Re: training/taming my mice

Brian wrote:
> Any advice on taming the mice to be more comfortable with me? The
obvious
> seems like I should just pick them up and hold them often, but with five
> mice it seems like alot of work and very time consuming.

My strategy is to remove all food from the cage (but leave water).  Be
around to hand feed them a couple of times a day.  Use something
particularly smelly/tasty like cheese.

Start with food in a bottle cap you are holding.  When they are ok with
that, hold the food in your fingers.  Then lay it on your palm.  Small
steps and lots of patience is the key.  But ultimately if you are the
sole source of food, you will win.

I've never tamed more than one mouse at a time, so I don't know how the
group dynamics will work.  Make sure that the scared little mouse in
the corner actually gets a turn to eat.

The only word of caution is to gently curl your fingers out of the way
if they start sniffing your fingernails.  My current mouse had trouble
recognising that fingernails were part of me and were not something to
be chomped on.  Small teeth under the fingernails can be rather painful.