I'm sorry if this is the wrong forum, but I figured those with pet rodents would be able to answer my questions the quickest, or at least know how to find the answers.

On May 31st we found two newborn mice on the sidewalk in front of our house. They were still completely pink with no fur, and wiggling around a lot. We looked all around the front of the house for any signs of a nest, but didn't find any. So I called the local Humane Society and they said to bring them in since we didn't know where they came from.

Fast forward a few days -- we heard that unmistakable scratching in our living room wall between the front door and window, only two feet from where we found the pups. There's a lot of cardboard-like stuff shredded on the ground outside now. We have metal siding on our house, and have no idea what all is underneath that, but it's obvious this stuff came from under the siding.

We don't want to kill or hurt them, but we can't let them live under our siding. Since they'll still be nursing for another week or two [guessing, based on the appearance of the two we found], when and how can we best relocate and/or repel them? We're concerned that if we deter the mother from returning, the pups will die in the wall. Alternatively, if we wait too long, the pups will mature enough to mate, or the mother will have another litter herself. Sadly, we just had to pay a lot of money to euthanise our dog on Monday, so we don't have the money to hire anyone to remove them for us, and we can't just rip up the siding to get them out. We have another dog and a cat, both of whom we walk on-leash outside, and we have bird feeders on the other side of the sidewalk, as well as bird nests, wild rabbit and opossum families living in our backyard, so anything harmful isn't an option as far as repellents go.

Any advice would be greatly appreaciated.

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This is a tough decision to make. And I don't see much in the way of positive options.

As for how mama mouse got in, mice can squeeze through any opening the size of their skulls, which is extremely tiny, about the size of a nickel. She even possibly got in from another location in the house.

Unfortunately, without a mother, the babies have an almost nil survival rate. It's very /very/ difficult to hand rear pinky mice, even by experienced mouse breeders. Whats more, mother mice are notoriously skittish and pragmatic about their offspring. If they are stressed and disturbed, they will often abandon or cannibalize their young in an effort to cut their losses, recoup lost calories, and hopefully have a new litter in a safer place.

You can try livetrapping the mother, but I'll be honest, I'm not expecting much success. If you have an existing pet mouse mother, she might be able to foster for you.

Your current options are indeed, to remove your mouse infestation by hand and hope that was the only litter. You can humanely euthanize them or try to hand rear the babies to be released elsewhere. Your other option is to leave them to be raised by their mother and have a colony established in your house which will reproduce quickly and possibly carry in diseases, and try to discourage or eradicate the colony yourself.

Here are some links that will hopefully help you:



Info on dealing with infestations: http://www.cdc.gov/Features/Rodents/

Fostering Baby Mice: http://www.thefunmouse.com/info/orphanedmice.cfm

Best of luck to you. I know this isn't the advice you were hoping for, and I know this situation sucks. I think it's awesome your heart wants you to help them, and with luck and work you might succeed.

Storyseeker said it all so there is not much else I can think of to add that Story did not already tell you.

Best of luck to you.