Peromyscus maniculatus (deer mouse)

This morning I killed 3 mice that had gotten into my house. They were larger than a normal house mouse, and even larger than most of my breeder fancy mice. At first glance they almost looked like my ASF's. After a little research it appears they are deer mice.

Does anyone work with this native species? Most of my collection is north American colubrids that should feed on these in the wild. I'm thinking about possibly catching some, treat for internal and external parasites, keep quarantined or totally separate from my other mice and trying to breed them.

Deer mice are not recommended due to the Hanta Virus:

https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/index.html

I saw that too. The states I'm in have only had 0 & 9 reported cases. The animals are already in the residence so I wouldn't be bringing them in from else where.

There is a video series on YouTube of a guy who caught a couple wild rats in New York bred them into his collection and a few generations down he was producing wild looking dumbos. But I don't think they were feeders if I remember correctly. Apart from that it's the only time I've seen wild captured rodents bred in captivity. But every population of domestic animals has wild roots. So its all about risk vs reward.

Google: What percentage of deer mice carry the Hanta virus?

Try not to breathe too deeply...

I don't think Hanta virus is the ONLY risk either. Personally, I just wouldn't keep or breed them.

https://www.cdc.gov/rodents/diseases/direct.html

I caught two wild mice last year and kept them in containment for about four days. I thought that the container I was using would hold them. I was wrong! Take your average chewing mouse and multiply that by ten. They destroyed that tub on their way out!


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When I took a mammalogy course at my university, I trapped some deer mice. As I recall, only one pair bred (once) out of a dozen pairs. Cages were metal types made for domestic mice. These mice were far wilder than domestic mice. All things considered, it was not a happy experience.

I have heard that there are domesticated strains of deermice, but I can't give any sources.

For what its worth, one of my snake hunting buddies used to have a small rattler, one of the Crotalus viridis subspecies, that refused lab mice but would chow down on pinkie deermice that we sometimes found while turning over boards.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by paulh

When I took a mammalogy course at my university, I trapped some deer mice. As I recall, only one pair bred (once) out of a dozen pairs. Cages were metal types made for domestic mice. These mice were far wilder than domestic mice. All things considered, it was not a happy experience.

I have heard that there are domesticated strains of deer mice, but I can't give any sources.

For what its worth, one of my snake hunting buddies used to have a small rattler, one of the Crotalus viridis subspecies, that refused lab mice but would chow down on pinkie deermice that we sometimes found while turning over boards.

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I originally bred a few Russian dwarf hamsters for the same reason...some w/c "house-guests" balked at domestic rodents. But I liked them [the hamsters] so much
that I worked with them for excellent temperaments* as well as fancy colors, & sold most of them for pets to local pet stores. (*I actually guaranteed them, since
so many had bad experiences with nasty inbred hamsters that bit everyone that stores were tired of losing money & having to sell those as snake feeders. As promised,
I exchanged only a VERY few hamsters "for cause" even if the human was likely at fault, so everyone was happy- pet stores sold lots of mine.)

I never knew any fussy Crotalus viridis though? :confusd: -but that's the way it goes sometimes.