I was doing some side work on my day off (from the bartending job I took for a month until we go back out to sea) cleaning out a storage unit and I disturbed a nest. Momma ran off with babies still hanging off her nipples. I found one baby still in the box the nest was in, alive and unharmed. It's got fur, eyes are still mostly closed but starting to blink open a little. I think they'll be open by tonight or tomorrow morning. So it's not a newborn, but it still needs a couple weeks of care before it's ready to be let go in the woods. I've done the appropriate internet research, but despite how many pet rodents I've had I've never had to nurse a baby myself. Anybody ever done this with a mouse or rat before and have any advice (besides the obvious jokes involving my nipples)?
Sorry, dude. All I got are jokes about your nipples.
Hope things work out.
Er...if you put in the freezer, you can save it for when you raised an orphaned wild snake.
That's about the extent of my experience, sorry.
It probably doesnt bode well for the mouse. If its eyes havent opened yet it hasnt really been able to learn much from its mother. You could perhaps feed it from a bottle but i dont know where youd get a rubber nipple the appropriate size and im not sure of the difference of mouse milk and larger mammals. I havent raised wild mice before- only pet store mice who had a litter. However since youve had pet rodents before you know that theyre curious and adaptable creatures. It may eat and drink what you give it out of necessity. The bright side is that if you decide to keep it it will already consider you a friend provided it survives. Good luck man.
If you can't find a proper bottle/dropper/whatever, twist a cotton handkerchief or cheesecloth and dip it in whatever mouse formula you can come up with, that could be small enough.
You probably saw this one already, it says to use kitten formula. http://www.thefunmouse.com/info/orphanedmice.cfm
Good luck.
I knew a guy who tried to raise an orphaned wild mouse before, it only ended in tears.
Quote from: Reverend What's-His-Name? on May 30, 2012, 12:18:03 AM
I knew a guy who tried to raise an orphaned wild mouse before, it only ended in tears.
I figured it would end in a tail...
:lulz:
Well played sir.
Mice are pretty fragile creatures too. You can actually kill them with fear- they handle accumulated stress very poorly.
ECH,
If you had found it earlier, it probably wouldn't make it. Once you get to fur and eyes open, you're in pretty good shape. Try feeding it with kitten formula from an eye dropper. I'm not sure, but you may also need to stimulate it to urinate and defecate, not sure. Once tried to do this with a mouse litter before the fur stage, and as said above, it only ended in tears. But I learned quite a bit in the process.
Kitten formula works, so does goat's milk (for most orphaned animals, actually). If you don't have an eye dropper, you can make a q-tip very wet and dribble it in, but be careful it doesn't catch any of the fluff in it's mouth. Do not use cow's milk. Try not to feed it on its back like you would a baby, but rather tummy town. They tend to aspirate if you do it the other way. It is probably almost old enough to drink from a small animal bottle. Since the eyes are almost open it should be urinating/defecating on its own, but if you don't see signs of this, massage its bottom with a warm damp rag.
Quote from: Wyldkat on May 30, 2012, 12:54:53 AM
Kitten formula works, so does goat's milk (for most orphaned animals, actually). If you don't have an eye dropper, you can make a q-tip very wet and dribble it in, but be careful it doesn't catch any of the fluff in it's mouth. Do not use cow's milk. Try not to feed it on its back like you would a baby, but rather tummy town. They tend to aspirate if you do it the other way. It is probably almost old enough to drink from a small animal bottle. Since the eyes are almost open it should be urinating/defecating on its own, but if you don't see signs of this, massage its bottom with a warm damp rag.
Oh, look. BH and Wyldkat are back.
How nice.
Their board wherever it is must be dead
Good luck with the mouse ECH.
Welcome back to life, Roger.
Quote from: The Freeky of SCIENCE! on May 30, 2012, 01:43:31 AM
Their board wherever it is must be dead
Seems to be a theme, right? TCC, TSC, sooper secrut bord.
Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on May 30, 2012, 01:45:57 AM
Quote from: The Freeky of SCIENCE! on May 30, 2012, 01:43:31 AM
Their board wherever it is must be dead
Seems to be a theme, right? TCC, TSC, sooper secrut bord.
Yep, but that's the internet
paganism for you.
PD...
Anyway, this thread isn't about BH or Wyldkat.
Mortimer seems to be doing OK. There's nowhere around here to buy kitten formula, but I found the nutritional requirements for nursing mice and matched it to some baby formula. I think he's old enough that he can live off that for a few days until he can start to get some solid food.
Good luck. This is an adorable situation.
Well that is awesome.
Ech- take care of that mouse.
Twid
being wicked feckin drunk
Quote from: Twiddlegeddon on May 30, 2012, 07:32:49 AM
Ech- take care of that mouse.
Twid
being wicked feckin drunk
We said our goodbyes, and at that, the man I had known for so long turned away from me, and walked. My eyes misted and my lips quivered, and I reached my sleeve up to wipe away the pain. It didn't work.
As he neared the doorway, he stopped a moment.
"Oh...and ECH," he said faintly.
"y...Yes?" I struggled to maintain my voice. He turned his head to look straight into my eyes.
"Take care of that mouse."
You bleeding heart Lib'ruls need to stop supporting those who won't do for themselves.
I say tell the lazy sonofabitch to get a JOB and throw him out the door. Sink or swim, you mousy fuck.
Hmm, we'd caught a little mouse years ago scurrying across our floor in the last apartment. He was small enough that he must have gotten separated from his mother, but also had his eyes open and was wandering about on his own. So unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure what to do if they're still nursing. We have had him for the past 5 years now and it's the cutest thing ever.
He's survived one or two attempts by the cat to pull his cage down (normally keep him closed in the bedroom, but cat slipped in when back was turned - though I think he was just as scared as the mouse was by the crash. Surprised the mouse survived that and didn't die from shock alone). Of course now if we let them in the same room together the cat will poke his nose at the cage and the mouse will run up to him like he's one of us coming to give him food and the cat's more curious than anything. Needless to say we don't let the snake play with the mouse.
Good luck. If you can get him past the nursing stage, think it should be able to start having regular food soon. Like I said, when we found ours, seems like he was just over the nursing stage and get separated from his family.
Quote from: Epimetheus on May 30, 2012, 07:58:01 AM
Quote from: Twiddlegeddon on May 30, 2012, 07:32:49 AM
Ech- take care of that mouse.
Twid
being wicked feckin drunk
We said our goodbyes, and at that, the man I had known for so long turned away from me, and walked. My eyes misted and my lips quivered, and I reached my sleeve up to wipe away the pain. It didn't work.
As he neared the doorway, he stopped a moment.
"Oh...and ECH," he said faintly.
"y...Yes?" I struggled to maintain my voice. He turned his head to look straight into my eyes.
"Take care of that mouse."
That's brilliant
Quote from: Epimetheus on May 30, 2012, 07:58:01 AM
Quote from: Twiddlegeddon on May 30, 2012, 07:32:49 AM
Ech- take care of that mouse.
Twid
being wicked feckin drunk
We said our goodbyes, and at that, the man I had known for so long turned away from me, and walked. My eyes misted and my lips quivered, and I reached my sleeve up to wipe away the pain. It didn't work.
As he neared the doorway, he stopped a moment.
"Oh...and ECH," he said faintly.
"y...Yes?" I struggled to maintain my voice. He turned his head to look straight into my eyes.
"Take care of that mouse."
That's wicked fuckin awesome.
So there's a happy ending to the story. I'm up in the same storage unit today and I come across the new nest with mama and the babies in it. They're in an old plastic grocery tote with some blankets and newspaper. So I close it up quick before she can freak out and jump out like last time, and after I'm done I go home and get Mortimer and after a few minutes managed to get mama mouse to take him back into the tribe. Successfully repatriated and seemingly none the worse for wear.
HURRAY!!!!
