Field Mouse had babies...

[kup]

Since my last thread here, with my adoptive mouse family, I have been catching the odd one and two still.

The other day I caught a fat female and whilst sitting overnight in my halfway house she decided it was the perfect place to burrow in and have a litter of pups...

She seems happy, if skittish atm, and the pups have made it to 4 days old (this evening) without her culling any of them. I peeked this evening (she burrowed down and then back up into a hollow card box buried into the bedding) and they are all doing well. I counted at least 4 pups if not more, a few around the edges were easy to spot and then a large mass of them in a big pile. lol

Now, what is the best course of action here? I'm going to let them get to about 4 weeks old and then do I let them go, mumma can go obviously, but will the babies be ok to go too? Do they learn enough from mumma or will they know enough instinctively to survive if i release them with mumma mouse? I've got no qualms about looking after the little ones as I've become quite attached to the various guests in my house as they wander through. lol

[werdnal]

We found a mouse had given birth to 4 babies behind our cooker. We caught her and put her in a small plastic aquarium full of hay, and picked up the babies and put with her (do not touch babies with bare hands as the smell will be alien to mum and she may eat the babies). We kept her in the aquarium overnight, then took it out and placed on its side, under our hedge, with a piece of sacking over it to hide it from preditors and keep it cool as it was mid-summer. We just left them to it. Went and checked about 3 weeks later and they were gone, so can only assume mum raised them or moved them somewhere else.

You really should release them somewhere and just let the mother get on with it. She knows how best to rear her young and so long as you release the mum and babies together, she is unlikely to abandon them and will probably move them to a safer nest. Its fun studying these creatures, but you must remember you are interfering with nature and you should let them go. They are not pets and you should not keep them. Just because they choose to come into your home, they are still wild animals. Be proud that you have helped them on their way, then leave it to them to get on with their lives.