There are a number of ideas on the best tame wild mice. Some people say you should "bribe" the mouse with treats until the mouse comes to trust you. I did this with CC when she was young. I would put my hand in the cage with treats on it so she would have to actually get onto my hand to get the treats. Eventually she would sit on my hand eating treats. After a while I slowly raised my hand while she was sitting on it. When she noticed that I had lifted her up, she jumped off. The next time I put my hand in the cage with treats for her, she came up and bit me, as if to say "I didn't like it when you raised your hand up." Some mice can be coaxed and some just can't. This article talks about different ways to tame a wild mouse. Please remember, just because a technique works for one mouse doesn't mean it will work for another. Mice are as individual as people and their responses will vary.

I received and email from Ed about how he use to tame wild mice. I asked him if I could include his comments on taming wild mice in my FYI. I've never heard of anyone successfully taming wild mice to this degree and hope others can benefit from his experiences.

Ed: I went to your website. I used to catch and tame field mice when I was a kid, had a few for many years.

Paul: Did you really manage to tame wild mice? I have trouble taming mine and they were mostly born in captivity. Glad you enjoyed the Mouse Ranch.

Ed: Yes I was able to tame them. I would start by handling them with cloth gardener's gloves as many times a day as time would allow. I would take them out of the cage and let them crawl on me while feeding them (holding them by the tail so they couldn't run away).

After a week or two I could take off the gloves and after another week or two I could pick them up and handle them with no problem. I had one that would spend hours riding on my shoulder, I even took him bike riding with me.

To find out more about Taming Wild Mice, eMail Ed Hofler.