Found young wild mouse

Question
Natasha,
I found what appears to be a mouse in my basement next to a water pump perhaps keeping the little guy warm. His head is huge and his eyes are open. I brought him upstairs and put him in a cage. What should I do now? Oh yea, and the little mouse has a brother should I try to catch him too?

Answer
Hi,

I'm wondering why he was easy to catch and his brother wasn't. If you think he might be too young to leave his mom, you should try to see if he will eat solid food. Give him something where it will be easy to see if he has eaten it-- something that he will leave teethmarks in like cheese or a fresh vegetable. If there are no teeth marks after he is left alone with it for 6 hours, give him some yogurt, unless he will let you feed him some milk from your fingers or the tip of a paper towel (unless you happen to have a syringe or eyedropper handy). I'm assuming if his eyes are open he probably won't. If he actually does then you should get kitten milk replacement or soy milk for him, but I doubt it. In that case you would want to feed him every 4 hours.

You should probably try to catch his brother, since he might need help to eat, and also I assume you don't really want mice in your house.

Is your intention to keep him as a pet? If so, you should only do so if he is young enough to be easily handled. I suggest keeping him for two weeks to make sure he is old enough to forage by himself. Then if he seems to want to be a pet, you can keep him.  Be warned that if both he and his sibling are boys, they may not want to live together forever. Boys tend to fight.

If you keep him, he needs a wheel asap.

To let him go, if you decide to, take him over a mile from your house, unless you want to see him again in your basement. Being such a little guy he might not come back but he might.  Let him go in a nice wooded or grassy area where there are places to hide. It would be nice to leave him a pile of seed to get him started.

Best of luck to him!
squeaks,

Natasha