Food for baby mouse
What Do Baby Mice Eat?
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It’s not easy to care for abandoned newborn mice; many newborn mice die in the first week owing to heat loss, nutritional deficiency, or disease. Raising baby mice is difficult since it has no fur but it isn’t impossible. It has a reasonable possibility of survival if fed several times each day and given enough warmth.
What comes to mind when you hear the term “mouse”? This may be the kind of small, grey animal with a chunk of yellow cheese in its paws that many people are familiar with. A mouse could also be running around your home, opening cereal boxes.
This is why it’s important to be aware of what baby mice eat in the wild. It will assist you in learning how to keep these pests out of your home. So, let’s look at what baby mice eat in the wild and how our homes have become attractive dining halls for mice.
What Do Baby Mice Eat?Baby mice will suck on their mother’s milk for the first two weeks of their life. After that, baby mice can start eating solid foods, such as cooked rice and beans, cooked carrots, soft vegetables, and fruits.
If they are still without parents, give them kitten milk formula with a syringe or pipet. Remember to feed them every two or three hours. This may mean getting up at night, but it is necessary if you want to keep the kittens alive.
The newborn mice will not have developed their teeth, so they won’t be able to chew on the food at first. After three or four weeks, you should consider adding some solid meals. When the mice begin opening their eyes and growing, this is one of the signals that it’s time to exterminate them. You should also note when their teeth begin to develop.
Begin by offering them high-quality, nutritious foods to encourage growth. Fruits, seeds, vegetables, greens, and rodent diets are examples of these items.
What Do Baby Mice Eat in The Wild? A Baby MouseMice are not picky. A mouse’s diet is surprisingly broad, and a mouse will do just about anything to get its hands on it.
They’re natural foragers who enjoy consuming a wide range of foods in the wild. Although they have their likes and dislikes, they do have certain tendencies.
Mice, like most other rodents, prefer insects to meat. These creatures will also consume smaller snails, larvae, centipedes, cricket eggs, and worms as a source of nutrition.
What Do Baby Mice Eat At Home? Cheese for Baby MiceMice, like in the wild, will take what they can get. While mice aren’t fussy eaters, they do have their favorite foods. Here’s a list of some of the things that mice enjoy eating.
You may be shocked to learn that mice dislike cheese more than other foods if you grew up watching cartoons of mice chewing on a massive slice of Swiss. That being said, a mouse would not leave an excellent chunk of cheese behind. They will still consume any cheese they discover.
Mice are omnivores, so they eat both plants and animals. They may munch on any leftovers or insects that they discover around your house.
Mice are curious animals, and their food preferences reflect this. Instead of consuming a large chunk of food all at once, they like to nibble on many different things they’ve kept.
Mice are also hoarding animals. They enjoy rummaging through cupboards and pantries, gathering what they find, and bringing it back to their nests when food is in short supply.
Not only is this an annoyance in and of itself, but it also attracts pests like beetles, weevils, and other insects. This food storage may attract additional pests such as cockroaches, ants, and mice, causing a simple mouse infestation to rapidly develop into a full-blown pest issue.
Mice are generally unwilling to eat non-food items. If chew impressions are on cables, cords, wires, boxes, fabric other objects, this is due to the existence of a mouse nest rather than food consumption.
How To Feed Baby Mice?Step 1:Give your baby mouse some liquid nourishment.
Baby mice drink mother’s milk. Instead, you’ll need to give your newborn mouse the milk it needs. Cow’s milk should be avoided. You may, instead, try soy formula, kitten formula made of goat’s or cow’s milk, or goat’s milk baby formula.
Every two hours, give them a good meal. Your newborn mouse will require feeding around the clock until it opens its eyes. You must feed your newborn mice every two hours for those between 0 and 2 weeks old. They only need to eat every 3-4 hours after that. They shouldn’t eat during the night once their eyes are open.
Warm the milk first. Check a drop on your wrist to see if it’s cold or hot enough. Using a syringe, eyedropper, or pipette, add milk to a mouse. With your non-dominant hand, firmly grip the mouse. With your other hand, hold the pipette and try to shimmy the probe into the mouse’s mouth. Warm milk should be used instead of cold water. This resembles stretching out and squirming
Step 3:Solid foods should be introduced gradually after your mouse’s eyes are open.
It may begin to eat solid food when its eyes are open. Continue feeding it formula until the 4 to 6 weeks old, at which point it will be weaned. Hamster or kitten food, baby food, or soft vegetables can all be offered.
