A Mouse Story – Part 4

Since it’s been a while, if you want to catch up on my never-ending mouse sagas:

PART1

PART2

PART3

This past May I posted this on Facebook:

my post about escaped field mice on facebook

 

To summarize, the Mouse Dad escaped his cage while I had the door open [leapt right out past my hand], and ran downstairs and under the fridge.  That made me realize that after 18 months he might not want to be a caged mouse any longer.  After recapturing him, I put his cage out in the yard and he was gone the next morning.  I left the cage outside for almost 2 weeks but he never came back sigh.  After that, I made the very hard decision [for me] to put the Mouse Baby’s cage outside.  He was gone the next morning and never came back either.  I still miss him.  We had the best [mostly one sided] late night talks:

       

This is the last picture I have of the Mouse Baby, from April 1st, 2021:

I hope he fathered 1,000 mice and became the Mouse King of Ipswich.

On May 30th I caught a new mouse in the basement.  Her tail was broken from when the humane trap slammed shut on it 🙁  I put her in the Mouse Baby’s old [cleaned] hamster cage to let her recuperate:

Two days later she produced 5 little gifts:

June 2nd:

June 7th:

June 8th:

June 9th:

       

So cute…:

When the babies were 3 weeks old their eyes opened.  When they were 4 weeks old they started squishing through the bars of the hamster cage and wreaking havoc in the girl cave.  That’s when I made a 90-quart bin cage for them, to keep them ALL IN ONE PLACE.  It worked great!  2 weeks later, when the babies were 6 weeks old, I released them with their mom into a field near our house.

On August 9th I trapped another mouse who was very obviously pregnant and about to burst.  I put her in a hamster cage in the girl cave.

August 16th [about 1 week old]:

       

I was planning to move her and her babies into the large bin cage, but before I could, she escaped and took all her babies with her.  I haven’t seen them since…  it really blows my mind how she got out and where she went…  I set humane traps all over the house for the past 3 weeks and caught nothing.  I have to assume she took them down the heater pipes into the basement…

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8 thoughts on “A Mouse Story – Part 4”

  1. Wow – maybe the word is spreading that you’re the best deal in town! But as I said on FB, you should consider finding a way to put a (humane, obviously) mark on each one, so when they return, you’ll know you’ve taken care of them before.

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  2. This is an amazing story! Do baby mice nurse, or do you have to provide food? Good thing you have lots of experience being a rat mama! How long a life span do they have?

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    • Yes, baby mice nurse for about 3 weeks until their eyes open. Then it’s a mix of nursing and eating seeds and fruit and stuff. At 4 weeks the mom separates herself from them and they eat and drink all on their own. Wild mice can live up to 8 years in captivity!!! which is amazing since pet rats only live up to 2.

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  3. What a never-ending adventure – one family out; another family-to-be in. Your cats must just shrug their cat shoulders, and say here we go again!

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    • i believe the 5 baby mice i’ve caught since yesterday (in the basement) are the 5 that the mom escaped with 3 weeks ago. the ones i’ve caught are all the same age, about 4 weeks. either a SUPER coincidence, or she brought them straight down the pipes to the basement like i figured. a couple are a little rough looking. in a couple weeks they should all be fat and happy and ready for release. i can’t imagine how much work it was for a momma mouse to carry all 5 babies, one by one, down 2 stories of pipes to the basement and back up. and now they’re back in the girl cave, in the bin cage!

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