Has anyone had mice?

shop deals on amazon
Love your rabbit
Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
Rabbits Online Forum

Help Support Rabbits Online Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
N

Nelson_is_mine

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 3, 2007
Messages
154
Reaction score
0
Location
Exton, Pennsylvania, USA
On sunday my co worker rescued what she thought was a mole from a grill. When things are pink and hairless, it's just hard to tell, you know? I dashed this hope by pointing out that baby moles probably live in tunnels. We then thought it was a mouse and then a squirrel and then a mouse again and then a chipmunk and now a mouse again. I've been looking at pictures online, but, as newborns, they all look the same. I was wondering if anyone has every been around a litter of mice or new about them. Pictures would be even better.

It's currently being fed kitten milk every two hours. If it is not a mouse then that will need to be changed. I'm working on pictures, but they most likely won't happen until sometime tomorrow. He just started to turn very dark today. He's quite wiggly (which makes for dangerous feeding, he's almost gotten a lung full many a time) and has whiskers and squeaks like no tomorrow. I feed him using a q-tip, as he's too small for even the smallest syringe. My guess is that he is a little more than an inch long. Eyes and ears are still far from being open and he is naked.

If anyone has any better ideas for feeding methods, any expierience, or and pictures I would be most appreciative. If not, then I guess we can just bet on what it is. I'm hoping it's a chipmunk. I think that would be so cute.
 
Alright- I can't really you what it is, but obviously its in the rodent family.
I know why its turning dark though- Its getting fur!
My friends mouse had a litter of babies once, they were very,very tiny....like maybe a little less then an inch big.
So if its bigger then that, maybe its a larger rodent.

sorry for the lack of information... : /
 
I'm going to move this to the LET YOUR HARE DOWN forum :) for off-topic discussions.

Pink and an inch long could be a rat baby.



 
I definately need pictures :). If it were a rat baby, you could tell...they are larger than mouse babies.

By saying it is an inch in length, it is most likely a mouse baby.

Look for a "milk band" belly. The tummy should look white-ish, which means the baby is full of milk. Don't forget to gently rub the baby's bottom with a warm wet cloth, to stimulate him to go potty.



Info on orphaned babies:
http://www.rmca.org/Articles/orphans.htm



I wish EileenH would come by, she is our wildlife lady :biggrin2:.
 
I was hoping you would stop by this, undergunfire. I knew you had ratties and would probably be able to tell what is not one. Thanks for the site, it's been telling me that I've been doing the right thing, which is very reassuring. I have pictures (given they were taken on a cell phone) of the baby monday and today (wed). I measured him as best i could and he appears to be 1 3/4" long. I tried weighing it with my mother's food scale, but it wouldn't even register. I'm dropping it off at work today so someone else can watch it (we're doing it in shift between three of us) and they might be able to sneak a better scale there (I work at a vets).

I fail at inserting pictures into the post, so I'm just going to post the links, I hope no one minds.

here is the baby on monday the 14th:

http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k226/Blenderpie/?action=view&current=babyonmon.jpg

http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k226/Blenderpie/?action=view&current=babywithpooponmon.jpg

http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k226/Blenderpie/?action=view&current=babyonmoncute.jpg

And today, wed the 16th:

http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k226/Blenderpie/?action=view&current=babyonwed.jpg

http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k226/Blenderpie/?action=view&current=babyonwedfoot.jpg

http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k226/Blenderpie/?action=view&current=profilebabyonwed.jpg


 
Thanks Panda, for your response as well. It didn't lack information, you mentioned the fur. Granted we guessed that's what it was, but you confirmed it. and not to mention that it's porbably too big to be a baby mouse!And you bothered to reply at all. That made me happy. Thanks also to Bo for moving it into the proper forum (I should have known to post it here) and your guess. I hope you're right.
 
Hi,

I do mice here all the time. Kitten milk replacer is inappropriate nutrition. I use a formula with at least 32% protein and 40% fat. Their metabolism is blistering. This concentration of formula is a puppy formula in powder form.....I know Esbilac offers it and I think I have seen some at Wal Mart offered by Hartz. It's not perfect....but lots better than KMR or Goat's Milk. Pinky mice are notoriously difficult to feed....."tubing" with a very small catheter is the easiest (you have to understand easy here) but if you have a steady hand, I have used human insulin syringes with very small needles. They should be bed 5% of their body weight every couple of hours...around the clock. They should grow quickly and they should be weaned about 14 days.

