Hangin out at home
Friday, June 28, 2013
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Mouse Visitor
Today the mice had two young visitors and their mom. One of the young ones was very enamored by them, allowing them to crawl all over him. A potential home? MAYBE....
ALSO! The boys are starting to get... manly. This weekend, the boys get separated from the girls! And I have to buy a new lid and a new water bottle. Ugh.
---The Mom
ALSO! The boys are starting to get... manly. This weekend, the boys get separated from the girls! And I have to buy a new lid and a new water bottle. Ugh.
---The Mom
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Strawberries!
I gave the mice some strawberry tops today. So far, the green part got devoured and the actual berry part was left behind. Weird!
We have a few potential homes lined up. Ideally we'll get two homes so that the boys can go in a pair and in a trio. Mice shouldn't be lonely!
--The Mom
We have a few potential homes lined up. Ideally we'll get two homes so that the boys can go in a pair and in a trio. Mice shouldn't be lonely!
--The Mom
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Play date
The mice had a play date with some of our friends again today. The girls came up with the idea of racing the mice across a little desk. They had a great time!
Skippy John made nicey-nice with me today, which made me feel good. He's one of our two satin mice (the other is Silvermist), meaning that their coats are extra shiny. He's really a cutie, and he's the smallest of the lot, I think.
Still no for-sure homes yet for anybody. Bummer.
I'm thinking that Jane will need to go back to her home soon. I don't know if they are still nursing anymore at all but she's not interested in sharing her multigrain club cracker pieces with any of them, I can tell you that. Skippy John is all about eating, though, and he'll just march up and take someone else's piece. That's how SJ rolls!
---The Mom
Skippy John made nicey-nice with me today, which made me feel good. He's one of our two satin mice (the other is Silvermist), meaning that their coats are extra shiny. He's really a cutie, and he's the smallest of the lot, I think.
Still no for-sure homes yet for anybody. Bummer.
I'm thinking that Jane will need to go back to her home soon. I don't know if they are still nursing anymore at all but she's not interested in sharing her multigrain club cracker pieces with any of them, I can tell you that. Skippy John is all about eating, though, and he'll just march up and take someone else's piece. That's how SJ rolls!
---The Mom
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Mice getting a clean home
Yesterday we got a wheel. I taught them how to do it but it didn't work so well because the mice were all around and looking at it. I put some of the mice inside the wheel and tried to turn it. They just sat in it and sat in it and sat in it.
Jane used it and ran like a speeding bullet!
Today we moved them into the bathtub. They sat on me. I put boys and girls on each leg. We gave them corn and crackers. They liked it.
The cage was getting cleaned. When we put them back in one of the Princes was trying to jump up the window! They ran all around. Jane ran on the wheel and the babies tried to run on the wheel. The wheel doesn't really turn when the babies are in it.
We put tunnels in the cage. They were made out of toilet paper rolls. We cut a hole in one of them. They went through the hole.
The mice had a great time!
--The Girl
Apparently my phone, which took a lake bath a while back, isn't videoing properly right now. I can't imagine why, ha. So, sorry for the screwed up sound. --The Mom
Jane used it and ran like a speeding bullet!
Today we moved them into the bathtub. They sat on me. I put boys and girls on each leg. We gave them corn and crackers. They liked it.
The cage was getting cleaned. When we put them back in one of the Princes was trying to jump up the window! They ran all around. Jane ran on the wheel and the babies tried to run on the wheel. The wheel doesn't really turn when the babies are in it.
We put tunnels in the cage. They were made out of toilet paper rolls. We cut a hole in one of them. They went through the hole.
The mice had a great time!
--The Girl
Apparently my phone, which took a lake bath a while back, isn't videoing properly right now. I can't imagine why, ha. So, sorry for the screwed up sound. --The Mom
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Friday, June 21, 2013
Sad...
I'm sad because Skippy John Mouse has started running from me when I try to pick him up. Doesn't he remember that I'm, like, his grandmother?
Thursday, June 20, 2013
The two Princes
C mg ng
K
B m
These two mice just typed this on my phone. Nice. Anyway, we can't tell them apart and one of them was named Prince, so....
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Blaze
This one was orange but is now significantly less so. It depends on the light. The Boy named him Blaze.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Big Day!
The babies are eating hard food! They ate bread, they ate lab blocks, and they also ate a little seed!