To help a mouse go to the toilet, stimulate it. Baby mice can’t urinate or feces on their own because they’re babies. The mother would generally lick them to encourage them to eliminate them. Place a cotton ball or your finger in lukewarm water and gently move it over the mouse’s genitals until it has eliminated itself.
What Are The Natural Predators of Baby Mice?What are the most dangerous animals for mice? While it is not uncommon for some of the larger tarantulas to consume a mouse, most spiders do not consider mice to be a common meal, and instead may appear on a mouse’s menu. Where a substantial amphibian may occasionally capture and consume a mouse, the bulk of their diet is composed of tiny animals, such as insects.
There are several animals that consume mice as part of their regular diet in order to maintain the rodents’ populations in check. These are the creatures believed to be the mouse’s natural predators, and they may be found across a variety of species.
Birds
Hawks, eagles, and owls consider mice a welcome change of pace to be hunted and snared. The heron, crow, and blue jay are non-raptor birds that will eat rodents if they find them.
Reptiles
Although larger lizards are known to consume mice, snakes are generally the primary food source for them. People who keep snakes as pets are aware of the snake’s preference for a rodent dinner, but they are more frequently provided with frozen rodents rather than live mice because of their personal preferences or fears that their pets will be injured by food trying to defend themselves.
Mammals
Cats are commonly thought of as the mouse’s greatest adversary, but once they’ve finished playing with them, house cats will not eat mice.
Their feral counterparts and wild cat relatives, however, actively seek out mice for food. Cats, like other species, will consume mice to fill their stomachs. Tigers, lions, and jaguars require more substantial meals, but they will still nibble on them to keep their hunger satisfied. Dogs are not as fussy about eating mice as cats are; nevertheless, they are just as ready to do so in order to survive.
Humans
There is another rodent-eating creature that has been observed. It’s a mammal, but it differs from the others in several respects. This species differs from the other mammals listed above because it does not eat mice. Locals avoid members of these societies because they are located in certain countries and are often shunned by those from throughout the rest of the globe. The human is one of the mouse’s greatest foes, and it is a member of this distinctive species.
Humans, as a species, are perhaps the pickiest eaters on the food chain. Humans’ tastes have evolved to the point where we are repulsed by certain foods, particularly those that are known to be parasite-carrying plague transmitters.
Mice are eaten on a regular basis in certain areas of the world, where circumstances demand that food be acquired where it may be found. Though many of the countries that offer mice on their menu no longer struggle financially, traditional dishes are still served, albeit as cultural delicacies for visiting tourists with strong stomachs. In Vietnam, Korea, China, Zambia, and Malawi, rats are known to be eaten in many ways.
Are Baby Mice Healthy To Eat?Mice are now a trendy source of protein, according to the Austrian Times, having been proven that there’s nothing edible that hasn’t been transformed into a delicacy somewhere in the world. It should be prepared similarly to other meats, just in smaller mouse-sized portions.
It’s possible to eat sewer rats. While you can eliminate many of the pathogens by cooking at a high temperature, rodents still feed on waste and human/animal remains. It is possible to eat cooked rats, although doing so might cause various illnesses and even death if not properly done.
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Baby Mice Care - How to Care for a Baby Pet Mouse?
There comes a time when mice will have babies. That can happen if you breed them intentionally, or it can happen spontaneously. Of course, if you have male and female mice together, it is possible that they breed on their own. That’s when you will have to consider what will happen to babies.
Do Mice Care for Their Babies?
Usually, female mice will take care of their babies. However, on rare occasions, the mother mouse can get hostile towards their young and abandon them. This only happens with young or stressed female mice, and it is not very common behavior.
If the mother dies or is careless about their pups, you will have to step up and provide some care for the babies, if you want them to survive.
The baby mice won’t be able to survive on their own for long. They need tender care, food, and something to drink, or else they’ll die in a matter of days, if not hours.
But many owners don’t know how to care properly for babies, and that’s what we’re here for.
In this article, we’ll take a look at how to care for a baby pet mouse to enable it to survive. If the mother passes away or abandons their babies, you’ll have no other choice.
How to Care for Baby Pet Mice?
If you want to take care of baby mice, the first thing you should do is to provide them with the right temperature. A pinkie baby mouse (without fur) with no mother, will get cold pretty fast and will die due to hypothermia.
