Taming a Male Mouse

Question
Hi Tamara;

I've had a number of mice throughout my life. The earliest ones were really tame (sitting in my pocket all day, curling asleep in my hands etc), but lately my mice seem to be feral. I recently had a pair that were really skittish and jumpy, no matter what I did. I tried the peanut butter trick, the 'take all the toys out of the cage so they'll be gagging for something to do when you approach them' trick - nothing. It broke my heart, but I took them back to the petshop, because I just couldn't deal with having such feral mice.

I got a new male mouse last weekend, and he seems to be better than the last pair, but still not as tame as my earliest mice. I want to know if you think I'm doing anything wrong.

He's in his cage alone, and if I put my hand in he'll approach it and put his paw on my hand, and then scamper off. He was very tame a few days ago, letting me hold him, pat him etc. While I was outside, I put him in a long pot of grasses and dead flowers, and he had a ball scratching at the soil and nibbling the plants.

Since then, he's started to go more feral. He now hops (like a wild mouse) even when he's inb the cage and being left alone. He's become a manic digger, trying to dig burrows to his food dish (which just doesn't work with pine shavings!).

He is played with for at least an hour a night, and enjoys running up my arm and onto my partners arm. Is it too early to be introducing my partners scent to the mouse?

I've been trying to pick him up and then hold him for 10 secs and then put him back in his cage (to try and gain trust), but that doesn't seem to help him. If I give him a treat, he leaves it until he thinks I'm not looking. If I put my hand in the cage with a treat on it, he'll walk onto my hand, sniff the treat and walk off again.

I have tried picking him up when he walks onto my hand, but he gets really nervous when this happens.

Sometimes when he is out playing on my arms or next to me he'll be fine, and the next he'll be really quick, almost like he's trying to escape. Its really hard to get a hold of him to put him back in his cage. Should I be putting him back before he has a chance to get nervous? What if he's nervous straightaway? How can I calm him out of the cage?

The place I got him said he was 8 weeks old, so I am assuming that this might just be a rebellious phase, but I wanted to know if you think I'm doing anything wrong, or can offer me any tips?

His cage is in the room of our house where we hang out the most, and my partner and I sit next to him and talk to him. When we sit and talk, hge approaches the glass and gets onto his hind legs, but if we go to open the cage he darts away.

Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated. I'm sorry for all the questions, but I figure the more info you have the better the advice will be.

Thanks!

Answer
Hi Zara,

It actually sounds like you're doing just about everything right.  Have you considered though changing his bedding to something besides pine?  The oils it emits can be harmful to mice, and though I don't think it could cause his change in behavior, it's possible it might be bugging him.  Aspen is equally cheap but also not conducive to burrowing - carefresh is pretty expensive but is a blast for mice to play in.  Maybe if he's more comfortable he'll calm down a little bit.

Other than that, I can't think of anything else.  You have tried everything I would, so just give him a couple of weeks and see if trying frequently convinces him you aren't the boogieman.  In the future, I would find out who supplies the place you got him from and avoid them - much of mouse socialization occurs within the first couple weeks of their lives and poor behaviors could mean the breeder is not giving them adequate attention or socializing when they are young.  Keep talking to him, though, and keep trying to get him used to you.  It's not too early to introduce him to your partner's smell, either - it's good, in fact.  It may take a while, but he should calm down eventually so long as you keep trying.