I found out I found a rat, not a mouse!?!?

Question

Okay, yesterday I found a little baby 'mouse', with no fur, no eyes opened, and an umbellicle cord still. It had cuts and scrapes, so I brought it home, put it in a shoe box, nestled on a blanket. I am feeding it goats milk out of an eye dropper (found that I needed to from research). The problem? Well, I just today found out it's not a mouse, it's a rat. I figured it out because I compared pictures of a mouse and a rat, and it looked more like the rat. Also, its ears are that of a rat's, not a mouse. Is there any different way I should be treating it? If so, what should I do?

Answer 1

keep feeding it the goats milk. whether its a rat or squirrel, the diets are pretty similar. once you figure it out you can but the proper food. you should stop the milk in about 5 1/2 weeks. at in 4 weeks, try feeding it applesauce and a small amount of dry food along with the milk. you should know what it is in a couple of days. rats begin to grow hair at age 7-9 days. good luck.

Answer 2

So long as you are still happy looking after it for a bit, I don't think you should do anything different. But if you dont plan to keep it after I would release it well away from your house...

Answer 3

If it's a squirrel, it will already have very obvious black claws. The babies are about the same size. But the squirrel's legs would start getting a lot longer than the rat, so would it's tail.

Where did you read that you need goats milk? Goats milk is not very good for rodents. Soy human milk or KMR are much better. A baby rodent is not going to survive on goats milk for long.

http://www.ratfanclub.org/orphans.html

http://www.squirreltales.org/

The instructions for baby rodents is about the same, you just have to add more food for bigger animals.

If you have never raised a baby rodent by hand before, you would probably contact a vet or a wildlife rehabber. It can be very hard and you wouldn't want to kill it by doing it wrong. Since it's a newborn, you will have to get up and feed it every 2 hours until it's about a week old, and then you can slow down to about every four hours. And then at three weeks you can do it every 6 hours. But you have to get up, even at night.

And remember that bottle-raising wild animals without a license is actually illegal.

And please don't listen to Moey. I don't know where she is getting her information, but this is about the fifth time I've seen her give terrible advice to someone.

Rodents raised on goat's milk are likely to develop Metabolic Bone Disease or other malnutrition problems because goats and rodents have DIFFERENT DIETS.

Answer 4

Taking the babe's best interests at heart, I'd take him to your local vet so he can get proper care and nutrition. They also have experience and direct medical help should he need it. Especially because he has cuts and scrapes!

A just born needs scads of attention - a blanket is not enough. He would also need fed every half hour or so. All the time. I'm not very optimistic about him - with him being damaged, he doesn't have quite a good chance. But he'll have lesser chance still if he doesn't get proper care. I'm not saying your incompetant, but taking care of any baby, especially animal ones, requires a lot of experience and time.

Answer 5

If it is a rat here is a link of things you should to do keep it alive.

http://www.ratfanclub.org/orphans.html

If it's a mouse here is a link.

http://www.thefunmouse.com/info/orphaned...

If it's a squirrel.

http://www.orphanedwildlifecare.com/

Good luck to you and your rat/mouse/squirrel. =]

Answer 6

cute! well if goats milk is as runny as regular store bought milk then DO NOT give it that, it is to runny so u will downed it, feed it some banana baby food, maby mix a bit of milk but only if  u need to