injured male and new babies

Question
hello again you have been such a great help, so im back again.

i had my recent suspicions confirmed that a male house mouse was visiting my fancy mice.
i have since gotten rid of the pesky house mouse but not before he has left a trail of destruction.

i had found out he got into a fight with my male and actually mangled one of his front feet/leg, this seemed to be healing well and he didn't seem to be to in pain but now a couple weeks later his leg is light pink and a bit swollen and not putting much weight on it is there anything i can do at home for him since the vets around here don't do mice care. he is still eating drinking and running on his wheel fine.

secondly my female just gave birth today to a litter from this wild house mouse, a large litter of 12-13, mom is doing a good job so far, how much stress will that size of a litter put on her? and what will the babies be like when they get older? will they also be wild or can they be pets and be tame?

thank you for your time once again your a huge help.

Answer
Welcome back, Regan.

The mouse with the infected leg needs an antibiotic as quickly as possible.  The easiest antibiotic for you to get over the counter is Tetracycline, which is sold for fish, often called Fish Cycline.  It either comes in powder, tablet, or capsule form.  If it is a tablet, you will need to crush it into fine powder, which you can do with the back of one spoon against the front of another.  If it is a capsule you will empty the powder out of the capsule.  One capsule is the same as 1/4 flat teaspoon.

Take one capsule and mix it with a drop or two of water until you have a mustardy paste. Grab the mouse by the scruff (back) of the neck to open its mouth, and try to get a bit of the paste in the mouth. The mouse will struggle a lot and this may be impossible. In any case, smear some on the whiskers and sides, where it can easily wash it off and ingest it. Or mix some in some soy yogurt and try to get it to eat it.

Put another capsule's worth in a large water bottle (10-12 oz), or half that in a small water bottle (4-6 oz), and that should be the only source of water for about 10 days. Shake it up well. Change it every other day. Cover the bottle with tin foil so no light can get in. Tetracycline reacts with light.

I actually have had that exact problem with the unexpected litter (and it happens to a lot of my questioners too). One day I heard that absolutely unmistakable sweet baby chirpy sounds coming from my cage of five virgins. The bars were close enough together to keep my fancy mice in but not the little wild mice out. I'm lucky only one of my girls was promiscuous!

A litter of 13 is pretty large, though not unmanageable. If you are comfortable editing the litter (killing some) then go ahead and bring it down to 8, which is ideal since she has 8 teats. I myself could not do that. If you do that, eliminate males, because they are far harder to house. But mice are baby-making and -rearing machines, and I have twice had a successful litter of 16 fancy babies. Since hybrids will be smaller than normal fancies, I think she will be OK.

I had heard somewhere that first-generation hybrids were hard to handle. Sure enough, 9 of my 10 babies were not people-friendly (the tenth was the sweetest thing ever, and she tamed herself). But I was definitely guilty of not handling them nearly enough. I was nursing a baby kitty and holding him 24/7 so I didn't do my mouse-taming job. They should be held *twice* a day (they learn-- and forget-- fast) starting on day 7. They should be taken out of the nest together (mom mouse, having been taken from another part of the cage, must be removed for the whole event). Keeping the rest of them together in a heap, first take each one for two minutes of individual love and intimate handling. After two days, each pup gets five minutes twice a day (well, you can hold a few at once, if they aren't too hoppy). After a week, ten minutes. Hold the base of their tails as they sit on your hand or you may lose them in the "popcorn phase" (or "flea stage") where they hop around like crazy after their eyes open. I really think this procedure will make them tame. I wish I had done this.

I held mine, I am ashamed to say, only about 2 minutes each, once a day, until they were 4 weeks, then I gave 6 of them away to patient people; 2 got lost in the apartment because they were too crazy to hold and escaped; and I kept two. Of the two I kept, one got bitier and squirmier and the other suddenly crawled into my hand. I let the bitey one go on a beautiful day in the forest. Wild mice don't live long, but a short, happy life is better than a long, frustrated one.

They must be reared in a solid cage or they will immediately escape through the hole the father got in through; or an even smaller one.

I have a lot of posts about handling babies, etc, but if you can't find anything in my archives, write back.

Also, I would like to invite you to be my Facebook friend. I am the only Natasha Millikan on FB. And I am also going to put the question out as to other people's experiences with  hybrids. I will let you know what people say.

Best of luck to all the mice!

squeaks.

Natasha

PS meet my "kids"--
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150091824234803