This article is from the WSSF 2016 AFRMA Rat & Mouse Tales news-magazine.

By Karen Robbins

Jenniferandtj Travis, Facebook
Q I have a question...okay sounds bad, but we have snakes. My husband and son have to feed their snakes mice and rats. The snake my son has eats fuzzies [a.k.a. crew; a baby mouse just starting to get its fur around 5–10 days of age, Ed.] sometimes! We have a lot of times where the snake refuses to eat and the fuzzy then becomes my daughter’s project pet. I raised mice as pets for years when I was younger and still find it a cruel food source but it is what it is. My question is about the fuzzies that she tries to care for. We have eye droppers as well as paint brushes, and I have done extensive research on the care to raise a fuzzy into a pet. The first one died from terrible bloating. It was very heartbreaking for my daughter! We now have another that we are working to feed. With the first, I was not aware that cow’s milk was not a good option, nor were we real sure on the feedings and belly/anal stimulation after feedings. I want this one to be a success! She has another mouse already that we bought as a pet but it does not like to be held or anything so I am not comfortable trying to put the baby in with her. Questions: If the baby does not seem to get the full white belly patch at a feeding (that seemed to take forever!), do we still wait 2 hours to feed again? Are there other options to get them to eat? We are using the kitten milk, ¼ tsp formula with ½ tsp water and ½ tsp Pedialyte®. Does this sound like an okay mix? Any suggestions? The baby’s eyes are not yet open, I am guessing about a week and a half old. We are regularly rubbing the tummy and butt now and making sure to keep him warm with a heating pad under half the tank. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated! I would love to make the circle of life a happy one and feel like we save some of these babies! This little one is a feisty one as well! Quite active! And yes, we are feeding every 2 hours. Had him just today so far! Thanks in advance!

A No problem on having reptiles. A lot of people get into the rat/mouse fancy because of them. I got into rats because my sister had a snake. One thing to consider is feeding your reptiles pre-killed/frozen-thawed as it is much more humane for the rodent, safer for the reptile, and you aren’t left with the dilemma you have had to face with an uneaten rodent. Herpetologists don’t feed live as the damage a live feeder rat or mouse could cause to the reptile can be fatal, so breeders raise their animals on pre-killed rodents.

Regarding your single female mouse, mice are colony animals and need friends (except males as they will fight if housed with other males) and it is never in their best interest to only have one female so you should see about getting her a friend or two about her age from the same place you got her.

One thing to keep in mind when buying live pinkies/crews/fuzzies, is many times they are all in a bin with no mothers so don’t get to eat for many hours or up to a day and would not be as nutritious for the reptile nor a good candidate to try to raise on your own since they are weakened. Trying to put the baby with the adult you have now would likely result in the baby being killed since the adult does not have kids of her own.

In answer to your questions on trying to raise this mouse, yes, you need to feed every couple hours. If the baby is eating well, then not wanting to eat, it could be full and it just doesn’t look like it got its fill by not having a large white stomach patch. Once it gets more fur, it will be harder to see the stomach through the skin and you will have to go by how it acts when feeding to know it got enough. At this age you have to hold them to feed them by hand as they will not help themselves if you put the milk in a dish. We have several ideas on what to use as a nurser on our Orphans page. As far as formula, I never diluted it. Eyes will open around 12 days. You should have made some kind of nest for the baby (I tear up napkins into strips) in the tank. When the eyes open, you can start adding other things to the formula. They can be weaned off the milk by 4 weeks as they should be eating solid foods quite well by 3½ weeks.

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