The second step is to start feeding them every couple of hours, even at night. You can feed them milk, but the best is to give them diluted kitten formula until they get about 21-28 days old.
You’ll need a couple of things to care for the baby mice:
- A small syringe
- Some old rags or t-shirts, blankets
- A water bottle
- A heating pad (preferred)
- Puppy milk replacement or an equivalent (can be found at most pet stores)
If the mother of the babies has died, or left them to fend for themselves, this is what you’ll need to do to care for the baby mice.
– Keep the Mice Baby Warm
Keeping the baby mice warm is essential for keeping them alive. One of the first things you’ll need to do is to make sure they are warm enough to survive. Babies can be especially vulnerable in this respect.
You’ll need some tools that’ll help you keep the baby mice warm. Of course, a nice, warm blanket can be helpful, as could various rags and old clothes that you can gather. If you can’t maintain the warmth just with that, consider getting a heating pad.
If you opt for the heating pad, you’ll need to be careful. Placing the pad right under the baby mice might be too much and too warm. This can dehydrate the baby mice, which is equally as bad as if they were cold. Make sure the temperature is just right.
– Feed Them Often
For the first few weeks, feeding the baby mice will be crucial for their survival. The baby mice will need manual feeding every two or three hours. As they don’t have the natural source of food coming from their mother, you’ll have to do the feeding here.
In the first three or four weeks, feed the mice babies a special, liquid formula. You’ll need a syringe to feed them, too.
At first, they won’t be able to eat solids, and you should look into liquid foods such as milk replacement or an equivalent (you can ask at your pet store). You can use the evaporated milk, although puppy milk replacement is better.
Get a small syringe that will fit their mouths (a small 1 cubic centimeter syringe will do). Then, dilute the milk with some water at first, and don’t be too aggressive with the feeding.
Feed them slowly, and don’t press too hard on the syringe. After a few weeks, you should include solid foods. Watch for diarrhea as well; the baby mice shouldn’t have it. Instead, the stool should be yellow.
– Always Keep Them Clean
The baby mice won’t be able to take care of themselves just yet. This also includes their hygiene, so it’s crucial that you keep them as clean as possible.
You’ll have to clean any dirt from the baby mice, and keep them as clean as possible.
Gently scrub them with rags or clothes that were dipped into hot water. You can also wrap them in a blanket afterward to keep them as cozy as possible.
Hygiene is also important in this time. Keep their nest clean and keep them away from danger, especially from the male mouse or male specimens of other species that you might have. Keeping them separate might be for the best.
What do Baby Mice Eat?
In their early stage of life, baby mice will eat milk from their mother until they get about 2-3 weeks old. After that baby mice can start eating solid food such as cooked rice and beans, cooked carrots, soft vegetables, and fruits.
If they remain orphans, you can feed them kitten milk formula with a pipet or a syringe. Remember to feed them every two or three hours. This might mean waking up at night, but that’s just what you have to do if you want to keep them alive.
At the very start, the mice won’t have developed their teeth yet, and thus won’t be able to chew on the food.
Later on, after three or four weeks, you should think about including some solid foods. One of the indicators of when you should do this is when the mice start opening their eyes, and you see them grow. You should also note when their teeth start to grow.
At this point, I recommend that you feed them high-quality, healthy foods to help them grow. These foods include:
- Vegetables (kale, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and others)
- Fruits (apples, pears, bananas)
- Seeds, greens
- You can consider rodent foods from the pet store.
Remember that the mice still won’t have the same capacity to chew just yet. Keep the pieces of food very small, or even mix them up into a smooth, liquid mixture.
At What Age Can Baby Mice Start Eating Solids?
Once the baby mice start to grow up, you can start feeding them solids. For me, I started feeding solids at about 4 weeks of age. But during this time, you should still consider keeping liquid foods as a part of their diet.
It’s a pleasure to watch your baby mice grow, especially when you put so much effort in. You should notice big changes after just a few weeks; after about three or four weeks, you should start to notice a big growth, and they will also start to develop their sight and their teeth. That’s when you can start to switch things up a bit.
The human baby formula or the puppy milk replacement can still work. But, you should start to include solid foods that have more nutrients readily available.
This way, the mice will grow faster, and will become healthier. Their teeth will also develop better when you feed them solid foods.
As we already discussed, there’s huge variety when it comes to solids. Vegetables (especially root vegetables) and fruits are great at this point, but you can also include various seeds and greens.
