How do you look after a pet mouse?

Answer 1

You can get diseases from handling a wild mouse. If you have children, your kids are more susceptible to catch diseases because their immune system is not as strong as ours. Examples from a BU study include: * Argentine hemorrhagic fever * Bolivian hemorrhagic fever * Endemic typhus * Francisella tularensis * Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome * Helicobacter cinaedi * Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome * Hymenolepsis diminuta * Hymenolepsis nana * Lassa fever * Leptospirosis * Listeriosis * Lymphocytic choriomeningitis * Ornithonyssus bacoti-induced dermatitis * Plague * Rabies * Rickettsialpox * Salmonellosis * Spirillum minus * Streptobacillus moniliformis * Tick-borne relapsing fever * Trichophyton mentagrophytes * Venezuelan hemmorhagic fever * Yersinia enterocolitica Here is more input: * Boy, did you ever bring back memories for me. When I was 38 years old there was some land being cleared across the street. As my husband and I were walking along we heard this little squeak and I looked down and saw a baby mouse (my husband still says it was a white rat. LOL) and it had hardly any hair on it although it's little eyes were open. Well, I'm soft-hearted and I brought it home. I fed it warm milk with a little honey (just a tad) and soaked strong paper toweling in the milk and fed it approx. 1/2 hour all day and even into the night. I put some cotton in a box and put it in a larger box and kept a good eye on the little guy with some wood chips to poop in and I kept it clean and changed it every day. My intentions were to let it mature and then take it down to my mother-in-law's field and let it go. Yeah right! This little sweet mouse (or rat) grew up faster than I thought and chewed a hole through the large cardboard box and reeked havoc in my house by chewing the electrical wiring from behind my stove, chewed some of my shoes, the edges of my carpets, etc. We tried catching him several times with no luck. Even our dog at the time had become friends with it! LOL So, I got the bright idea to get some cheese. I put a tiny spec near the back of the stove, then a little larger piece a bit further away and then the "big mama" hunk in the middle of the kitchen floor. Well! That mouse was furious that I put the best part of the cheese in the middle of the floor, but he got it. What happened? He just got fat! He was so fat he practically rolled where he went, so it was easy to corner him by the front door and I grabbed him (had electrical wire gloves on) and got him down to the field. Thought you might enjoy that story and yes, you can do the same thing, but don't be stupid like me and put it in a cage until it's old enough to get out in a field. * You can take it in and feed it what you would feed a pet mice. They will probably not live as long because they are use tof running in the wild and eating grass but whats the difference they will die outside. * Leave the babies with their mom and pretend there not even there because if you touch with them then you might accidentally kill them! take it easy and slow and try not to frighten them. you can feed the mama mouse pretty much anything, except for, Oreo cookies and also never feed them milk because milk has a bad ingredient that will surely kill the poor mice a just stay calm! I've also heard you can feed them carrots and or apples

Answer 2

I have 2 pet mice, they're cuddly, friendly and loveable,

and best of all, they're SO easy to look after.:-

You need a fairly large cage (at least 40x40cm)

Hay or wood bedding and soft bedding so they can sleep,

a water bottle, food (I use WAGG HAMSTER GERBIL MOUSE food)

some chew toys, and any other toys.

A wheel for them to run in is also recommended.

Make sure you handle them outside the cage at least every day, although you CAN leave your mice alone for MAX 3 days, they'll look after themselves.

Clean the cage once a week, at least but not too much or the mouse will feel like its not at home because every time you clean it they have to "mark their scent" again,

you can clean the cage with washing up liquid, disinfectant, most cleaning things, (not bleach or anything)

make sure you rinse all the soap off though, enjoy your mice, hope I helped! - Leanne

Answer 3

Rats are easy to keep generally.

Always keep two or three rats of the same sex. They like having a friend when you're not there to play with them.

Appropriate housing: Shop around, find a cage that's spacious, easy to clean, can have things attached to it, multi-levelled, & most importantly, check that the spacing between the bars isn't large enough that a rat can squeeze through it. Ferret Kingdom cages seem to be all the rage.

Appropriate food: do a bit of research into the natural diet of a rat, that's a good way to get an insight into diet. You can buy lab blocks, a commercial food made spefically for rats (US: Harlan Teklad, AUS: Barastoc, Cummins, Gordons) or make your own mix, using large wild bird seed, sugar-less cereals, a little dried fruit & dry dog or cat food. Add in some fresh fruits & veggies, plus the odd bit of meat, you'll have a happy rat.

Bedding & Substrate: Bedding can be shredded paper, fleece cut-offs, hammocks of various designs, or an igloo. Substrate can be any paper based cat litter, chaff, heck, shredded paper works for this too! Some people use hay/straw. Never use clay or wood shavings, these can usually make the rats sick as they often eat the stuff & it doesn't move through their system creating a blockage.

Toys: Anything is a potential toy. Cardboard tubes, paper balls, bells, shiney plastic objects, & so on. Sticks & branches are great for climbing on & chewing.

That about sums it up. Happy rat keeping.