If it's a wild mouse (and I suspect it is) and especially if it's a chipmunk, I think the legal thing to do is to transfer the animal to a wildlife rehabber. Nearly all states have laws regarding the holding of wildlife....any wildlife. Chipmunks are much like squirrels and require a very specialized diet or they will get a devastating condition known as Metabolic Bone Disease (MBD) that can result in catastrophic injuries. I urge you to contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator as soon as possible in order to give these babies their best chance at life....regardless of what they are.

Randy
 
i had mice when i was about six and one of the girls had babies one time. he looks a bit like those babies, but he's probably older than mine were the last time i saw them. the mother and one of the other mice, erm, well, they kinda.........................ate themright after they wereborn:grumpy:. can't really tell you much past that, but it does look like a older version of them. good luck with raising them, when we were having problems with them, every body(the stupid pet store:X)said they couldn't be hand raised, i wish i'd had some one else around to tell me that i could:?
 
Thanks everyone! I will definatly try the puppy milk, Randy. Or at least tell my other co-worker to. We've been rotating who has it every two nights so we can get some sleep. It's a mutual responsibility at work.

We origionally tried to get the local pet store to take it, as one of their mothers had recently had a litter, but they rejected that flat out. As for the rehabber, it's not much of an option for any of us to get it there right now, as only one of us has a car. We want the little guy to have his best chance at survival and are doing the best we can for right now. If the little guy starts to take a turn for the worst, we will certianly make the huge trek (it's a little over an hour away, and with today's gas....) to someone who is more equipped to handle the job. But as for right now he is thriving. He's a hungry, squeaking, crawling round tummied little guy, whatever he is.
 
Sorry! I haven't been online - we wildlife rehabbers are slammed with baby everything right now so that's where I've been.

Of course I can't find the reference article to link here. But, as has been said, it appears that you have a rodent.
We feed all our baby rodents (whether they be baby mice, baby rats, or baby chipmunks & squirrels) puppy milk replacer (Esbilac), as Randy said.

Here is a link to wildlife rehabilitators in your state. It is true that it's best to get the baby to a rehabber - baby mice are hard to hand feed. That said, it might be difficult to find a rehabber to hand raise baby mice. My center does it, but we have quite a few rat and mice fans, so they have a soft spot in our hearts.
But here it is:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~devo0028/contactN.htm#pa

Hey check this out: http://pawr.com/

In the interim, make sure you stimulate the baby. When baby mammals eyes are closed, you need to make them go to the bathroom. I don't mean to state the obvious if you know this and know how, but basically take a warm damp paper towel or cottonball (something soft), and rub it over the little guys' genitals until they urinate. You probably won't get feces until they are on a good feeding schedule, so don't worry about that at first.

I would try first to see if a rehabber would take him; if you get stuck, go ahead with the Esbilac (most pet stores sell it. Petco, PetSmart, etc). Get the powder, as the liquid is only good for a day or so - you will be using so little of it, you'll want to make it fresh when you need it.
If you feed by a syringe, make sure the needle is off. If you can get your hands on a 1/2cc syringe without a needle, that should be a good size for his mouth. He will probably only eat ~ .2cc's at a time at his size.

Keep him warm, and as Amy said, you should be able to see a "milk band" in his belly.So:
#1: Warmth
#2: Hydration
#3: Stimulation
#4: Try to find a rehabilitator to help you
#5: If you can't, move toward feeding.

I promise I'll check back to see if you need any more help - I just got a little backed up.
"We want the little guy to have his best chance at survival and are doing the best we can for right now. If the little guy starts to take a turn for the worst, we will certianly make the huge trek (it's a little over an hour away, and with today's gas..
Click to expand...


Edited: I just noticed where you said you're short on transportation.
Please.....do what you can to get it to a rehabber before he starts to take a turn for the worst. Wildlife rehabilitatorsare doing the best they can in a very busy season; it's hard enough to get a little guy that small to survive in the BEST of situations. If you wait until he starts to fail, the rehabilitator will probably not be able to turn it around.
Get it help BEFORE the problems start; if he starts to go downhill, don't burdon a rehabber with it at that point. It's just as heartbreaking for us toowhen they don't make it. It's kind of like if someone came on here with a rabbit, and waited until the rabbit was way sick before they took it to a veterinarian...

