The Puffer Forum

Thought i'd sho wyou my Harvest meeces

One of my females has a cataract in one eye but it doesn't seem to bother her.

Cute. But how come you have Harvest Mice?

I'm generally not a big fan of mice and only care for them at the cute fuzzy baby stage but those guys are too darn cute!

These are adults and about an inch in size excluding tail.

I have them simply because i like them! i keep many rodents including exotic species, i know these are native to our country, but are not a common sight and are just too darn cute.

They are captive bred specimens not wild caught if that's what you were thinking, there are many breeders about including myself

Fab animal, very entertaining to watch, and extremely nosey little animals, much bolder than your average pet mouse!


Losertastictoaster - Heres some baby mice for you to admire then

Awww how cute!!

The harvest mice are just so adorable even as adults. Do they differ much from your average pet mouse?

They are so cute!!

Too bad as wild they are such a pain I love rodents up to the point they invade your home.

losertastictoaster wrote:Awww how cute!!

The harvest mice are just so adorable even as adults. Do they differ much from your average pet mouse?

Apart from being a fraction of the size of a fancy mouse, their breeding habits are very different, however big your colony is, its only the dominant male and female that will breed, so getting overrun is difficult unless you have many separate pairs going, their babies are extremely tiny only about a cm big and their litters are slightly smaller than your average mouse who may have about 10 on average, harvests have about 5, though my first litter was just 2 They nest high up which is why i have small boxes tied to the lid as opposed to my fancies that nest on the ground, harvests spend most their time off the ground, up in the branches or on platforms and they eat a small seed mix like bird seed and millet instead of the normal mouse/hamster mix.

They are beyond adorable.

Could I ask for any advice you have, please?

This morning I saw one of our cats attacking something and it turned out to be a small mouse very similar to your harvest mouse. I chased the cat off and picked up the mouse who was bleeding from an ear wound and a shallow bite to it's rear end.

The mouse is in an empty aquarium and has not died of shock immediately. It's in a very quiet room, I added some rat bedding and a bottlecap of water, placed a book on top of half of the tank so air can get in but as dark as possible and left it alone.

I read your suggestion of feeding bird seed, so I added at little of that which the mouse is eating.

I realise that an aquarium is not an ideal solution even if the mouse survives.

I just wish to allow it to recover before relasing it if this is the best option for the animal.

Is there anything I can do for the injuries that seem to be 'flesh wounds'? It seems to be able to move around ok, but I'm worried about shock and infection from the cat bite/swipe.

Poor little sod

BTW I keep a pet rat, if that's any use...

If you are able to, bathe any skin wounds with salt water (about a teaspoon of salt dissolved in a pint of boiled then cooled water). Salt is a natural antiseptic & will help dry any wounds. There isn't really much else you can do at home. Perhaps there is a wildlife hospital locally that can help?

Thanks, Bigfatfish I'll try that.

It's doing ok so far...eaten, had a poo, made a nest...

Awww they're cute! Their tail still grosses me out.

Phew I thought you were breeding them cuties for food...Thank you for not feeding them to a boa err something else. I dont like those kinda pets that need cute food....lol


Scary ugly animals eating cute food is not cool ,unless its in the wild and I dont kno about it haha

Awww they're so cute I'd love a few mice.. My little cousins have 2 and recently one of their tails got cut off :/ I have no idea how but its totally fine still.. It's been a few weeks and its running about like normal

Thank you

No no these little cuties are not for food! despite owning a couple dozen snakes myself, these little guys are far too precious to become lunch for anyone!