Wild House Mice

Question
Hi there,
We had a rodent problem in a house we were renting this past winter.  So we bought live traps from PETA and when we caught them, we put them in a mouse cage (with plenty of add-ons for them to hide) and planned on releasing them when the winter was over.
Well today I noticed that they had 3 babies! They have their fur, are moving around, and their eyes are almost fully open.
It is impossible to think that we're going to keep a whole load of wild mice, so what do you think is our best option?  Should we wait for the babies to get bigger and then release them into the wild?  Or will the babies not be able to deal with being wild?
I just want to know what to do so that we use the safest method for the mice.

Answer
Dear Deanna,

Thank you for being so mouse careful.  You do have a conundrum.  

The longer you keep them all together, the more likely that more babies will turn up.  After all, you did only just discover these little guys-- who are already exactly two weeks old (could they be any cuter?)! There may well be more.  Mice are far more zealous than rabbits at "being fruitful and multiplying."  Just for your curiosity, tame mice give birth every three weeks and babies are weaned at three+ weeks and babies start thinking about having babies at 4 1/2 weeks-- and there can be up to 12-16 pups in a litter!  Wild mice have smaller families but they also excel at multiplying.

When you let them go, it is likely that families will be torn apart, and thus if the babies are not weaned, they will probably never find their mom and will certainly die of exposure.  Thus you are certainly right that you don't want to release two-week-old babies into the wild.  You'd really like to give them another three weeks to give them a chance.

I don't know your exact setup, but I wonder if you can kind of weed them out-- if there is an area that mice x, y and z sleep in with no babies, you can safely escort mice x, y, and z into nature.  This sorting would be done in daytime when mice are mostly asleep.  Another thing is if you can access individual mice at all, you can safely release all the ones who look like they have big butts-- that is the males' testicles.  Mice don't need Dads around to teach them football like kids do!  You can also identify a nursing mother mouse by her very visible 8 tits, if you can see her tummy.  Try not to separate a mouse who looks like that from any babies.

To handle a wild mouse, wear leather or thick gloves.  If you can isolate the mouse with both hands around it, that's great, but most likely you will have to grab it by its tail.  Grab it as close to the base of the tail as possible so the tail doesn't get injured, and immediately set the mouse-- don't let go of the tail!-- on the palm of your other hand (or flat surface).  Or lower it gently into the next container.  

I haven't told you what to do, of course; I've only given you the facts.  One thing:  Mice can travel up to two miles.  It probably isn't an issue if you are no longer living in the same place, but if you release mice too close to where they have been living, they will return (like Lassie).  Find an abandoned house or building, a stone wall, a meadow-- someplace where mice can hide easily.  My family accompanies the freed mice with a large supply of mouse seeds!  

Good luck!

squeaks n giggles,

Natasha