Question
Mouse and Mouse
Hello, first of all let me tell you that thanks to your advise I was able to help our girl-mouse, Kiki, who seemed to have a cold and a few weeks later was having terrible itching. Your remedies helped her and she is happy and healthy again.
Now, my question: do all mice pee and poop on you every time you hold them? Is it their natural defense mechanism? I would understand if they are scared and feel threatened, but while sitting on you or being pet by you? Why?
Thanks again and I hope you will have a chance to write back.
Susy
AnswerHi!
Oh isn't Kiki cute! I love it when people attach photos. Yes, unfortunately, it's normal for mice to pee and poop on you. People can decide when they want to poop, but mice don't have the same kind of rectum that we do-- they don't have muscles to choose to close or open. They know when they just are about to poop as you can tell by the fact that there are more poops in the corners of the cage away from the nest. As for peeing, they can hold it and choose when to pee but of course they have teeny bladders so they don't have much of a choice when their bladder is full. In the cage they usually go in the corner. Now they don't like to pee in the nest, and so they have an instinct to pee somewhere else. You might notice that if you are wearing nice pants and holding the mouse, keeping her off the pants, the second she manages to get on them she will pee on them. This isn't Murphy's Law, it's a mouse trying not to pee where she has decided it's home. I tried to train some mice to pee on a certain cloth once-- I'd hold them for a while and then put them briefly on the cloth. One of them learned it, the other didn't.
There are two more reasons why the mice poop on you. First, you usually pick them up during the day and you take them out of the nest, right? If so, think about what you do when you first get up in the morning. They gotta go! The second reason is that when you pick them up they are stimulated and their little systems start moving. This is why they will often poop a whole lot when you just pick them up, but afterwards can do a lot of running around without pooping very often. If you have a place for them to run around, maybe you want to start them there and hold them when they have pooped a few times. I recently had a mouse who used to poop exactly 5 times when I first picked her up.
I had a mouse once who never pooped on me or even when I let her out on her mouse entertainment table. I don't know how she did it. Once when I left her out for several hours I went to look for her and she was sitting way in the back, next to some bog poops, and looking mortified and ashamed. Then again, she was a pretty amazing mouse in other ways too. She got out of the cage and found me one time when she and her cage mates were being poisoned (horrible story-- never give mice avocado pits, they are deathly poisonous). But no other mouse in my 36 years of mice has ever managed the feat of being out for an hour without pooping.
Sometimes I designate a certain sweatshirt or shirt the mouse shirt, and always put that on when I hold them, instead of having them pee on every piece of clothing I wear.
Have fun anyway!
squeaks n giggles,
Natasha
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