Answer 4

well i have had a lot of mice and im only 12 but i have good advice what you need: you need a cage that is a reasonable good size for the mouse to run around in and to fit things in it. you need a water bottel and you can get them at your pet shop. you need a bowl for the food. you need a running wheel to exercise it you leave that in the wheel so they can go on it when ever they want. you need to have bedding for the mouse like shredded papper. you have to clean the cage once a week DO NOT EVER EVER put two boys together they will kill each other and if you are lucky you can put to irls together but if the fight take them back to the pet shop and ask for another one spend time with your mouse and do not feed it to much . hope you have a happy and healthy life

Answer 5

!!,

to take care of mice you have to be very carfull not to drop them and not to do anything silly with it

you give them food once aday and you clean there cage every three day,

they wont bite unless your really annoying them they have good nature.

i have 2 mice they are so cutee

the girl mice dont smell as bad as the boy mice. they are clean

ive never seen mine vomit

there so cute.

goodluck (if you get one)

Answer 6

Mice need a cage of some sort, the best being a glass aquarium. They need stimulation (toys and a wheel) bedding to soak up urine, (never use cedar or cat litter!) and a hide box to sleep in. Female mice absolutely must have companions or they will be depressed and lonely, and male mice absolutely cannot have other male mice in their territory- they will fight to the death. Caring for mice is fairly easy. Make sure they have food and water each day and of course get them out every day and handle them to make them tame. clean the tank thoroughly once a week, and spot clean in between. (this also depends on how many mice you're keeping and what kind of bedding you use) Every couple of months or so, bleach the cage and all its contents completely.

Answer 7

Well, the wild mouse may be very scared of you, and try to escape from any place you keep it, so while you are preparing a home, put it in a very high container. I have seen a wild mouse jump right out of a container about forty centermetres high. They are very good jumpers. Buy a mouse cage, or a large aquarium (mice cages are best) and fill it with bedding (can be bought from most pet shops) don't use cedar shavings or scented varieties, because they can cause respiratory problems. Buy some toys and equipment, get a running wheel, food bowl, water container, igloo, mouse house, food, and get a toilet roll if you have any in the recycling bin. But about an inch of bedding in the bottom of the cage. If the cage has more then one floor, make sure that they are solid, if not put some newspaper over them. Get the mouse house and put it on the top floor, fill it with ripped or shredded paper. Then take the food bowl and fill it about half way with mouse food and attach the water bottle, make sure it is full of fresh clean water. If there are three floors, the middle should be a food floor, if not put the food on the bottom floor. Add the excersize wheel and toilet roll. Then get a small strong container with a lid that won't come off!

Go back to the large container and try to coax the mouse into the small container. It will run from you and try and jump, so don't let it climb up your arm, because it will use it to jump out of the container. When it get into the small container, close the lid and transport it to the cage. Put in the container and half close the door of the cage, quickly open the container and then slam down the door. The mouse will try it's best to get out for a long time. Stay around the cage every now and then so it gets used to you. In a few weeks it may start to get a bit less scared of you, but you would have to be very lucky to be able to hold and pet it. Wild mice aren't pet mice, pet mice are bred differently to bring out the tameness. For five to seven dollars you can go down to your local pet shop and buy a mouse (or two because mice are social creatures, females are best) Then you know you will have a mouse that within a few days will want to play with you, not bite you, and be happy about where it lives. Also, the wild mouse you have caught, you don't know how old it is. It could be nearly at the end of it's life. If you buy a lively new pet mouse, you know it will live with you for it's full lifespan. Also, if the wild mouse is female it is likely to be pregnant, and you may soon have a lot of wild mice, that pet shops won't take, because they're wild. I have seen both pet mice and wild mice, I have two pet mice and they are great. They happily play with me and each other, they run on the wheel together and come to meet me through the cage if I come into the room where they live. I have also caught a wild mouse, and it was terrified, it ran around like a mad thing, tried to bite and scratchme and went beserk, managing to make an amazing jump out of the container and running to freedom. It saved me from freeing it myself, but keeping one as a pet would be very challenging work. The wild mouse is likely to have a family, if it is female and older then a few months, and there is a male around where you caught it, it is extremely likely to have a young litter of mice that will die without it, and probably have another litter on the way. You are perfectly intitled to your own opinion, but I'd like to give you a tip, pet mice are so worth it.

Answer 8

Mice are escape artists. The first thing you need to take care of a mouse is a very secure cage or aquarium. If using a cage, it must be designed for mice. They can squeeze through very small spaces. Mice can get through an opening as small as the width of their face, from outside of left eye to the outside of the right eye.

Next, you'll need a water bottle, food bowl, bedding/litter and a hut or house for the mouse to hide in. Mice are very smart and will explore their cage and any toys or furnishings placed inside.


Mice need to be kept at a comfortable room temperature, between 65 and 80 degrees. The humidity in their environment should be between 30 and 70 percent.


Mice can be fed a prepared mouse diet which can be purchased at any pet store. Food and water should be available at all times.

Answer 9

If it's a baby you need to feed it kitten formula every two hours with a eye dropper or something similur. It will be difficult so good luck. Where did you find it?