We cleaned their cage. We put stuff in it and cut a hole in the box. While we were cleaning the cage, the mice went in the bathtub. I went in the bathtub too. Then the mice went up in my dress! It was a little hard to get them out!
---The Girl
We cleaned their cage. We put stuff in it and cut a hole in the box. While we were cleaning the cage, the mice went in the bathtub. I went in the bathtub too. Then the mice went up in my dress! It was a little hard to get them out!
---The Girl
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Training notes
The Girl asked me to take some notes on her mouse training session.
Silvermist is crawling up The Girl's arm and sitting on her shoulder or crawling around her neck. I'm not raising a squeamish kid, y'all. We just had a little accident that involved Silvermist hanging in The Girl's hair. No harm done.
Scamper is up next. The Girl is going to teach you how to train a mouse to sit on your shoulder. First, put your very long blond hair up to keep the mouse out of it. The Girl says:
"Second step, put the mouse on your hand. Third step, let the mouse crawl up your arm. If she doesn't want to, that's OK, tell her to step on your hand. Then get out another mouse if you have one. The next step is to get the mouse crawl above your elbow. Next she gets up there and she might crawl somewhere, you don't know where, and she could crawl anywhere on you next. She could crawl down your shirt! Then let her stay there and climb around on you. Uh-oh! Scamper's on the rampage!
Now I'm going to teach her how to crawl up a paper towel roll. She crawls through it and the top is on my foot. Then I put my hand there and she'll crawl on my hand. First put her halfway up the roll. Step two, she'll crawl up the roll. Step three, then she crawls on your hand and you are done with the move."
It's not sound training advice, but it is getting the mice used to a variety of surfaces and experiences, plus they are getting used to us as well. Check out the photos below!
Silvermist is crawling up The Girl's arm and sitting on her shoulder or crawling around her neck. I'm not raising a squeamish kid, y'all. We just had a little accident that involved Silvermist hanging in The Girl's hair. No harm done.
Scamper is up next. The Girl is going to teach you how to train a mouse to sit on your shoulder. First, put your very long blond hair up to keep the mouse out of it. The Girl says:
"Second step, put the mouse on your hand. Third step, let the mouse crawl up your arm. If she doesn't want to, that's OK, tell her to step on your hand. Then get out another mouse if you have one. The next step is to get the mouse crawl above your elbow. Next she gets up there and she might crawl somewhere, you don't know where, and she could crawl anywhere on you next. She could crawl down your shirt! Then let her stay there and climb around on you. Uh-oh! Scamper's on the rampage!
Now I'm going to teach her how to crawl up a paper towel roll. She crawls through it and the top is on my foot. Then I put my hand there and she'll crawl on my hand. First put her halfway up the roll. Step two, she'll crawl up the roll. Step three, then she crawls on your hand and you are done with the move."
It's not sound training advice, but it is getting the mice used to a variety of surfaces and experiences, plus they are getting used to us as well. Check out the photos below!
Three Girls and Five Boys!
"Grandmother" Karen came over to tell us the gender of each mouse. There were three girls, five boys. We named the Silver one, who is a girl, Silvermist. Scamper, who is fawn colored with black eyes, is also a girl. The third girl is all black, very tiny, and is named Jewel. We haven't named the boys yet, especially because we expect them to go to new homes. If our friend goes home with the black one with the white spot, I think his name might be Rascal.
Two seem to be silky mice. This means they have very shiny hair.
The Girl is working on teaching them tricks with cardboard rolls and whatnot. So far it's more exploring and habituating than teaching, but that's OK!
---The Girl and The Mom
Two seem to be silky mice. This means they have very shiny hair.
The Girl is working on teaching them tricks with cardboard rolls and whatnot. So far it's more exploring and habituating than teaching, but that's OK!
---The Girl and The Mom
Friday, June 14, 2013
I've got my eye on you!
Today the mice had their eyes open! Not all of their eyes were open, but some of them were. Their eyes seemed to open more as we played with them.
One mouse tried to run away today. He went under the cabinets. My brother saw the mouse with his flashlight. Our friend Lauren got him out. We named that mouse Scamper.
---The Girl
Ohmygosh, you guys, how cool is it to see an animal's eyes opening for the very first time?! We had a little, short play date with some of the same girls that came over earlier this week. We put all the mice out on a towel and realized that a few of them had slightly opened eyes. The more they ran around and played and we picked them up, the more they opened! The black one with the white dot on his head (one of my favorites) probably has the most opened eyes, but it's hard to tell because his face and eyes are the same shade of black.