Slowly, you can start to incorporate rodent foods, although that food will come handy later on. For now, focus on the quality of the diet.
Can Baby Mice Eat Cow Milk?
Cow milk can be considered for their diets later on, but it’s not the best food right at the start for the baby mice.
That’s because it just doesn’t have the necessary nutrients to grow the mice. Plus, you’ll risk having diarrhea with the baby mice.
So look for other options instead. Puppy milk replacement, evaporated milk, goat milk, or human baby formulas will work better.
Can You Hold Baby Mice in Your Hands?
The little baby mice will be fragile little creatures. You can hold them in your hands, but you’ll have to be very careful with it. They won’t like to be held at the very start, but you can start holding them in your hand after a few weeks to feed them.
Be careful they don’t slip out of your hand, and wash your hands before you hold them. That way, you get rid of the potentially harmful bacteria that can harm the baby mice.
Conclusion
Seeing your baby mice grow up is a joy to behold. It does take some hard work and effort, but in the end, it will be worth it.
You’ll be surprised at just how attached you can become with the baby mice. After a few weeks, you’ll be in love, and that’s why you should take extra care when caring for the mice.
Traces of animals and birds — LiveJournal
?Vyborgsky district of the Leningrad region.
Please help identify the little animal (not a bird?)
[ Litter ]
The scale on the photo is hard to understand. The overall size of the poop is slightly larger than a matchbox.
Presumably lives (here (but not sure). Collapse)
In the cedar forest today, at the slope into the ravine, the earth is all cleared of grass. Elk, wild boar, goat, bear?
UPD Siberian roe deer
(+ 3Collapse)
Today is a wonderful printed snow, so that even great tits managed to trace and qualitatively on it:).
Look how the fingers have registered...
Moscow, Kotelnicheskaya embankment, overcast, +1 °C.
Is this a common mouse hole? Just the entrance is big. And this branch near the bush nearby - as if on it, when it grew, they constantly walked, crushing it to the ground - and it grew horizontally
Last time I had a question - Who ate a bump like that? Like this -
It turned out that this is a classic according to Formozov - a green immature cone eaten by a squirrel (in the figure on the left)
And here are specimens on this topic from the new crop - squirrels can’t stand it in any way
For example, fir cones, eaten by bpd, or squirrel, or gnawed hazel - this is a classic for me according to Formozov, very understandable, I met it everywhere, I remember. And now in Siberia I meet here such cedar cones, and I break my head - who? Well, a nutcracker is nearby, well, chipmunks, squirrels .. who cuts a bump like that, as if cutting off half? Does not gnaw, does not click nuts, but as if cuts in half
In the forest, under a spruce in the snow, I noticed a trace of some animal.
The trail ended with a hole (sorry!) with poop and animal excrement. For a long time I could not understand whose footprint it was. I went through all the small forest predators: weasel, mink, even ermine. Reminds me of a rat. But no one comes close, everyone has completely different traces. Searched for reference books. It turned out - this is a trace of a black grouse. It is he who leaves such characteristic pits. I managed to photograph black grouse only once, right from the car on the road to the Tulemanjoki River (see the post Black Waters of the Tulemanjoki River). From my house to the place where the black grouse spend the night, only 900 meters.
( Read more...Collapse )
The PDF of N.P. Malkov "Animals of Altai and their footprints in the snow (determinant)", which, presumably, is suitable not only for Altai :).
Read more here.
(+ 3 with Collapse)
Two maidens were walking a ferret in the yard. Fortunately, the snow is now quite printed, I went for the apparatus and took off the traces. Suddenly they come in handy. 9April 2021
| M | T | W | T | F | S | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
- dersoo : Who was that? [+5]
- zly_pies : Whose? [+0]
- eldr : Who was that? [+11]
- prokhozhyj : Parus major [+0]
- eldr : Whose hole? [+3]
- eldr : An unripe cedar cone eaten by a squirrel [+0]
- eldr : Who nibbles on a cedar cone like that? [+2]
- 13vainamoinen : Mysterious footprints under an old spruce [+4]
- prokhozhyj : From interesting things [+0]
- prokhozhyj : 90 [+81]
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Little Mouse Tail. Children's story-tale - Lazy river of flowing creativity — LiveJournal
Tail Mouse
Who lives in the house.
