the way, every mouse cage must have at least one toilet paper tube in it!), use both hands and come at her in such a way that you pick her up gently and she has no way to escape.

If you really need to get her and she's running-- say she fell on the floor and is escaping -- your last resort method is to grab her by the BASE of the tail (by her butt) and immediately put her on the other hand, still holding on gently if you need to. If you grab by any farther on the tail you may either break the tail or actually pull the outer skin and fur off of it like a glove. Someone wrote to me about a week ago who had done that to a little wild mouse. Poor little thing.

Yes, hold her as often as you can and give her quality people time, hand time and face time. She may like to cuddle or wander in your clothing. Be careful if you are ticklish. The more you hold her, the more she will be used to it and learn to love you too. If she won't let you hold her at all, however, or starts biting, you may need to rethink whether she wants to be a pet.

I'm glad she's eating out of the bottle cap, so you can get some sleep.

best of luck!

squeaks,

Natasha