Bucket-O-Field Mice

Here is an interesting picture of a mother field mouse and her 5 babies. Believe it or not this mouse made her nest in the hole of a spare fence post. There were two post standing side by side with just a small opening exposing the fence rail hole. Well sure enough when I moved one aside there she way staring out at me wide eyed. I am very surprised at her choice of nesting locations, after all with 5 babies they would have outgrown that spot in a about a week.

I emptied the contents of the hole into a bucket - the first picture below. You can see the mother and her little pink newbies.



Here you can just make out a couple of the babies -


Here is the mother staring me down in her new (temporary) home -



We're planning on keeping them for a little while to observe the process. She has already adapted well to her new home/cage, as she has her original nest pulled back together and is curled up inside nursing the babies. Let hope she isn't to determined to escape just yet. Since the top of this cage is plastic I don't think it would take her long to chew her way out, however, I have two things working to my advantage - one, she can't reach the top (I think) and two, she has young'n.

It has yet to be determined the future of these varmint - catch and release elsewhere, way elsewhere or swimming lessons...