On thin stalks of grass, collected in a bunch, slightly raised above the ground, hung a house. The house was woven and rolled from dry hay. The wind swayed the grass, and the house swayed along with the grass. There was a small hole in the wall of the house. And there lived a little mouse. The house did not get wet in the rain and was not blown by the wind. It was warm and cozy there.
The mouse deftly climbed along the blades of grass into its house, curled up in a ball and slept in it, feeling completely safe. On this day, the little mouse sat in the house for half a day and did not go anywhere. Because she gave birth to mice. There were six mice. All of them had dark skin and a black stripe down the back, and one mouse had white spots on its sides, and the mouse looked like a Dalmatian dog.
But the little mouse did not care about these subtleties. She gently licked each mouse, and the back, and the tummy, and the ears ... The mice had gently pink paws, tails and muzzles. Their eyes were closed, and they lay in a pile, basking in each other. Mice are very gentle and loving mothers.
After sitting with the mice for half a day, the mouse crawled out of the house, carefully looked around, sniffed the air, and did not find any threat for itself. She jumped to the ground, ran around her nest, picking up small prickly burdock seeds that flew out of the boxes, and climbed back into the house. Little mice were waiting for their mother and quietly, barely audibly, squeaked. And the mouse mother also loved them, just as people love their children.
Two days later.
Two days have passed. Tiny mice grew up a little and could already stay alone for much longer. They were warm in their mother's house, their fur was still very short, and their tails and paws were completely bare.
On the paws were fingers that somehow resembled human ones, and each finger ended in a small claw. The mice have not yet seen anything, since their eyes were closed. But they always knew where the mother's milk was, and when the mouse sat next to her children and hugged them, each mouse grabbed a nipple and puffed up with milk so that it turned into a small ball.
The house was very clean. Mommy mouse cleaned the nest several times a day, throwing all the pellets from the mice on the ground away to the side. Therefore, there was no smell of mice from the house and they could not be smelled by a predator. An adult mouse began to graze more and more in the grass, collecting everything edible, not forgetting to look around and listen. She had to be very careful, as she had a house full of children. And she needed a lot of food. Feeding six mice enough milk is an easy task if you eat well every day. Therefore, the mouse ate all the seeds, seeds and grains from all the steppe plants. If a berry came across, the mouse ate it, and bit the grass, and gnawed the bug, since everything around was edible.
15 days. First walk.
When two weeks had passed, the mice were covered with beautiful brown fur. They had shiny tiny eyes, beautiful oval ears and a long tail. A mouse cannot live without a long tail - it helps to climb on the grass and even on the steep walls of stones. She leans on her tail or holds on to the stem of a blade of grass with it, like a hand.
Little young mice were not getting enough of their mother's milk, and they began to look out of the nest, and the most courageous ones jumped out. Mother mouse was always nearby, she had another shelter, since she no longer fit with her children in a small house, and if she heard or saw something dangerous, she chirped gently, and all the mice instantly hid in their grassy nest. But then the day came when the largest mouse left and did not come back. He became independent. The second one followed him, then the third one... and slowly only the smallest mouse, the one that looked like a Dalmatian, began to spend the night in the nest.
It was the middle of July. The grass was thick and appetizing. And early morning came when a man with a scythe appeared in the steppe. He walked on the grass, sharpened his scythe with a special stone, and took it in his hands. And there was a ringing of a scythe and a quiet rustle of grass lying under the feet of a man. And he kept waving and waving his scythe, passing back and forth along the selected area, and a large bald spot appeared, where all the grass was neatly laid in long strips.
The little mouse hiding in his grass house did not know that his shelter could not protect him from the scythe, and was stunned when the house collapsed to the ground.
He heard a childish voice of a girl, the daughter of a man, who enthusiastically said:
-Daddy, look what a small house of grass - and the nest with the mouse went up.
- This is a mouse's house, - the man said, and shook the house with the hole down. And the mouse fell into his palm.
Little girl.
The girl saw a very beautiful mouse, which was covered with white spots, and even a thin tail was in a white-brown stripe. He sat on the palm of a man and looked around in bewilderment. Gone was his familiar world of grass and earth. And overhead, instead of a tent of blades of grass and flower heads, there was the sky and the bright sun. And the little heart of the mouse trembled. He sat on his hind legs and began to wash, licking his pink hands with his tongue and smoothing the fur on his muzzle and ears. He was nervous and thought that if he made the usual movements, then everything would fall into place.
-Oh, dad, how pretty. Small. He must have lost his mother. Let's take him home, - the girl's voice drawled pitifully.
