Mouse rehabilitation

[rogesse]

Last November my son was visiting friends who had a mouse problem. The mother was either throwing the babies out of a top floor window or deliberately throwing them to her cat

Son tried to save them by scooping them up from outside, one he wrestled from the jaws of the cat. Sadly mice can't fly and all but the one grabbed from the cat died. It has been living in my bedroom (caged) for the last 6 months or so with the intention of releasing it on the allotment when the weather seems warmer. We have been very strict about minimal handling and human interaction.

My question is: when (and if) should I let it go, will it be ok having been mollycoddled in terms of food and accommodation?

I would prefer to return it to the wild, besides my own cat is well knarked at losing her favourite sleeping place. I only left the cage alone to go to the toilet (in december) and she had the whole lot on the floor - cat locked out of bedroom since!

Please help, I want to do the right thing!

Jane

[seasprout]

I think it will have a 50/50 chance.

[roadkill]

i would of left them for the cat , wild mice can carry disease and if they are in a house the only true way to rid them is death whether it be traps or cats . it is a bit out of order slinging them from the window as that might not kill them quick enough .......

if you have had the mouse for 6 months then if it is tame it will soon fall to outside prey

[rogesse]

Ok, must have come across as a bit of a fluffy bunny to elicit such responses!

The mouse got the reprieve because it was accompanied by a wailing child, I drove my own parents nuts with various bits of pathetic wildlife - I am aware of the health implications.

Breath.....Yes I know they are vermin, but sorry, perhaps I am a bit fluffy - it is cute. I prefer seasprout's answer 50/50 not that I couldn't have worked that out for myself!

[rogesse]

Sorry - PMT

[Alice]

Rogesse, mice are classed as vermin and as such I believe it would be illegal for you to release it onto the lottie.
This is a difficult one and I doubt there is a right answer. It's not a good scene for the mouse being kept in a cage isolated from its own kind with no chance to express it's natural behaviour.
I would have killed it in the first place - they are disease carrying vermin - but not by throwing it out a window - how dreadful. In the circumstances
I think I would release it somewhere and let it take its chances.
Good luck.

[rogesse]

Thanks Alice, I hadn't thought of the legality - I do know it is illegal to release rescued grey squirrels for example. Perhaps somewhere other than the allotment then!

[la cebolla grande]

We have successfully rehabilitated a Mouse (well, so far so good)......but I suspect this is not what you are asking. Our Mouse is 16 hands and an ex racehorse.

Sorry, couldn't resist........

He's wonderful, orange and provides, along with Atlas, more manure for the lottie than you can shake a stick at!!!

LCG

[lynda66]

we had a couple of young field mice rescued from a neighbours cat last year, kept them in a tank for a few weeks, as they had minor injuries, then put the tank outside half buried in soil, and continued to feed them, they stayed around for a few days, then not seen again, so either they made it or didn't, but i had to save them, i'm too fluffy not to, and it depends what type of mice they are surely?? as to whether you can release them, i would just go for it, but make sure it has somewhere to come back to so it can get food and shelter, after 6 months, though it may be a bit reliant on you feeding it to be released and not survive

[tootles]

Thank goodness you don't live next door to me!!! I don't think I would thank you for letting rodents out to live in my cupboards, wee in my food and eat the contents of my airing cupboard....
I had a gorgeous (and very expensive) Monsoon dress destroyed by mice this winter, not to mention all of the food they have contaminated and has has to be thrown out.
If they can't find someones house with easy pickings they will die; slowly and nastily. The "right" thing to do would be to kill them quickly.
THEY ARE NOT PETS, If you want a mouse - go to a pet shop.

[rogesse]

Thank - you Lynda66, that was the 'having done it myself' advice I was looking for. As I said before, it has not been handled, not even when cleaned out, so hopefully not too tame. I take on board the problem of it being reliant on a ready food supply and have released it in my shed where I can leave stuff.

This shed, tootles, is some distance (and a very busy road) from civilization and a good 2 miles from where I live. I sympathise about the dress tho', I really do!

I was going to say that if you didn't want me as a neighbour, I wouldn't want to be one - until I noticed where you live

I'm house trained, won't eat expensive clothing, come equiped with my own cats and promise to eat all the wild life, a la francase

[sallym]

It may be illegal to release it, but it could always "escape!"

[hamsterqueen]

if it is a house mouse though would it survive on an allotment?