Orphaned mouse in garage

Question
QUESTION: Dear Tamarah~  About 12 hrs. ago I noticed a tiny mouse in our garage.  The best I can suspect is that it somehow crawled away from the nest for whatever reason.  Here it is now, about midnight, and the poor little thing is still alive.  I had moved it about 5 ft. away from where I had originally found it, thinking the nest might be in an abandoned stove we have in the garage, but the sweet baby crawled back to where I originally fount it.  I'm unsure what to do, if anything.  I know that mice are nocturnal animals so I fear that if I keep going out to the garage and turn on the light, I might be disturbing the mama who might be coming back to try to do something with her baby.  But I would surely do something if I thought it would do any good...and if I wasn't doing more harm than good, you know what I mean?  I don't know if you'll see my question in time for me to intervene in the life of this precious little soul but... I feel so badly for it, as it's been so tough & fighting all day long.  I wish there was something I could do. Any advice?  Thank you!

ANSWER: Hi Andrea,

I hope I'm not too late!  If you want to take it in you can hand-feed it yourself, using the excellent instructions here:

http://www.rmca.org/Articles/orphans.htm

You'll need kitten milk replacement, water, a syringe (or you can also feed into the cracks on your palm and let it lick the milk out, if it's able), and a gram scale.  It's not an easy thing to do, but if it still needs your help then I would definitely try.  You can also look around and see if you can find its nest - sometimes you can just put it back with the other babies and mom will take care of it.  Honestly, pups need fed every 2-6 hours depending on how old they are, so if it was still alive after that long it may be getting taken care of.  I would make sure that your garage is predator proof as well, so nothing comes in and snags the baby (or babies, depending on where the others are).

Whatever you decide to do, I hope the little thing is alright!
-Tam

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

QUESTION: Thank you, Tam, for your advice.  Unfortunately my little friend died sometime towards morning of that night I wrote to you.  The little soul lasted over 18 hrs. with no mommy tending it.  I think it was well-nourished up until the time it got separated from its nest and was probably almost ready to be on its own. :-(  I would have had no access to the special formula or syringe or anything else like that, when I wrote to you at midnight that night, so even if I would have gotten your advice minutes after I wrote my question, I would have had no way to carry it out... and my little friend was gone by morning.  Frankly I was shocked to see the poor little thing still alive a full 12 hrs. after I first saw it.  I vascillated so much as to whether to bring it inside the house and keep ti warm... or leave it out in the (predator-free) garage.  It was so cold out there and the pup was flat on the cold concrete floor.  :-(  I would have gladly gave the little one a nice warm soft place to die, inside the house, but the main thing holding me back was the fact I was fearful that I would be interrupting mom's attempts to care for her baby herself.  I didn't want to do that.  Thank you for all your help and compassion.  Sincerely~ Andrea

Answer
I'm so sorry to hear that!  :(  I wish I had something better to say.  Thank you for caring so much about the little pup - you really did everything you could have without knowing where mom was.

I hope the rest of the nest is doing well somewhere.

-Tam