Friday, August 26, 2011

feeding with an eyedropper

On Monday or Tuesday evening Will went out to the barn and accidentally scared a mother mouse who was nesting on the deck of the riding mower. Her two babies were still there the next morning so Tim and Will carried them into the house and set to work feeding and attempting to rescue the little guys. So, for several days they have been fed around the clock tiny drops of milk and have miraculously stayed alive. 

They don't have any hair, their eyes are still shut, and they don't even squeak. It seems very strange to be expending so much effort trying to keep field mice alive while trying to decide between poison and traps to keep the barn rodent-free. My job in the next week or so is to find if there are humane traps to set up in the barn so we aren't inadvertently killing the babies' mother or father.   

2 comments:

Foxfier said...

You have a barn and people HAVEN'T been depositing cats there already?

Wow. Long way off the road?

My folks have a population that, at the low points, is in the 20s for barn cats-- most of the ones that aren't born there are abandoned. They feed them daily to "keep them near the barn," and those that don't turn feral are usually adopted out. Both of my house cats are caught kittens, too.

Michelle said...

I used a no-harm trap when I had mice in the last house. The kids took them out to the woods, past the creek and released them. Product by Havahart: http://www.havahart.com/store/live-animal-traps/1020 They like peanut butter.