Hello, I need some infor on the best way to reintroduce two baby wood mice back into the wild.

Basically, about 11 days ago I found two tiny baby wood mice huddled next to the log shed, well my dog did, I believe their mum died the day before because I had a fully grown wood mouse stop on my door mat, the mouse looked very unwell and dopey, perhaps it had eaten poison layed by neighbours it looked at me and didn`t run off, so I ushered it towards some plants for it to die in a safe and comfortable place, then the next day the baby mice appeared, they were fully furred up and around and inch long in the body, one was a lot smaller than the other and this one didn`t run away, the other one ran off but as son as I started to try and lift the tiny mouse it returned and huddled up to its litter mate I couldn`t leave them to die so I put them into a large, high sided clear plastic storage box, I half filled one side with leaves and the other with soft toy stuffing, I scattered husk free bird seed and they ate imediatly, so I knew they were able to eat, they burrowed into the toy stuffing and huddled together for days. They are now a lot stronger and the smaller mouse is the same size as his/her litter mate, they`re getting a lot ore active and I want to reintroduce them to the wild, but I need to know the best and safest way to do it, how old should the mice be? is it okay to relese them in the colder weather?

Please help, I really don`t want to let these little babies down, thank you x

This post was last modified: 06-10-2011 03:22 PM by polly.

I think as long as they are capable of feeding themselves then as long as you release them into suitable habitat they'll be as OK as woodmice can be. Their parents don't look after them once they've been weaned off milk.

Thsanks for getting back to me

It`s getting colder now, do you think it'll be okay to release them in the cold weather, I've got a nicve leafy corner in the garden for them, perhaps if I leave some of the warm toy stuffing for them they might use it to line their nest?

Cold???? In the wild they live out side using tunnels and so on, so I don't see any harm putting them out in the garden now.

Okay thanks, I`ll release them tomorrow I'll just leave their box on its side and let them leave in their own time, I bet they`ll be off in a shot!