how do i hand rear wild mice?

Question

my kids found 5 wild mice there eyes havent opened yet but they have fur i couldnt just leave them to die but i dont no wat to do to help them

there mum was in a poison box. i only have watered down cows milk till morning

there mom was in a poison trap box dying i just couldnt leave them in the cold they were just out in the open next to the box i thought they would freeze to death

Answer 1

You can try to use an eye dropper with goats milk (you can buy at grocery store). Dilute it HALF water/half milk. You may be able to find a kitten bottle small enough, depending on how large these little ones are.
Feed them about every 3 hrs. You will also have to make them go potty. Use a warm wet cloth on their bottoms to stimulate how their mother would clean them.

Question for you: Were did your children find them? Their mom may have been out hunting, so it would be best to put them back in their nest and leave them alone and see if the mother comes back.
Assuming that does not work:
You need to be prepared to find homes for them or keep them if they live. Don't give them to a pet store, they will be sold for snake food.

Answer 2

I would leave them alone! Do Not touch or move them! I am sure that their mother will reappear as soon as the coast is clear! Don't touch or move them and she will take over where she left off.

If you are certain that she will not return... I have to ask WHY you would want to rescue something that 'most' would be glad to catch in a trap and get OUT of their house? I LOVE animals, if you check my 360 Blog you'll see that I have done my fair share of rescueing animals... but mice?

I would also caution you to think about the difficult life lesson that you are about to teach your children. I STILL feel badly about the bird that my friends and I rescued when I was in 8th grade. We brought it to the Science teacher and called him Rocky. (It was the 70's) He had fallen from the nest and didn't have feathers yet. It was probably a black bird/crow? The entire class tried to keep it alive, fed it and kept it warm. After only a few days, sadly it died and we were all so devastated that the teacher agreed to have a non-denominational funeral for Rocky.

Talk about Digression! If you are bound and determined to do this, I would contact local wildlife rescue groups or a local zoo, teaching veterinary school or a veterinarian for expert advice.

Be sure to prepare your kids for the "circle of life " talk... sounds like they may need it!
Good Luck!

Answer 3

I would feed them the cows milk for now then see if you can get baby milk tomorrow. Try feeding it to them with a dropper. I would consider phonong your local vet and asking for more advice.
Get a book on pet mice and see if it has anything about orphaned baby mice and rear the wild ones the same. You will have to release them to the wild when they are older.

Answer 4

Hand reared animals very rarely get successfully reintroduced to the wild. The closest they get is parks and reserves where there is someone to keep an eye on them. I think it's great that you want the mouse to go back to the wild, but I don't think it'll survive. I think it would be better to keep it as a pet.

Answer 5

It's very difficult to hand-rear baby mice, I would say almost impossible to do it successfully. They can't digest cow's milk, you'd have to get the kitten replacement formula, and feed them around the clock every 2 hours or so - then rub their tummies and bottoms with a warm moist cloth to stimulate bowel movement (like their mother would by licking them). I know it would be very hard to leave them to die... but I think by trying to save them you would only be prolonging their agony. I don't know.... tough call.

Answer 6

Where did they come from? You might have taken them away from their nest when their mother was away. They will probably be stressed out, so there are some herbal drops you can get at an organic food store. You can try to give them warm goat milk in an eye dropper. Good luck!

*Oh! I think the mother licks their tummy when it is time for them to do their "buisness" so you might want to research about it.

Answer 7

Im sorry but they wont live without mom so your best bet is take to a pet store and see if there is a mother feeding there they will be able to eat .we tried to bottle feed one that was found my son wanted to keep it we kept him alive a week he died we bought the bottle and pet milk and all but you cant raise them they need a mom .best to you .

Answer 8

Special Handling
Wild-derived mouse strains are valuable mapping tools. The large number of genetic differences in progeny from interspecific crosses with common inbred laboratory mice permits the mapping of many genes in a single cross. Researchers using a wild-derived strain for the first time may not always be prepared for the special handling these characteristically hyperactive mice require, but following a few simple guidelines may help.

Ordering
Order more than one pair of breeders because sometimes wild-derived mice fail to breed with the first mate provided.
Upon Arrival

Wild-derived mice tend to burrow and can completely disappear from sight in the bedding. If the shipping container appears to be empty or have fewer mice than expected when it arrives it is very important to check the bedding in the bottom thoroughly. Have a new cage and forceps ready to facilitate picking up the mice as the shipping box is opened.

One way to unpack the wild-derived strains is to place the entire shipping container in the bottom of a sterilized garbage can or other large container. Any mice that get away from you will be much easier to catch in the larger container rather than running around in a mouse room.

Have an extra cage lid handy to place over the opening of the shipping box. As you open the box, slide the lid into place over the opening and maneuver as needed to create smaller openings from which to remove mice. Unlike most common laboratory strains, wild-derived mice look for exits rather than running from light.

Colony Care
Once your wild-derived mice are in your animal facility there are a number of factors involved in maintaining a successful breeding program. Place pairs together in a quiet room, away from areas of heavy traffic and noise. Handle as little as possible. Your Animal Technicians should be trained to handle wild-derived mice and should allot enough time when dealing with them to work slowly and patiently. Wild derived strains are more sensitive to stress from shipping, new surroundings and new handlers. When pairs are placed together, give them 8-12 weeks to settle down and produce a litter. If after 8-12 weeks a pair has not produced a litter, you can switch the males around to different females. Sometimes females will breed with different males.

At 6-8 weeks of age males may fight. Separate them or pair them with females to avoid possible aggression. Strains to watch for this in particular are the CZECH II/Ei mice and progeny from all crosses involving M. m. castaneus.

Handling
The key to breeding wild-derived mice successfully is to disturb them as little as possible. Handling these mice by forceps rather than by hand is recommended. Sticking forceps down into a cage is less traumatic than an entire hand, and importantly, forceps do not deposit human scent on newborn pups. Scent is one factor that could induce a mother to cannibalize her litter. If you do use hands, cover them with a clean pair of rubber gloves each time. Additionally, to decrease the incidence of cannibalism, some colony managers recommend not to change a cage if it contains a litter that is less than 3 days old. When changing cages with very young litters in them, move the nest and pups as a unit by using rubber gloved hands. Also avoid taking the cage off the shelf repeatedly to look at the mice.

Nesting
Nestlets or Kimwipes placed in the cage will often encourage nesting and improve overall productivity. If, however, a female develops a history of abandonment or of cannibalizing her litters, then fostering the pups to a laboratory strain female is usually the best alternative.

Fostering
If you suspect that a female is not taking care of her newborns( i.e., general failure to thrive, absence of milk spots in newborn stomachs, females are getting pregnant but no litters are seen, chew marks on pups, pups just left randomly all over the shavings and pups found dead while others are left alive), then foster the pups out to a female who is a different color and has had a litter of her own within the last 24-36 hours. Newborn litters can be fostered with another litter of 1-3 days old. Place the pups that are to be fostered in the nest with the foster mother's litter and mingle the pups together. Two or three of the foster mother's pups should be left in the nest to provide scent, but the remaining pups should be removed to ensure adequate milk supply.

Answer 9

Bless you for being so kind.

I hope that you can save them, but I fear the worst.

Call a local vets practice for advice on feeding etc.

Answer 10

why would you want to?? Mice are vermin who spread disease. leave em alone and don't interfere with nature.