u/EcoMuze

It’s turned out to be a she. Now, I’m a little more literate as far as mice sexing goes. I think she looks so cute with hairless face that makes her big eyes really pop up…

She decided to omit the transitional phase altogether—refused baby cereal thickened with formula and Ryvita wafers soaked in formula—she’s been very opinionated from the start. When she stopped taking formula altogether, I had no choice but to give her some solids and let her be.

I didn’t see her for 3 days after the weaning—she was hiding in a cardboard tunnel. But I could hear her at night—she was very active and I knew everything was okay. She also started using her wheel at night. She gets rat blocks, oats, hemp hearts, millet and millet spray, a small amount of sunflower seeds. As far as fruit and veggies, she’s tried bananas, apples, watermelon, and broccoli. She loves blueberries!

Yesterday around 6 pm, as I was leaving fresh food for her, she decided to honor me with her appearance. To my surprise, she jumped on my hand and did some exploratory nibbling of my fingers.

I’m not going to release her until her fur is fully back. Hoping to move her to 40 gal tank today… for the ease of cleaning and providing her with opportunity to make burrows in paper substrate.

(I may do another post later today with the video as it seems like you can’t combine photos with videos in the same post.)

This little guy crawled out of one of our exhaust vents on May 13th. After waiting in vain overnight for the mom to collect him, I decided to rehab him myself. The last photo shows how dehydrated he was upon arrival.

A kind-hearted Redditor in a similar situation referred me to the Orphaned Wild Mice group on FB. They have a lot of useful info and I’ve been following their protocol as much as possible. Sadly, he developed watery diarrhea after introduction to the recommended formula. At my wits end, I decided to turn to folk medicine and dilute his formula with barley water. He made a complete recovery within 18 hours. (Disclaimer: I can’t recommend barley water to other mice with GI issues as I’m not aware of any scientific evidence to support its use.)

The bad hair day happened because he flatly refused Miracle nipple (still does) and feedings with brush were messy due to his wiggles, especially initially. As a result, some drops of formula dried up on his chest and head and turned into a crust. Yesterday I started softening those crusty spots with warm water and a little bit of olive oil on a Q tip. He decided to join the efforts by energetically scratching those areas… to the point of hair loss. I’m pretty certain that the hair will grow back, given he’s so young and the damage to the skin was very superficial.

So, overall, he’s making a decent progress, given all the complications. The plan is to release him when/if he’s ready.

This just happened last night… Looks like a deer mouse to me. Eyes still closed. He is very skinny—must have been wandering around in our ducts for some time. Today I’m feeding him goat’s milk every 4 hours—KMR and Miracle nipples are arriving tomorrow. Any input and advice would be appreciated.

Our local rehab does not take mice. My goal is to stabilize him, transition to solids, and release on our property (rural setting.)