[Latrine]

My name's Sarah.. I have 5 newborn baby wild baby mice they are either house or field mice. A few even have a tiny speck of umbilical cord that hasn't fallen off yet so I think they are just a day or two old.

I ordered powdered formula (Esbilac puppy milk replacement powder, because, from what I read, it seemed to be the best for that) but it won't be here till tomorrow (Tuesday)or, more likely, the next day... I paid through the nose and ordered it overnight shipping but it was already past 7pm so I doubt it'll get here till Wednesday.
I am doing the homemade pedialyte thing for now, so they stay hydrated... I am also massaging their bellies gently to encourage their digestive system and wiping their little bums gently with a damp warm, wet, q-tip to help them poo.

So far they have just had two feedings and one of them actually pooped.. it was so exciting..lol. but I assume that one poop was probably stuff leftover from whenever poor mama fed them last. The others haven't pooed but I don't imagine they will when the 'food' is just pedialyte too keep them hydrated and nothing that would really produce much waste.

Problem is I have no car and no way of getting the real and necessary formula until it arrives by UPS. I think 1 1/2 days on pedialyte only is just too much.

I would REALLY like to give them something more substantial till then, it seems like a long time to go with just the pedialyte. I know they aren't supposed to have cows milk..
I do remember feeding baby mice milk mixed with egg yolk as a kid (like 20 years ago, lol..) and they did just fine on it but now it says not too.. and the ones I raised as a kid were never this young..

Anyone have any formula's for when your stuck in a bind and need SOMETHING to give them?

I rescued these poor little ones when my bf's dog raided/exposed the nest. He killed momma too.. one baby died about two hours after I found them but it was quite an ordeal for them and he was the tiniest... None of them were actually touched or harmed by the dog.

Hopefully these little one's make it.. they are sleeping in a nice warm nest I made for them. I placed it on top of a heating pad in an aquarium and I'm keeping the tank around 80 degrees. The actual nest is closer to 85-90 which is what I've read is proper.

Anyways.. if anyone has a DIY formula, that would be great. I have read about some formulas that tell you to use condensed cows milk or goats milk, I have neither and no way of getting them. The recipe's also called for egg yolks.. I wonder if it would be a good idea to add egg yolk to the pedialyte.. just to get some actual food into those tiny little bodies? What do you guys think?
Thanks!!

Sarah and pinkies..

 

[Dustette]

you can give a little bit of goat's milk, just regular not powder or condensed, a lot easier to digest than cow's milk. It's what we give to baby bunnies who do worse on esbilac than on goat's milk in general.
I wouldn't give egg yolk, especially uncooked. They're too tiny.
.
make sure they are kept warm and you continue to stimulate so they pee properly.
Giving cow's milk will just give them diarrhea.
here are some photos of the ones I have rescued with my mother (we're wildlife rehabilitators).
http://kiwibonga.com/ecureuiland/?cat=17
.
.
you should be able to find goat's milk anywhere that sells organic stuff or a health store.

 

[lilspaz68]

Human soy powdered formula is very very close to a rat's milk, and I have used that and the puppy formula as well.

I shall hope for your sake that the pinkies got some of mom's antibodies from her first milk.

 

[Dustette]

the antibodies really help, but I've had day old mice and was able to save them with esbilac
Only thing is, those mice definitely don't get enough of something and their hair grows very scruffy.
Don't worry if that happens, because once they have been on solid food a while and get all the right nurtiments they would in nature, the hair slowly gets better!

 

[lilspaz68]

the antibodies really help, but I've had day old mice and was able to save them with esbilac
Only thing is, those mice definitely don't get enough of something and their hair grows very scruffy.
Don't worry if that happens, because once they have been on solid food a while and get all the right nurtiments they would in nature, the hair slowly gets better!

you often see this in orphaned rats being hand-reared. Its because mom isn't there to constantly groom them. They have scruffy, sometimes greasy looking sparse fur until they get their adult coat in.

 

[Latrine]

Thanks for the help..

Thanks for all your help guys, unfortunately, the little ones slowly grew lethargic and then died one by one.. I was really upset. At least I tried, I guess.. Stupid formula I ordered for them showed up an hour after the last one died

Sorry it took me so long to reply, internet wasn't working much this week. I really appreciate all the help.. thanks guys.