That's awesome. :)
Best possible solution. :)
(http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m04rzrF1qk1qegw8v.gif)
Quote from: Echo Chamber Music on May 30, 2012, 10:44:55 PM
Quote from: Epimetheus on May 30, 2012, 07:58:01 AM
Quote from: Twiddlegeddon on May 30, 2012, 07:32:49 AM
Ech- take care of that mouse.
Twid
being wicked feckin drunk
We said our goodbyes, and at that, the man I had known for so long turned away from me, and walked. My eyes misted and my lips quivered, and I reached my sleeve up to wipe away the pain. It didn't work.
As he neared the doorway, he stopped a moment.
"Oh...and ECH," he said faintly.
"y...Yes?" I struggled to maintain my voice. He turned his head to look straight into my eyes.
"Take care of that mouse."
That's wicked fuckin awesome.
So there's a happy ending to the story. I'm up in the same storage unit today and I come across the new nest with mama and the babies in it. They're in an old plastic grocery tote with some blankets and newspaper. So I close it up quick before she can freak out and jump out like last time, and after I'm done I go home and get Mortimer and after a few minutes managed to get mama mouse to take him back into the tribe. Successfully repatriated and seemingly none the worse for wear.
The mental image of ECH + babby mice rescuing has just made me go "aaaw" and doing the female equivalent of Roger's pance tightening. Which is weird because I'd never think of ECH in that way.. Maybe it's big manly hands rescuing teeny mouse.. :?
All the ladies grew moist.
I swear, I didn't do it just so I could talk about it with the hotties at the bar.
That was just a wonderful bonus.
Quote from: Echo Chamber Music on May 31, 2012, 03:32:40 AM
I swear, I didn't do it just so I could talk about it with the hotties at the bar.
That was just a wonderful bonus.
8)
Aww, you named him Mortimer? :3
Quote from: Echo Chamber Music on May 31, 2012, 03:32:40 AM
I swear, I didn't do it just so I could talk about it with the hotties at the bar.
That was just a wonderful bonus.
If that was the sole motivation, my pance would have remained dry.
Quote from: Pixie on June 02, 2012, 01:48:25 PM
Quote from: Echo Chamber Music on May 31, 2012, 03:32:40 AM
I swear, I didn't do it just so I could talk about it with the hotties at the bar.
That was just a wonderful bonus.
If that was the sole motivation, my pance would have remained dry.
Yup.
I think if you were so desperate for play that you literally saved and nursed a wild orphaned baby woodmouse JUST to have something to try to impress women with, you'd probably be wasting your time because you're clearly a hopeless turdpicker anyway. :lulz:
Quote from: Echo Chamber Music on June 04, 2012, 12:20:12 AM
I think if you were so desperate for play that you literally saved and nursed a wild orphaned baby woodmouse JUST to have something to try to impress women with, you'd probably be wasting your time because you're clearly a hopeless turdpicker anyway. :lulz:
So much this.
Worst part is. I've met men like that. :horrormirth:
you mean guys like this actually exist?
Wait, I'm not actually surprised.
Well then, there go my plans for today out of the window ... :-/
Quote from: East Coast Hustle on May 29, 2012, 09:55:03 PM
I was doing some side work on my day off (from the bartending job I took for a month until we go back out to sea) cleaning out a storage unit and I disturbed a nest. Momma ran off with babies still hanging off her nipples. I found one baby still in the box the nest was in, alive and unharmed. It's got fur, eyes are still mostly closed but starting to blink open a little. I think they'll be open by tonight or tomorrow morning. So it's not a newborn, but it still needs a couple weeks of care before it's ready to be let go in the woods. I've done the appropriate internet research, but despite how many pet rodents I've had I've never had to nurse a baby myself. Anybody ever done this with a mouse or rat before and have any advice (besides the obvious jokes involving my nipples)?
It has been 6 years and 3 months and I still have nothing aside from nipple jokes. :cry:
This one time, I adopted a shrew to raise my mouse?