|
I got a hamster!
Previous title: I found a mouse! ):
So, Jeremy died. I posted about that in the original content of the thread. All day, I moped around because I felt guilty for Jeremy's death. At one point, my mom's boyfriend tells me that he needs help getting some things at the store, and asks me to go with him. I agree to go help him. We pull into Petsmart; I was expecting to go to Walmart, so he explains to me that I looked so bummed about Jeremy that he had called around and when he learned that Petsmart sells mice, to get me a domestic one. He brought me along so I could pick out the one I'd like. So, as it turns out: they sell frozen mice. :o That is not what I was looking for. But we went to the small pets area anyway, and I fell in love with one particular hamster in the robo-dwarf hamster area. He was friendly, walked right up to my finger to explore, and cute as a button. When I told the man I found what I wanted, he nodded and lifted the hamster's home, and all of them (about seven) began to run about and he grabbed a random one. I was like: D:, but it was okay because they were all darling. I named my hamster Jasper, and he is energetic and friendly. Currently, he is trying to defy gravity by running up the walls of his wire cage, and then attempting to climb on the roof of the cage. I told him that he just can't defy the laws of physics, and he just stared at me with his adorable eyes. : P I feel a little bad that I just replaced Jeremy like that, but I love Jasper so much already that it's almost crazy. He's such a sweetie. _____________________________________ So, last night, my cat was obsessed with rushing in and out of my room, via my window. She's not normally as crazy as she was this morning, and at 7:30, I was fed up with it enough to get up and open the window for her. When I opened the window, I saw what I thought was a dead mouse. Except, when I looked at it, I realized that it wasn't dead. Because I love to nurse things back to health, I rushed him into my room, in a puzzle box. He was scared. He also couldn't move, and I later learned that it's because he has a broken leg (it's sticking out the wrong way and he can't stand - easy enough to figure out). I told my mother, and now we have a cage and food for him. His name is Jeremy. I was relieved to see him eat the pellets we got, and happy to see that he no longer wants to bite me. However, Jeremy still cannot stand up, and this worries me. How can he get to water? He hasn't had water for at least seventeen hours (from the time that my cat had put him on my window seal). I don't know what to do about his leg, but he needs to be able to at least limp around so he can survive, right? And I also don't know what to do about water. I thought about soaking a few of his pellets in water and so that when he eats, he'll get some water, but I don't think that would supply enough whatsoever. Currently, he is in my closest in his cage (it's a walk-in, so his cage isn't cramped up or anything), with the lights off and the door closed. I think he is still in shock, and until he is calmer I think it's best for him to have as little stimuli as possible, and this makes it easier to protect him from my cat. Any ideas about his leg? Or the water situation? Any advice on care for him? PS - Jeremy is a field mouse. |
Aww! The poor little mouse. ):
I just did a quick web search, and by the sounds of it, it's possible that his leg can heal on it's own in a few weeks time... There is apparently no way you can fix it though... it has to heal on it's own. ): Some of the replies to this forum might help a little bit... http://www.paw-talk.net/forums/f16/o...ken-36339.html As for water... have you tried putting some in a little bowl and putting it next to him and see if he drinks from it? I'm not sure how else you could get it to him... though the pellet idea doesn't sound too bad either. I'm not much of an animal expert but I am an avid animal lover, and I really hope this helps a little bit, and that he gets better. ): |
If he is in shock, make sure he has plently of nice soft bedding that he can use. He won't be able to move for some time, but rodents are sturdy, so hope for the best. But they don't react to new things well, so low stimulus is a very good idea. As for the bedding, whatever you do, NOT NEWSPAPER. try to get an old rattly handtowel if you don't want to buy anything from the petstore.
|
Make sure he stays warm, And the pallet idea sounds like a nice idea. It may not give him 100% of what he needs, But. I'm sure it'll be better than him getting sick because he doesn't have enough.
I had a pet Field mouse once because my cat brought him in, He lived in a cage infront of my fire-place for a while, But. He was all better in less than a month so I let him go :3 |
Awh :[ I hope you figure it out...
|
Maybe let it eat something with more water in it? I dunno how mice do with veggies, but maybe some celery or leaves/grass or something..
I'm thinking I should research that a bit or something first, I don't want to hurt its stomach. D: Or a really shallow dish of some sort, like one of those little ash tray thingers. Maybe just feed the water to it by hand with an eye dropper or something like that. |
Be careful. Wild mice do carry diseases, and they don't have to bite you in order to make you sick.
