House Mouse-Keep as pet?

Linguo

There's a really cute little mouse living under the floorboards of my room and comes up in the middle of the night and nibbles on any food he can find. My bf and I saw him for the first time over the weekend and he's so cute and tiny and gorgeous....and probably full of disease??

Now we don't know what to do with him, we love animals so we're not going to hurt him, but should we try and keep him as a pet or let him free somewhere?

Are they dangerous to keep near you? Need advice on this please!

His name is Ronan by the way...:D

Rory123

It is not the done thing to keep any wild animal (as in one you have taken from its natural habitat) as a pet. If you leave the mouse there it will probably reproduce and lead to hundreds of mice, which will be a real pest in the kitchen cupboards and they chew through electric cables. There are plenty of humane traps on sale that you can use to catch the mouse and relocate it to. For example bring it to a wooded area maybe.

hadook

There's rarely such a thing as a single mouse - others will follow, they'll breed and then you'll have a major problem.

I'd suggest moving the mouse, finding where he/she got in and blocking it up and if you really want a pet mouse to buy a domesticated one.

Sleipnir

I'm glad you love animals because if you don't deal with this one, they'll multiply.
Not particularly "full of disease" but they will eat your food, chew through electrical cables and eventually die and rot under your floorboards.

Awwwwwww...!

wolfpawnat

My OH wants to keep the one that wanders around our kitchen, we named our fella Scraps. He goes onto our counter top by climbing up the back of the fridge, so we have to disinfect it constantly. We have humane mouse traps in the house. I dont want the little fella wandering around because we have a 3 week old baby. The owner of our house is an absolutely useless man. He mentioned buying mouse traps, but never did and he doesnt care we have a baby and a rodent problem. I want to trap scraps and put him in the landlords bedroom, that would sort the jerk out!

But wild mice dont make good pets. I had domestic mice and they are great. They also would get rid of the other fella because of their smell

Linguo

Your points all make sense, my bf and I will break the news to Ronan when we get home....poor chap.......and yeah there is another one living in the shed out the back!He's Louie..........:D

Won't feel as bad if we catch them both and release them somewhere nice...:D

az2wp0sye65487

Linguo wrote: »

His name is Ronan by the way...

Linguo wrote: »

He's Louie..........

Sure all you need is a couple more... Mikey, Stephen, Keith and Shane - and you'll have a squeaky little mouse-band!

Linguo

That wasn't meant on purpose honestly!!May have to change their names now:D

Rory123

Linguo if you are yearning for something cute and furry to call your own I'd suggest a gerbil or a striped mouse. They are cool. A standard syrian hamster is nice too. It will set you back around €80 for a setup including hamster or gerbil. Although a striped mouse will be twice the price or more than a hammy.

Linguo

I have a dog who's the best in the world and one fish left (rest have died over the past couple of years) so may just stick with that for now, my dog knows there's a chap in my room, drives him mad!!!

Semele

I have a house mouse too! Mine is called Philip! He's the cutest thing ever- have only seen him a handful of times though (he jumped out at me from behind the toaster the first time- we both squealed with fright and ran away then nervously peered round the corner at each other for awhile!).

I fall asleep on the living room couch quite a bit these days and am usually woken by him rustling round in the kitchen making happy little squeaking noises. I do try never to go to bed without doing the dishes and putting out the rubbish in the hope of getting rid of him but sometimes when I think he's gone for good and get lazy, out he pops again!

I'm planning to move out soon and will try to relocate him before I do- the next tenant might not find him quite so endearing!

Linguo

Philip sounds great, all the lads should meet!

It's hard cause they're cute and happy and warm in the house, i'm the same with spiders or anything really. I worry about the house spiders not getting enough to eat if they're somewhere awkward. I have a spider catcher and will put them out but feel bad for the babies!!

Melted M&M

get rid of it immediately before the over run the house they are full of disease

Is he named after Ronan Keating I'm just curious?

Linguo

god no! I like to give random animals I find Irish names!My bf named the other lad louie and then we realised, but the names have sort of stuck!

Like the pic by the way!!

Run_to_da_hills

Mice love nutella, leave some on a saucer and they will come back for more. You can also buy live mouse traps if in Woodies if you intend catching a few breeding them.

Linguo

I left Louie in the shed and Ronan upstairs some croisant each...but will get rid of them at the weekend!

Kristopherus

Linguo, get a cat and the your mouse's name will be History:D:D:D:D:D.
Get rid of the pest as fast as you can by whatever means you choose. Make sure its as far away from the house as possible, at least 500mtrs. If not back they will come and you will find the house full of the buggers by Christmas.

Semele

Linguo wrote: »

god no! I like to give random animals I find Irish names!

On the basis of this alone you have now made it into my top 5 favourite people of all time! I think I love you!!!

Linguo

Semele let's hope you and your OH and me and mine don't end up living next door to eachother, we'll be infested very fast!!

My oh and I feed the rats in St. Annes sometimes.....thank god we're both crazy!:D

sorella

We once had a wee mouse that sat atop of the computer printer, totally unafraid.

