Should I keep my foundling mouse?

Question
Hi Natasha,

I wrote to you a couple of days ago and you answered my questions about the 2 orphaned house mice I found.  Sadly, the little one that barely moved and had his eyes mostly closed, died today.  I've been crying all day.  I really wanted him/her to survive.  Maybe I didn't do something right.  I feel so bad.  The other little guy seems very healthy.  I feed him Bisalac (puppy formula in one dish and egg yolk and 2 percent milk in another, and it's always gone or missing a lot in the little rx cap I feed them in, a couple hours later.  Now I don't know what to do.  Should I buy another little mouse as a playmate?  I feel that the surviving mouse really misses his brother/sister....they were always huddled together.  Now I'm questioning whether or not I should even be messing with the eco system and should I let this other little guy go in a couple weeks or so????  He/she is so cute.  We call it "Jumper" as whenever we try to cup it in our hand, very gently of course, he/she jumps !   

I'm just feeling soooooo sad....not just for me, as I tried to save the little one, but for the other mouse, as they were brother/sister or whatever, and they cuddled together and now I'm afraid the surviving mouse is very terrified.  What should I do?  Get another mouse?

We had a "funeral" for the mouse that died today and I completely cleaned out the tank and wood shavings (from the pet store), and he's now alone.....and not happy.  I put a tiny soft teddy bear in the tank with him and we bought him a little "house", but I'm questioniong my position as a caregiver/keeper.  If I should let him go, when?  I would love to keep him/her as a pet, but I feel bad doing that now.  

Thanks,
Jan

Answer
Dear Jan,

I'm so sorry about the little guy's demise.  You did nothing wrong.  Not only did he suffer severe shock and a time of starvation, but he also may have been abandoned by his mom because he wasn't well.  

Mice do like companionship, and with him at that age you could probably put him with another small mouse.  However, if he is actually a boy, he has to live alone anyway because two boys will eventually fight, possibly to the death; and a boy and a girl will produce hundreds of babies before you can blink!  So he may have to be an 'only mouse.'  'Only Mice' need lots of love.

When someone catches an adult wild mouse I encourage them to let it go because it won't be happy in captivity.  With a hand-raised baby the issue becomes more difficult.  The way I decide it is if the mouse is friendly and doesn't spend its time trying to get out of the cage, it's OK to keep it.  For instance, I had a half-wild litter recently (oops!  Cage bars too far apart) and some of the babies became crazy wild, so I let them go; others became super tame like their mom, and are great pets.  Actually most of them became crazy.  I strongly recommend against breeding wild and tame mice now!

Good luck with little Jumper.  I hope he becomes very tame.

squeaks,

Natasha