Wild babies and disease

Question
My daughter found three wild mice at a farm, they were at least 3 days old, I have been taking care of them and they have survived and are now 8 days old. We wanted to keep them as pets but I have heard that they can carry diseases very harmful to humans. Unsure what to do?

Answer
Dear Kelly,

Your wild mice are not going to develop any diseases that they didn't have when you found them.  The illness that has people most worried is from the hantavirus, and a person in this country has about 1 in 80 million chance of getting that, though the warnings make it sound like it is common.  I wrote about that about three answers ago, so you might like to read that.  You are far more likely, for instance, to get struck by lightning, win the lottery, or drown in a bathtub.

Mice don't develop diseases on their own.  They catch them like people do.  For instance, although mice don't get sick from our cold viruses, they can catch bacterial infections (for instance, strep throat) and die from them.  You would not want to be bitten by a wild mouse, because it could have diseases it picked up in the wild.  But your babies aren't in the wild to catch anything.  

I wouldn't worry about it at all.  There is some small chance that they already came with an illness at three days, but they are so young that they have only had contact with their mother.  

Have fun with your new 'kids'!  There is plenty of information about raising wild and tame babies in my archives, which you can find by clicking on my name and then on 'questions answered.'  Feel free to write again.

squeaks n giggles,

Natasha