Just to be clear, I accidentally thought a Mouse lived in my house. I put out peanuts for it every night. I counted myself lucky when I got to see it.
Then a friend told me that I likely had over a hundred mice, if I was seeing one. To my utter surprise, when I bought a Catch & Release trap, I caught 15 mice the first night.
So, what I’m saying is, this is about my captured, shy mouse who is now my somewhat reluctant pet, not about my house as a whole… I can see how there could be some confusion.
Since I captured my shy mouse he has never tried to escape. He was very young when I caught him in my Catch & Release trap, so maybe he hadn’t yet come to understand what freedom as a mouse was all about.
At first I had him in a Habitrail cage with a Twinings Tea box as his home. He hid in the box if he saw me, and if he heard me coming I didn’t get to see him at all, because he had already disappeared into the little box.
I began to worry about his lungs since the box was so small. It seemed the air inside would be dank from his breathing.
When I bought a larger cage it was easy to move him into the cage because he was solidly hidden in his little box home.
After I bought the large cage he built himself a nest under the platform, so I was going to throw the little box out, figuring it was sodden by that time. But, it was quite heavy when I lifted it. I was startled to think he was still in it, but upon a closer look I saw that he had a huge store of sunflower seeds and peanuts in the box.
What was most clever of him, was that he’d made ventilation holes all along the top edges of the box. I was, and am still, amazed at how well he thought out taking care of himself.
I put the Twining Tea Box with his cache of food back in place.
When it was pretty clear that he likes the little house with its bright colors, I ordered a castle for him of plain wood. I figured he’d like it more if it was bright, like the little house, so I painted the towers red.
Mouse’s castle sits on legs made out of colored spools that are sold for parrots to chew. I wanted the castle on legs because the bedding is several inches thick.
Mouse likes to sit in the castle. In fact, he was going to build his nest in it until he realized that if he looked out the side window his nose was about 6 inches from mine, if I happened to be watching at the time.
I put treats for him in the turrets. They are hollow at the top, so I’ve put a small jar lid in one of them to hold the treats.
The overall cage is by pervue. It’s quite large. Some of the reviewers said that their pets, mainly hamsters and gerbils, had stopped chewing to get out of their cage once they had the larger cage.
The cage is so long that it hangs over the side of my kitchen counter. I have it propped up on by a stoneware jar and some old CDs to get the height just right. I have it at a light angle to keep the Habitrail wheel from falling off… But, Mouse has gone off the wheel at this point. I’m not sure if that’s because it kept falling off and he got hurt, or because he ran so fast the wheel spun him right over the top and around. It sure looked like that could happen.
The little wheel, on the counter in the picture above, doesn’t seem to his liking. I have it up for him instead of the large wheel… but I don’t recall ever hearing him use it. I don’t think it could possibly be Perfectly Silent.
The LED light over the cage has made it really easy to see Mouse at night.
