They've found their coordination

The mouse babies are now 17 days old, and in the past two days they've suddenly found their coordination. All the kids are now sprinting around the cage, and every now and then they'll suddenly jump a short distance. We suspect they're entering the "flea" stage of mouse baby-hood, wherein they being to jump around, like, well, fleas (though thankfully they don't bite). As a result, we've switched from handling them in our laps to playing with them in a large plastic container.


Ace nibbles on a piece of bedding while Runt, Genie, and Narrow Stripey (from top to bottom) rest in the handling bin.
The babies have also changed in a number of other ways. They've started exploring their cage regularly, and a few are even running on the wheel. Probably one of the biggest changes is that they've all started eating solid food; both the puppy chow and the regular rodent diet seem to be popular. I'm sure Rem is happy about that ...


Narrow Stripey nibbling on some puppy chow while Genie explores.
Even with all these changes and new behaviors, the babies will still sleep on our hands :)