I had someone with a baby duck that I've been trying to get them to bring it to me for a week. They finally decided to bring it yesterday - why? Because they've been feeding it bird seed and "it's not looking too good".
The damage was done and there was nothing we could do to reverse it; it never made it to us. Had they gotten it to us last week, he'd be swimming in the pool with 10 other ones we have.

I know it's tough with gas prices but every rehabber I know is averaging a few thousand dollars this summer between formula, supplies, vet bills, etc. I hopeI'm coming across the right way ; we understand the inconvenience of travel and expenses, but please..don't wait until it's going bad.







 
I realize now that "a turn for the worst" was probably a poor way to phrase that. I think the message that I was trying to convey was that if there was something that we couldn't handle, that we would contact someone with more expierience than us. As you said, most wildlife rehabbers are booked solid around now, I wouldn't want to load them down with another animal that was thriving now. If it becomes too much work for us, or for some reason all the work was on me (one of the three backed out so it's just me and my other co-worker now, and her husband was not happy about her getting up every two hours) I would probably look harder for other options. I do not mean this to be disrespectful at all. I appreciate your concern.we've turned in more than our fair share of animals into wildlife rehabbers. (for some reason, we tend to find hurt and abandoned things) It's just that for right now this is working. Probably because of all of the helpful advice that I've found here and elsewhere online. It's amazing work that rehabbers do and it's nice of them to share their knowledge. It's hard taking care of one baby! I can't imagine the work going into more!

He's eating puppy milk out of q-tips (which he actually nurses from, it's so cute), has a full round tummy and is getting more active by the day. I can't wait til he starts growing fur, he already has tiny little whiskers. At first, it was hard to get him to urinate, but now he does with little stimulation and he poops regularly. We're not checking every ten minutes to see if he's alive anymore, he's stable and doing well. We're proud of ourselves for our dilagence. We've had people drop little pink things off with us before (why they think a vet is the place I don't know) and they've all died within 24 hours. I know we're far from being out of the danger zone yet, but on day five we have our confidence up and our routine down.

We've decided to measure and take picture every two days to mark his progess. I'll be sure to update them when we do. If anyone thinks that it is not enough progress, or that we're being stubborn idiots, then we will think about reconsidering.

Again, thank you all for your information and concern, it is really helping. Without it the little guy would probably be dead.
 
I'd glad he's hanging in there.Keep an eye thatwith the q-tip that he isn't ingesting any cotton.

Baby mice grow fast! and believe it or not can start self-feeding pretty quickly. When he's a little bit steady on his feet and can move around, put a little cap of the formula thickened with baby rice cereal. Break up some Cheerios and put it in there.(Rodents loove Cheerios).
I've seen many a baby mouse eating out of a dish before their eyes are even opened!

Keep up the good work, and thanks for understanding what I was awkwardly trying to say.


 
Really? He's very good at scooting. I'll give it a try probably tomorrow. He doesn't have any fur, but he has tiny whiskers and claws. I'm not sure if that's old enough to do what you're saying, but what's the harm in trying?

Of course I understood. I was just worried about you thinking I was being a jerk for not taking the baby in....
 
If he's moving around, I'd definitely at least leave some formula thickened with a little baby rice cereal for him to try. The rice cereal just gives it a little consistency so they are not just trampling through watery liquid, plus if he gets it on himself, he'll start to groom it off.
Grooming leads to "oh yeah, I could just lick this out of the dish!".

That's how I get my baby opossums to start self-feed when they are ready.
 
Thank you all for your advice. He was doing so well on it and died quite suddenly.

My friend and co-worker was watching him and noticed that at his twelve thirty feeding that he seemed, I think when he texted he said "He doesn't seem himself" He was checking him every ten minutes after that, worried, and he died around three in the morning yesterday. Two hours before midnight he was a strong baby boy. It seems just so sudden though not unexpected. We were surprised that he lived for as long as he did, but furious that he had gone. We don't know if it was human error that finally caught up with us, our inexpierience, or the fact that it's very hard for little pinkies to stay alive.

RIP little guy. If I ever find another like you, I will know thatthey must go to someone with more expierence, no matter how well they seem to be doing.
 
you did your best:hug1

RIP little guy:cry4:
 
You did your best; little mice are hard to raise. You did more than many other people would have even attempted.

It's hard to rehab little babies like that. We have a lot of them that don't make it; all you can do is your best, which you did.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top