Aaaw! There's nothing quite as sad as a lone mouse. They really need a colony to snuggle with and, for obvious reasons, it's the boys who suffer the most from loneliness. Why don't you contact your local petshops and see if they've got any males (most have heaps of excess boys)? Any old one would do, but your baby boy needs someone to help keep him warm and feeling safe at night. He's incredibly vulnerable right now, but quite able to impregnate every one of his sisters and his Mum to boot! He can't live with them unless you're hoping for a few hundred more babies :EEK:
Does he have a nest? He's probably too young to make one yet, but y'never know. Give him a nest-box and some paper towel to shred - that'll keep him busy for a while. I used to give my lone boys a small cream cheese container with a hole cut in the side (looks like an igloo! LOL!) Even a toilet roll cylinder will do at a pinch, although he'll probably end up shredding that in the end.
Just FYI, you can make really,
really neat mazes out of TP cylinders. You glue them together with hot glue (making carefully sure the glue is scant and absolutely unreachable - the mousies'll eat it if they can get to it). Friends of mine used to sew theirs together with string, but I wasn't that dedicated. Slinkies make a great toy for mice. If you string one across their cage/tank, they'll quickly learn to bounce on it and derive huge enjoyment from it. It's a nice alternative to those awful wheels, which serve no purpose other than to give the mice a serious case of wheel-tail (where the tail becomes permanently held forward in the position determined by the wheel) and anxiety when you take it out for cleaning (the mice become wheel-addicted and show neurotic symptoms when it's not available). For the same reason, it's not kind to use the clear 'exercise' balls people use for mice and hamsters.
You'll have great fun devising toys for your mousies! They like things they can climb on, hide in and swing from. Small lidded containers make great condos - you just cut an access hole in the side of each one, then glue them into a tall condo. The mice will sort out who owns which flat and you'll have fun watching them play. I used to fill each second one with water and freeze them. In that way, the mice could sit in air-conditioned comfort on the hot Australian summer days.
Oh dear. I can feel an essay coming on. I'll shuddup now. But do ask if there's anything I can help with. And
do try and get a friend for your little boy ASAP. Don't wait too long!
