We have a guest today

[Eepster]

Found this morning in the trap.  

[BB & Tiny]

Clearly worked up an appetite on that wheel !

[Eepster]

Did some research, he seems to be a deer mouse.

[BB & Tiny]

Certainly has huge peepers.

[LBJ10]

Hmm, Peromyscus for sure. It’s hard to tell white-footed mice and deer mice apart, so we always just went by genus when classifying them. He’s adorable. I always loved their big eyes. That being said, be careful with him. You wouldn’t want him to make you sick.

[MoxieMeadows]

Cute.

We once rescued some baby mice. They were in a nest in an old lawn mower a friend gave to us. When he and us saw the mice nest he offered to “do away with them”, but we said no. We put the babies from the nest (they weren’t infant as their eyes were open, but were still very young) into a tank like you have, and fed/watered them for a week or two until the were strong enough to be released. (Minimal to no contact, and often scattered the food in the bedding so they had to forage for it. Also the tank was kept in the garage not the house.)

[Eepster]

That’s a good reminder LBJ10. I’m being careful and haven’t touched him. He may look like a pet in that tank, but I am treating him as a wild animal and have no plans to directly handle him. I’ve also washed my hands after handling things he has come into contact with like the trap.

He’s been in and out of the house for a while though. This is the same mouse I trapped twice before. First time I released him in the back yard and he came right back. Second time I put him into the cage with the wire bars that he just slipped right through. So we have been exposed to him plenty already. We live in a state with no reported hantavirus ever.

I got the impression that white foots are more common down south and that deer mice were more common up here in the north.

[LBJ10]

Eepster – Depends on how far north you are. They have huge overlap in their geographic ranges, but I suppose they would be more common in the northern parts of the US. We have both here, but I’m in the middle. Hence the classifying them by genus when we would trap and tag them at school. Then again, we were being scientific about it too.

There have been cases of Hantavirus where I live, but not a ton. I can tell you that I had to clean up mouse poop at my old job all the time and never had a problem. I was a little paranoid about vacuuming it up though since that would spread particles in the air. Anyway, it was common in the fall for them to all start coming into the poorly sealed building looking for a warm place for the winter.

[Author]

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