Catching Mice Any Help??

[Frogsarethapoop]

I used to keep wild caught deer mice as pets years back, until I learned about Hantavirus.

 

[8ball]

hmmmm... I don't know what Wallie's carries anymore. They may have them if they have other rabbit and rodent items. I got mine from a "indy" pet/feed store type place... for free, actually.

I went to go buy some stuff for my mice and they didnt have them, i just give them half of a dog buscuit to chew on

 

[8ball]

Post pictures i've never heard of anyone keeping a once wild mouse as a pet, this will be interesting to see. Are you thinking of getting the mouse a mate, or a friend?

Yeah I already put another mouse in with him, the rest of the mice I catch i'm gonna let go somewhere that they wont be bothered, I'll be posting pics soon

 

[bugmankeith]

Cool cant wait to see some pics.

 

[Louise E. Rothstein]

Catching mice any help?

Dear Darjeeling Queen:

I have heard of "mule mice" that were supposedly produced when
native wild mice bred domestic escapees.

Were those madly jumping mice you mentioned interspecies hybrids?
And,if they were,WHICH wild species produced these athletic animals?
And are these possible "mule mice" actually sterile...like real mules?

Are they able to breed at all?
And what do they look like?

In considerable curiosity,
Louise Esther Rothstein.

 

[Louise E. Rothstein]

Catching Mice Any Help?

I used to keep wild caught deer mice as pets years back, until I learned about Hantavirus.

Dear Frogman;

If YOU didn't get hantavirus your mice didn't have it.
Please tell me more about them.
I probably have similar animals here.

My "Mitten Mice" look like natural crosses between native white-footed
mice...AND native deermice.They seem to have intermediate markings.
Did your possibly purebred deermice have all "leggings" and no "mittens?"
Did all of your mice have VERY long tails...and ENORMOUS eyes?

Purebred deermice SHOULD combine ALL of the above.
And they should continue to combine them throughout their lives.

My young "Mitten Mice" tend to"change" as they grow.

Did even one of your mice ever do such a thing?

Yours most enquiringly,
Louise Esther Rothstein.

 

[Taceas]

Questions about mule mice...

The intraspecies hybrids were produced between the wild House Mouse (Mus musculus) and the common Fancy Mouse (Mus musculus). The wild female mouse got into a bin of weaners for the food and couldn't get back out and I never noticed it till I'd set up the colony.

I don't think the Deer Mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) interbreed as well as the common House Mouse due to species variation. That and they are also well known for being a carrier of the Hanta virus. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, imho.

But due to genetic variations brought on by hundreds of years of selection and human intervention the domestic cousins lack all of the typically mousey traits.

When cross bred, the offspring had a innate tendency to be skittish and jump all over creation like their wild relatives. They also didn't hesitate to bite when handled.

The offspring I encountered were always Agouti, or the wild-type coloration. After a few generations of line breeding you could get the colors and certain traits back, but they still retained the skittishness compared to a typical fancy mouse.

And no, considering they are the same genus and species, they did not have any problems with sterility that I noticed. In all of my years of mouse breeding I've only come across 3-4 females who never got pregnant.

I eventually culled that cross-bred colony after the experiment because I primarily raise snake food, and if I can't catch the food the snakes can't get fed later on. Not to mention they didn't have the bulk that fancy mice have, they tended to be more athletically built and smaller bodied.