-I think mom will come back to him. You can’t take him out of the house, he will cry, - the man explained and smiled. He has a good daughter, affectionate.
- You mowed down his house. It is necessary to attach the nest in place, then the little mouse will have somewhere to hide, - the girl reasoned wisely.
She took off her belt from her dress, picked up the blades of grass on which the house hung, grabbed a bunch of the tallest grass with her palm and tied the blades of grass with the house to them. And the house began to hang on the grass and sway from the wind, as before. But now it was adorned with a colored red and blue sash of a girl.
The man squatted down, and two heads, a male and a child, watched with delight as a mouse from the palm of a man, at first hesitantly, and then more and more boldly, ran to his house and dived inside.
Father and daughter had dinner, and the girl gathered the rest of the bread into a fist:
-I'll go put a mouse under the house so that he doesn't worry too much, - the girl said, and poured out the crumbs in front of the house, - and now let's go home, don't mow here anymore, that's place is occupied.
- Well, well, we'll have to switch to something else, - the man replied philosophically.
The girl thought and said:
-We need to give the mouse a name, and he will make friends with me.
Let there be tail.
That's how the little mouse found out that his name was Tail. And the girl's name is Katenka, because her father said:
- Well done, Katenka, now we'll come home and surprise my mother.
Fox
The next morning, the little mouse jumped out of the nest and went looking for grass seeds, tasty stalks and, with luck, a grasshopper. Ponytail completely forgot that he met a girl. His memory was too short. The mouse was not yet experienced, so he did not immediately notice that he caught the eye of a red fox. And for a fox to catch a mouse is a matter of minutes. Out of the corner of his eye, Tails noticed a red spot swaying suspiciously, and jumped into the tallest grass. The fox jumped at the same time. She managed to press the mouse a little with her paws, but Tail was saved by the fact that the grass was so thick that it sprung, and the mouse slipped away, running literally from under the fox's nose.
Hiding under a rock near the ant pile, Tail sat quietly for a while, not daring to go outside.
But then he calmed down, and again began to look for seeds. You can't be afraid all day long. And the mouse never for a second forgot to sniff and listen. When evening came, Tails climbed up the grass stalks to his nest, above which the girl's belt was quietly moving in the wind.
And Katenka herself has already told her mother and girlfriends several times how she and her father saved the little mouse and returned the grassy nest to it. It is good that the girl did not know about the fox hunt, since she, unlike the little mouse, remembered him and wished him well.
Neighbors of the ponytail.
The little mouse was surrounded not only by dense grass, ant heaps and a mass of bugs and grasshoppers. Frogs and lizards, birds and snakes lived next to him.
When the little mouse ran on the ground under the thick grass, many eyes followed him. Some of them belonged to harmless frogs, lizards, beetles and small birds. And part of the eyes belonged to those who looked at Tail as if they were prey.
This time, Tail ate a lot of grass seeds, a colza stalk, and two beetles. The bugs were very tasty. And Tail sat for a long time in one place, looking for other bugs in the grass. And he did not hear how thinly whistled in the air. And again the mouse was lucky. At the last moment, he jumped into the grass that surrounded a small bush, and the bird of prey missed. She sat down on the ground, looked around, her eyes sparkling and opening her sharp curved beak, then she opened her huge wings and easily took off from the grass.
And Tail, sitting under a bush, saw that a small frog was sitting next to him. He looked at the frog, and the frog looked at the mouse. Tail poked his nose into the side of the frog, and the frog jumped forward. Tail poked him with his nose again, and the frog jumped so far that the mouse lost sight of him. And Tail forgot about the bird. He rejoiced in the sun, bird songs, tasty bugs and the fact that he was alive and not alone.
An old friend.
If the little mouse forgot about the girl, then the girl did not forget about him. On this day, she again went with her father to the field, where he mowed the grass. A goat Byasha lived in their shed, and she had to be provided with food for the winter. The girl took a piece of fragrant bread with her from home and wanted to treat her Dalmatian mouse named Tail. I just didn't know if he lived in his house.
Here is that field, and that grass with a red and blue belt. And the house is in place. Katenka with a smile, very quietly, went up to the house and called:
- Tail, it's me, - and squatted down so that you could see better ..
Tail was sleeping so soundly in his nest that he woke up only when the girl called his name . And looked out of the round opening of the house.
