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How to care for baby mice with no mother?
Yesterday we found a nest of baby mice, a mom was passed so we took them home. From what i can discuss it they have been about a week aged with their eyes open as well as they have been entirely lonesome in fur. Any assistance upon how to lift them until they have been aged sufficient to go out in to a wild?
I would similar to to know what i should feed them etc.
Any utilitarian tips to keep them alive will unequivocally help.
Thank you.
With orphaned pet rodents, you’d usually try to find a local breeder who has a nursing mother, but since these are wild, I doubt any breeder would be willing to take them in and potentially introduce disease or parasites to their own animals.
Your best bet is to find a pet store that sells live "pinky" or "hopper" mice/rats as food for reptiles. Those stores usually breed their own mice/rats. See if they are willing to sell one of their mother mice/rats, ideally one which has a litter close in age to the mice you found. Buy the mother mouse/rat and a couple of her babies– not her whole litter, since she will be nursing all of the wild babies as well. Introduce the wild babies to the foster mother, and hope for the best. You may want to try a rat mother instead of a mouse mother; rats are supposed to be more accepting of offspring that are not their own.
This is the technique I use for fostering orphaned gerbil pups– I’m not sure if it would make the introduction easier with mice/rats or if it’s not needed:
- First, put the foster mother in a container by herself for a moment.
- Hold the foster mother, and carefully rub the orphaned babies on her belly (gerbils have a scent gland here– I’m not sure about mice/rats).
- Place the orphaned babies in with the foster mother’s babies, and let them greet each other. After a few minutes, they should curl up in a big pile together.
- Then put the foster mother in with all the babies. She should accept the orphans as her own.
If you are unable to find a foster mother, it’s also possible to hand-rear the babies. However, it’s a lot of work, and isn’t always successful. Here is a good article on raising orphaned mice and rats: http://www.afrma.org/rminfo8.htm
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