One mouse tried to run away today. He went under the cabinets. My brother saw the mouse with his flashlight. Our friend Lauren got him out. We named that mouse Scamper.
---The Girl
Ohmygosh, you guys, how cool is it to see an animal's eyes opening for the very first time?! We had a little, short play date with some of the same girls that came over earlier this week. We put all the mice out on a towel and realized that a few of them had slightly opened eyes. The more they ran around and played and we picked them up, the more they opened! The black one with the white dot on his head (one of my favorites) probably has the most opened eyes, but it's hard to tell because his face and eyes are the same shade of black.
I SEEEEEEEE you!
The silver one has his (her?) eyes slightly open as well.
OK, her/his eyes don't actually LOOK open in this shot, but they totally are. A little.
We had already named the beige-ish colored mouse Scamper after he made umpteen trips off the towel, narrowly avoiding being squashed by various knees, butts, and whatnot. But no one was prepared for Scamper to motor right underneath our large cabinet. It took various children, some flashlights, and finally a kid's arm to get him out from under there. One of the kids told me, "You might want to clean under there sometime." HA! I totally might! But, you know, later....
After today's episode, I doubt we will have all the mice out together again. It's gotten too hard to keep track of them!
We do not lack excitement in our house :)
---The Mom
Wiggly!
The babies are so wiggly today (6/13). They can't see where they are going but, if you pick them up, they are pretty sure that they need to go SOMEWHERE. So cute!
Now, if I could only make them smell less....
---The Mom
Now, if I could only make them smell less....
---The Mom
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Mouse party!
We had a play date today with a gob of girls! Everyone enjoyed the mouse pups. I was a bit nervous that someone might accidentally put a knee down on a baby but everyone came out unscathed. Some moved quite a bit. It was very cute. One of the girls in blue is angling to bring one of our babies home when they are older. Actually, so did the girl in the stripes, but her mom was more definite. I'm hoping that Blue Girl convinces her mom because how great would it be for us to get to see some of the babies from time to time? We will see!
The dark-haired girl in pink made an adorable comment. Pink Girl said, "You would think they would be scary, but they're not. They're cute!" Very true!
Monday, June 10, 2013
Moving Day
We moved the babies and Jane (of course) into a 10 gallon tank that The Girl scrubbed out yesterday. We sterilized the heck out of it without using dangerous chemicals. Hope it's OK. The kids bought bedding and a water bottle today. We are going to need to go and buy new lab blocks (food) soon. Jane keeps peeing in her food bowl. Naughty Jane!
We went to the library today and got some books on mice. While I was reading to The Boy tonight, The Girl got out one of the books and was reading it to herself (when will I get stop getting excited about how awesome it is that my now-former kindergartner can read actual books to herself now?). She was learning the parts of the mouse (basic stuff, but still). Very fun!
I took photos of each mouse pup during the change over and play session but somehow only got usable photos of six of them. I guess it's hard to juggle baby mice, a phone, and a six-year-old. Plus I'm not sure I can tell all of them apart just by looking at the photos. So I guess what I'm saying is, don't get attached to me saying that they are Baby 1 or 6 or whatever in the photos below. Tomorrow it'll be different. I think The Girl named one of the Jelly or something today. I can't even remember. I guess with record keeping, I'm hit and miss!
We need to take more photos of them next to a ruler so you can see how much they've grown; however, I seem to have lost my ruler. That's the way things roll in my house.
Anyway, enjoy the photos of six of our eight babies!
---The Mom
We went to the library today and got some books on mice. While I was reading to The Boy tonight, The Girl got out one of the books and was reading it to herself (when will I get stop getting excited about how awesome it is that my now-former kindergartner can read actual books to herself now?). She was learning the parts of the mouse (basic stuff, but still). Very fun!
I took photos of each mouse pup during the change over and play session but somehow only got usable photos of six of them. I guess it's hard to juggle baby mice, a phone, and a six-year-old. Plus I'm not sure I can tell all of them apart just by looking at the photos. So I guess what I'm saying is, don't get attached to me saying that they are Baby 1 or 6 or whatever in the photos below. Tomorrow it'll be different. I think The Girl named one of the Jelly or something today. I can't even remember. I guess with record keeping, I'm hit and miss!
We need to take more photos of them next to a ruler so you can see how much they've grown; however, I seem to have lost my ruler. That's the way things roll in my house.
Anyway, enjoy the photos of six of our eight babies!
---The Mom
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