- Dad, Tail is in his house, - Katenka screamed and completely forgot that the little mouse could be scared. And Tail looked at the girl with his beady eyes, and climbed to the very top of the nest.
He became agitated, and began to wash his pink paws. The girl put a piece of bread on the ground and sat motionless for a long time. So long that Wormtail calmed down, jumped off the nest and began to nibble on the treat.
Funny games
Katenka was very pleased that the mouse Tail is so sociable. She waited until Tail got tired of eating bread, took a straw, and knocked it on the ground. Tail listened, looked at the straw, and jumped on it. The girl laughed softly, and again tapped the straw, and the Tail recklessly attacked and bit the thin grass stalk. Then Katenka decided to stroke the little mouse, and held out her index finger to him. The little mouse was not afraid, he did not let himself be touched, but he climbed onto the little finger of the girl and ran along her hand. Here he is already on his shoulder and sits looking around. The girl cautiously turned her head and looked at the little mouse. Oh, how handsome he is. And Tail looked into the eyes of the girl and washed his muzzle .
. This girl loves him, she comes from such calm that you want to communicate with her.
-Katya, you need to go home, - dad's voice rang out.
- You see, I have to go, - the girl smiled at the mouse and held out her finger to him. And Tail realized that it was time to say goodbye. He jumped on Katenka's finger and the girl carefully lowered her hand to the nest.
What happy moments they were. Little mouse fingers, a weightless body on her shoulder, those shiny beady eyes and pink hands....
The girl was going home and carrying love and tenderness in her heart.
Grew up
July passed, and Tail turned into a fine, beautiful mouse with spotted skin. The girl Katya several times came to the grass house under the red and blue belt, but Tail was no longer there. He began his adult life.
On this day, Wormtail was somewhat restless. He ran on the ground and searched, not knowing what he needed. And then I came across such a wonderful and delicious smell.
This smell led him under the grass to a large bush of prickly rose hips. And there, in the middle of the bush, he saw... a beautiful mouse. Oh, how beautiful she was. Tail forgot about food and sleep. He spent several days next to such a beautiful mouse, and was as happy as ever. They were sitting in a wild rose bush, and the mouse licked his ears and muzzle. And Tail hugged her and washed her pink hands with his tongue and combed her thick fur coat on the sides. And then the mouse went into the dense thickets of grass, and Tails watched with sadness as she collected and intertwined grass and leaves, and a fine grass house appeared on the grass stalks. Almost the same as the Mouse had in his youth.
Then the beautiful mouse finished her nest, and for a couple of weeks she and Tail walked and grazed near the mouse's nest. And again Tail was happy.
People think that only they can love and be loved. But it's not. Animals have the same feelings as humans. They are just as afraid and sad as we are, and they also love each other, even if this love does not last long.
But their life is short.
Yes, Tail was happy. And he did not remember the girl. For him, she was in the distant past. But her calmness and goodwill remained in his heart. Sometimes Wormtail spent the night in his nest, which his mother-mouse had wove so long ago. And just lived.
Life is good.
Tail was very surprised and discouraged when his beloved mouse suddenly climbed into its nest and did not show up for a long time. And then he heard strange sounds, and how tenderly she spoke, and how the strange squeak ceased. Tail wanted to go to the mouse in the nest, but she swore at him and whistled, and Tail spent several days sleeping under her nest, nibbling seeds and berries of wild rose. And then he saw how sharp noses and thin tails began to appear in the hole of the nest. And he understood. He remembered. It was born and already grown mice.
And two weeks later, little brisk children-mice began to jump from the nest. The beautiful mouse left the house, and now Tail was not alone again.
Around them spun a small brood of mice, which every day decreased and decreased. And there were several babies in that brood with white spots, like Dalmatians.
Then autumn came. And winter.
A brood of mice migrated under a small pile that a man had set up. The girl Katya often came to this stack in winter. But she did not know that her friend the mouse Tail lives there. And she simply remembered her joy from communicating with Tail.
All animals, big and small, are needed by our earth. And mice, forest and steppe, are also needed by the earth. Just like the fox, and the hare, just like the man himself.
Afterword.
The baby mouse lives almost all over Russia, except for the most northern regions. She has dense fur, brown with yellow body color. It is about 7 cm long, the same length as its tail. Lives in ball nests made of wicker grass, in which it breeds. Up to 12 mice are born. At 15 days, the young leave the nest. At 40-45 days, mice become sexually mature.
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