- Sarah

 

[PandaPaws23]

Why would you want to help them?

 

[Latrine]

response to weird question

Uhm, you are asking my I would want to help tiny, innocent animals doomed to die because their mother died?

I'm just nice like that, I guess.

- Sarah

 

[PandaPaws23]

Uhm, you are asking my I would want to help tiny, innocent animals doomed to die because their mother died?

I'm just nice like that, I guess.

- Sarah

no offence but its called survive of the fittest not all are meant to live if that was the case the world would be overpopulated by every living thing.

 

[FlickeringHope]

The mice wouldn't have even been in trouble if it weren't for human establishments. Mice take advantage of human establishments because we moved into THEIR territory, encroached upon THEIR land, so when we build houses, they have every right to take advantage of that. Which makes the death of mom indirectly our fault, and we should own up to it by taking the time out of our day to take care of the youngin's. If humans never encroached upon the land of the creatures who have been there ages before them, then no, it wouldn't be right to involve ourselves or butt-in. But since we have, it is only fair to own up to that.

If it weren't for humans, mama would have dug a nice burrow, had her babies in there, and been perfectly safe from humans. And THEN survival of the fittest would come into play. That's not directed towards the original poster(Kudos to you, by the way, for trying to help save their lives!), I'm just irritated because my fiance's parents are the same exact way. They don't understand that feeding the wild deer and foxes the way they have been is incredibly dangerous and a really stupid thing to do because the wild animals are depending on them for food and losing the ability to fend for themselves. Humans need to stop butting in to nature. Nature isn't pretty, it isn't fair, but when things happen like mama mouse dying because she took advantage of OUR human establishments, then that makes her death indirectly OUR fault.

 

[PandaPaws23]

Im not gonna argue but if it was I
I wouldn't help them mice are over populated as is.

 

[FlickeringHope]

So are humans. So if you see a dead mom and her abandoned children, don't help the children either.

 

[PandaPaws23]

So are humans. So if you see a dead mom and her abandoned children, don't help the children either.

Oh i wouldn't people are over populated too
I wouldn't adopt a child either.

 

[FlickeringHope]

What I mean by saying all this is if humans never started building their big great, grand, energy-consuming houses, mice wouldn't have moved in. If mice wouldn't have moved in, then the stray cats and owls and hawks would have been keeping the mice population down where it should be, and they wouldn't have become over-populated. Now, because many households keep indoor cats, the domesticated cat wouldn't be killing the random mouse, and just leaving it to rot, because the domesticated cat knows it will get fed later by its human, instead of doing what it was born to do: hunt and kill the mice instead of following instinct, and killing it, but not eating it. We've totally screwed with the balance of nature.

So now the mice population is soaring, because the human population is soaring, and we're all equally losing the resources to live and thrive. Now the owls and hawks are finding it harder to catch prey to thrive, because their prey has moved into human households, where flying predators can't reach them, and the mice get killed by human means or by the domesticated cat, gets thrown outside, where the hawk or owl or stray cats eats the poisoned mouse, or the mouse even succumbs to the poison inside the house, where the domesticated cat eats the mouse, and the predator dies.

Humans need to either learn to live IN nature instead of living in houses with layers upon layers of stuff to separate them from it, or learn to stop butting-in, or learn to take responsibility for their actions because they're living in houses with layers upon layers of stuff to separate them from the outside world, and the mice are also taking advantage of it. There goes the food chain.

 

[Sasami]

Hey guys, let's keep things civil, please . If you want to debate then do it through PMs, this thread was started to find mouse formulas.

 

[FlickeringHope]

Apologies, ^^

 

[windyhill]

Sarah, I would of done the same thing as you and tried to help them.
Ive raised both wild mice and rat litters as well as tame ones.
its very hard to do, so dont take it too hard on yourself

 

[CrWoodyspets]

I agree completely Sarah, it was worth a try to save the little squirts! This is a good thread to have around though, in case any one else needs to find some formula! I'm sorry you had to see them all pass on, but now they are either all happy or maybe even with their mama

 

[Sbdixie21]

Why would you want to help them?

Because it's the right thing to do, it's called humanity.