Advice on young wild mice please.

[slimeruk]

Hi

We live next to a field and a mouse is not an uncommon sight in the house. In fact my youngest son swears it is 'Tommy' coming back each time I catch one with my humane trap and release him.

Last Friday I caught an adult and released him/her and then on Monday we noticed a sound coming from a rarely used cupboard, more mice, in fact it was on adult and 4 young, I captured most of them individually with my trusty trap, but unfortunately the adult skipped my trap and disappeared behind the cooker. After a crackle and inspection, our worst fears were confirmed, Mr/Mrs Mouse had tried to climb across the live wires inside the cooker, with instant and fatal consequences.

We now have 4 young wood mice in a large tupperware container, I believe they are too young to fend for themselves at the moment.

Do I:

A) Release them now.
B) Fatten them up and release them later
C) Keep them as 'pets'

They do not appear to be stressed as I know wild animals can be. They have food and shelter, they crafted from newspaper dropped in.

It would be no hardship for me to rear them here, but I don't want to cause any cruelty or to deprive them of a wild life.

Many Thanks

As a gauge of age, they are all around 1/3 adult size, when do they fend for themselves?

[Wild-Woman]

Hard one but I wouldn't do B or C because you might find that your 4 turns into 24 very rapidly if you have mixed sexes there. Think I would give them their chances now and let nature take it's course. Mice are active very quickly and pretty tough, even though they're small.
Julie

[tiggertoo]

Only you will know if they are toooo young to survive but I think you might be feeling just a little guilty about what happend to mum (although not your fault) I agree with wildwomen - release them now.

Mice are hardy little blighters and will more than liklely shock you.

[GuyF]

I once tried to raise a family of baby voles which my cat had caught and very sadly they all died, I don't think its really possible for us to meet their requirements, so I'd release them. (As long as they are big enough to find food and run away from danger)

[honeybee]

I have a couple of woodmice somewhere in the house which as yet have avoided all traps but they're not a problem like house mice, apart from seeing one emerge from the bin with a sweet in it's mouth and a couple of scuttles out of the corner of my eye I've not seen or smelt any sign of them. I see some tiny ones in the garden. I think they fend for themselves very early on. They'd probably only die for definite if they were still blind. I've been told anything other than house mice will, if they can make their own way out, do so in the summer.

[speckled wood]

I have raised young wild mice, I would try them with some hamster food or even bird seed just to see how readily they feed, they will grow rapidly if they are ok and you will be able to release them within a few days anyway.

[SueR]

i was recently showing my nephew and his friend the various bird boxes we had and which ones were successful.I pulled away my honeysuckle which almost covers an old anderson shelter shed (some five foot up was a bird box).To our amazement a little head popped out and back in as if wondering what the disturbance was!.It was a little brown mouse who appeared again before disappearing down the honeysuckle.Since then the birdbox has filled up with nesting material but i haven't seen any mice.I am now wondering what on earth to do?its a little too close to my bungalow for my liking but how can i move them on and if not how many will i end up with? I wouldn't want to hurt them for the world, any ideas??

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by SueR

i was recently showing my nephew and his friend the various bird boxes we had and which ones were successful.I pulled away my honeysuckle which almost covers an old anderson shelter shed (some five foot up was a bird box).To our amazement a little head popped out and back in as if wondering what the disturbance was!.It was a little brown mouse who appeared again before disappearing down the honeysuckle.Since then the birdbox has filled up with nesting material but i haven't seen any mice.I am now wondering what on earth to do?its a little too close to my bungalow for my liking but how can i move them on and if not how many will i end up with? I wouldn't want to hurt them for the world, any ideas??

sounds like woodmice to me , i'd be inclined to leave them alone as they won't be harmful to you in anyway , and if you do move them on they might well wind up in your loft.

[SueR]

Thanks Eeyore i think i will do just that "nothing!"But today still no sign hide or hair , now i am wondering "i hope they are ok" so even when i decide to do nothing i end up worrying about them!One night there was a little mouse in the foxes dog bowl(if you know what i mean sounds irish doesn't it )just as foxy came to see what was for dinner tonight as she looked in the bowl i could see the mouse shrink back and i tapped on the window to distract foxy for the split second the mouse needed to escape.I was really pleased with myself but foxy was none to amused i'm sure!Is that you dancing?

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by SueR

Is that you dancing?

the dancing avatar goes back to the world cup sweepstake thread where boddie and I were talking about whether his dancing bear reflects his moves - apparently it does - so I put mine up to show my own um...."unique" style.