The six baby mice in their nest tin.
The babies are four days old. Their eyes have not opened yet; they are mostly naked, and are very soft to the touch. They have the cutest little tails, and the most adorable little noses and whiskers.
We gently poured all six of them into our hands, and they stayed there the entire time. They did wriggle around some, though most of their movements were pretty jerky (a few did scratch their ears, which was cuter than cute). They made soft clicking noises, and whenever mom wandered by the rate of clicking increased.
Six baby mice in a human hand.
You can see their future fur colors by looking at their skin coloration. Since mom is a mix of black and white, we're suspecting that the dark colored skin areas will be black, and the lighter areas will be white (though we don't know who dad is, so we can't be sure).
Mom seemed pretty calm during the whole endeavor. She spent most of the time wandering around the couch, and whenever she did come around the babies, she just stepped on them briefly and then wandered off.
So, in summary, baby mice = cute. If you don't agree, then what the heck are you doing reading this blog? Weren't the caterpillars enough to scare you away?
Oh, what the heck, let's throw in another picture here for the fun of it:
Yet another baby mouse picture. The mouse on the left in this picture seems to be a runt.
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Crystal Lake
Crystal Lake
Even mice fill an ecological niche.
June 17, 2007, 4:20:28 PM PDT – Like – Reply
sarah4753
I poison mice and kill them in glue traps.You have some nerve trying to falsely say mice are cute.Mice spread diseases, and therfore are pestly vermin that must die.
November 18, 2006, 12:56:24 PM PST – Like – Reply
Cassidy
I have a mouse who had 5 babies a few nights ago. I don't know anything about them or whether or not I can touch them. She isn't afraid of the cats who are a permanent fixture around her cage but I don't know how she'd feel about me handling them. I need to clean out her cage. Do you have any advice?
June 3, 2006, 3:55:23 PM PDT – Like – Reply
Radagast
I've e-mailed you; I hope it helps! I'll try to briefly summarize for those who find this later:
1) The RMCA is an excellent resource.
2) I'm not an expert; my SO and I have raised exactly one batch of baby mice.
3) Play it by ear with mom; if she's greatly agitated when you separate her from her babies, put her back. If not, go on ahead.
4) We took some simple precautions to try to reduce the disturbance to the nest: we rubbed our hands in the bedding before handling the babies, tried to disturb the next as little as possible, and always put the babies back in the nest.
5) If you haven't already, providing a nice sheltered nest (e.g. our tin) might help mom feel more comfortable.
6) Once you handle the babies, try to handle them regularly (daily). Our babies are now extremely friendly, and we strongly suspect that's at least partially due to our regular handling.
7) If you haven't found it already, see this page for an archive of all my mouse posts.
June 25, 2005, 2:25:17 AM PDT – Like – Reply
Kevin
Hey, my mice had babies two, about last monday. Is it okay to hold them now? i mean, the mom's protective but... meh, e-mail me if you can, Thanks `~. Kevin
June 24, 2005, 1:13:51 PM PDT
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