A year ago we trapped a mouse that was in my room. He was a deer mouse, not a field mouse, but still. He was scared of me, but he was so cute and he began to get used to me coming up to the little temporary cage we had him in. I wanted to keep him. However, when I researched his type of mouse, I found out they're extremely notorious carriers of Hantavirus, which is a disease that kill humans if not treated (and the symptoms are very flu-like, so you may not realize what you have is bad until it gets very bas). But the thing with Hantavirus is that you don't have to be bitten to get it. If the infected animal's poop or pee dries to the point where it's dusty and you inhale that dust (which would happen), you have it. You can read more about Hantavirus at the CDC's page for it. I definitely understand wanting to keep the little guy, especially if he's hurt. The mouse I found was perfectly fine, but I still cried when I had to release him (far away from my home). But really, keeping him is not worth the risk to you. As long as you don't try to handle him, you can probably keep him for a few more days, but you'll have to release him. Wild animals get hurt all the time, and while I know it's painful to see (very painful to see, trust me, I have recent experience. But that's a different story), but they're designed to be able to survive after being hurt. He should be fine out on his own. Once you've released him (and do it far away from your home, or he's just going to come right back in), wash everything he touched with bleach. Since you found him outside your house, everything else should be okay. I know this is really hard (As I said, I cried when I had to give up Ink, the mouse I found, and I had only had him for a few days), but your health and well-being is much more important. If afterwards, you feel a little rodent-sized void, you can do what I did and go out and adopt a domestic rodent. :) I adopted a teddy bear hamster. He's much friendlier than a wild mouse ever would be, and I know he's healthy and disease-free. Oh, and as for getting fluids to him in the meantime, you could try something juice, such some lettuce. But don't give him too much - I used to give my hamster strawberries, and it gave him diarrhea. >< A green plant would probably be a better idea as it's closer to what they may eat in the wild. But then again, mice are more adaptive than hamsters. And my hamster wasn't dehydrated. |
You can give him a sliced grape to make sure he at least stays hydrated if he won't drink from a water dish. Watermelon, I imagine, would also work. xD
I do agree with Cherry about not keeping wild mice, though >_> You never know what he could have been exposed to. There are plenty of domestic rodents that need loving homes too :] |
When I found a baby squirle, I fed it by filling a straw up with food and covering one end with my finger and letting him suck the food out like a baby bottle. You could try doing thas with water in the straw. I would try strawberrys also. Keep him warm, and hope for the best. <3 By the way, Jeremy is my brother's name. >.<
|
Thank you all for your concern for Jeremy. Unfortunately, he died this morning.
It was very odd, because he was much more perky that yesterday, and I thought that perhaps he was well on his way to recovery. He was walking much more, he was looking around and flipping his tail, smelling everything he came in contact with, and I was quite pleased. When I came back in the next hour, he was curled in a corner of his cage, and very cold and not breathing. :( I think he might have died from shock, because even though he seemed calmer and more comfortable, it might have been that he was more scared. I buried him under the apply tree, and cleaned his cage thoroughly. |
I'm very sorry to hear that he died. :( At least we know he was as comfortable as possible in his final stages.
|
I updated the thread. :3
|
Aww, I'm glad you're not bummed about Jeremy so much anymore. :3
I got a teddy bear hamster recently, he likes climbing the cage too!! x] I call him my little Baby, or a little monkey-- he's so hyperactive. I wish I had a picture of my Baby being a little ninja-butt and all upside down, climbing, climbing, climbing, but this is the best my camera could do: http://i29.tinypic.com/eqnk8g.jpg My hammy doesn't like pictures. x] |
So far, it doesn't seem that Jasper likes me much. He's very scared of me, and every time I'm near him, he gets in his wheel and starts running like he's trying to get away from me. : P Last night I put my hand in the cage to give him a treat and it scared him so badly that he pooped instantly. D: <
He did have a nice run in his little run-about last night, though, and really seemed to enjoy that. He kept on biting the cage at night when I was trying to sleep, though. : P |
Don't worry about that. xD
Our hamster was so scared of us at first. Did the running away thing Jasper did. xD Or he would creep into a corner or try to play dead. It even bit me once. ;__; And it hurt hahah. But he lets us handle him now. He'll squirm and everything but the biting's stopped, and he doesn't hide when we reach our hand into the cage to feed him. :heart: It even fell asleep in my sister's hand =u= <333 |
| All times are GMT. The time now is 10:51 PM. |