It let me pick it up even.

So I did so and put it outside.

The next day it came back - with the whole mouse tribe.

A total plague of them; they were in the oven, in every cupboard.....We caught/killed around 30 of them.

So be careful about being too nice to them; they take advantage:)

And in a different house a while ago, one ran over my pillow. The dog cornered it and I caught it up in a cloth, took it outside and warned it... NEXT rtime, the dog gets you!

Never had any more there.

We have two dogs and two cats now; all excellent hunters.

Linguo

My dog would eat them but he's 13 and a half, the best little chap, but not as quick as anything he tries to chase! I don't want loads of them in, I just can't say no to animals! I will be good and put him out at the weekend, i don't want a plague coming in like you had Sorella!:D

But i'll feed them nice stuff till the weekend.....

Interceptor

My kids keep pet mice and we have two litters of pinkies at the moment. I've kept wild mice but they don't tame very easily and I wouldn't breed from them. Beware trapping a female who may be nursing a litter and your good intentions result in the death of her babies.

Most pet shops sell pet mice for ~€8 and they are nicer pets than hamsters since they don't object to being handled and aren't as nocturnal.

'cptr

Linguo

I never would have considered them pet wise unless I met Ronan, now I would reconsider!I'm trying to tame Alan, a wood pigeon, as well, so have my work cut out for me trying to recruit new part time pets:D

Interceptor

I still have a wild hedgehog called Loli living in my kitchen - I'm on your side. Leave food and water for the mice and they'll love you forever. As for the wood pigeon, buy a bag of corn from your local farm feed supplier (?!) for €6 and he'll come around quickly too.

'cptr

Linguo

I would love a hedgehog, you're so lucky!Is he friendly?
Alan is getting used to me, I can get pretty close to him and I feed all the birds so they appreciate it! My dog defends his garden though and tries to chase them off!
Once a magpie came into the back garden and hid a full jammy dodger under a pile of swept up garden cuttings, my chap came along and ate it! I felt awful so replaced it with another biscuit:D

BrianD3

I had a few hedgehogs visiting the garden a couple of years ago. I thought it was just one and was considering naming "him" - but then one night I found three hedghogs at the feeder at the same time

Titania

Jeepers, I haven't had entertainment this good in ages.

I've taken to house mice in the past too, but I'm living with my folks again now, and they don't see my point of view. They did, however, agree to humane traps, and I had every plan to release the little mites in a local park.

But the mousies were way too clever. Never got into the traps. Without my knowing, my dad laid down poison and normal traps. He caught a few in the traps, and the mice seemed to be gone for good.

Until... Suddenly we got a really noxious smell in our kitchen. It was like sewage, but worse. It transpired that the mice had eaten the poison and then gone in behind the presses to die. We had to remove the backs of a whole row of kitchen cabinets to get the corpses out. And they weren't pretty.

I felt really bad for the little fellas.

I think next time we'll borrow a cat.

sorella

We had seven cats at the time of the Great Mouse War.

Just they were in a different room.

And the mice got clever of course:)

My tendency to take in anything has been curbed now:) We have a full house.

And these present cats are country-wise and brook no nonsense.

Titania wrote: »

Jeepers, I haven't had entertainment this good in ages.

I've taken to house mice in the past too, but I'm living with my folks again now, and they don't see my point of view. They did, however, agree to humane traps, and I had every plan to release the little mites in a local park.

But the mousies were way too clever. Never got into the traps. Without my knowing, my dad laid down poison and normal traps. He caught a few in the traps, and the mice seemed to be gone for good.

Until... Suddenly we got a really noxious smell in our kitchen. It was like sewage, but worse. It transpired that the mice had eaten the poison and then gone in behind the presses to die. We had to remove the backs of a whole row of kitchen cabinets to get the corpses out. And they weren't pretty.

I felt really bad for the little fellas.

I think next time we'll borrow a cat.

Linguo

I'm glad I started this thread and have found loads of other crazy animal lovers!



I also take bees dying at the end of summer home to my garden because they get trampled on the paths, i feed them sugar and water and put them somewhere safe to die. They're very tame when they're dying.

giddybootz

Hee hee great thread!!

I'm obsessed with picking up snails from the path and putting them out of harms way...has made me late for work in the past!!

dudara

We had a tiny brown mouse in our flat last winter. He couldn't get up on the counter, and I'd say that he was just picking up scraps etc where he could. We have two sofas in our opne living room/kitchen and sometimes we would see him looking out from under the other sofa.

We let him be, as he didn't seem to have any buddies with him and he wasn't doing any harm to us. But I have two cages with dwarf hamsters and one day I saw him slipping between the bars to raid my hamsters food bowl. (He was so small he could fit right between).

Unfortunately I couldn't have him in the house if he was going to be bothering the hamsters, so I baited a humane trap with little pieces of fat from parma ham. Except the little fecker would run into the trap and run out with the fat.He was so small that he wasn't setting it off. It took about 6 goes before he finally set off the trap. We would be sitting on the sofa p*ssing ourselves laughing at the little guy.