Animal House

Hide and Seek

2006-02-26T06:29:00.000-08:00

As you maybe found out by now (after reading older posts) sometimes the mice escape and try to run for it.

The first thing what happens when a mouse jumps on the floor is that i close the door so that it can't get out of the room.

After that the hunt for the poor mouse can begin....

Some times the mice are smart even smarter then i thought. The racks where the cages are on have a metal frame and guess what that frame has some holes on the bottom....
So once i was trying to catch a mouse on the run and i saw it sit on the wheel of the mouse rack, but then it was gone.

Hmmmmm. so i searched and searched but no mouse. but after a while it was back and then again i was trying to catch it and then i saw where it went. In the frame again.

So next time when it came out i made sure that the way to the hole in the mouse rack was out of reach of the mouse and this little mouse got back in it's normal cage.

What a nice way to spend you day playing hide and seek with a mouse.

Escaping mice

2006-02-13T01:32:00.000-08:00

Remember those world war II movies where the prisoners tunnel there way to Freedom?

This story is almost like that.

One day i look through the door window in an animal room and see a mouse walking on the floor.

OOPS where does that one come from. So i go in the room catch the mouse and leave the room. Then the next morning again i look through the little round window in the door and see again a mouse on the floor.
Of course i also go out and catch this one. Ok strange but true all the cages where closed properly and i didn't find any other loose once.

But then when i start changing the cages i find an empty cage..... and the card says that there should be two mice in that cage.

And then i see what happened. This cage has a big hole in the bottom corner, big enough for a mouse to get out. I never found out how the hole got there (the cage is from hard plastic) but i found there escape route.

Target-less Rockets

2006-02-09T02:44:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you have those cages with small mice in it that are very jumpy, so jumpy that they jump out of the cage on to the floor.

And then most times they just lie there not knowing what to do.

But sometimes they are scared and try to avoid being caught by me.
And then they are like a rocket without a cause they just run from one part to another, sometimes they even run right in to your hands.

Those little mice are so funny, they can barely see but still have a will to escape!

A big ball of fur

2006-01-28T01:15:00.000-08:00

Sometimes when you look in one of the mouse cages you only see a BIG ball of fur. And a head poking out.

It almost looks like all the mice are asleep and one of them (most times in the middle) is on guard.

It is funny how those mice look so big when they join together.

Sleeping on the Job

2006-01-26T09:40:00.000-08:00

Today while changing i found a mother mouse fast a sleep on top of a stack of hungry baby mice. And they where still eating. It took me a small push to wake her up so that i could move her and her babies to a new cage

Warm and Wet

2006-01-18T07:58:00.000-08:00

One day I come in the the Animal Facility and find a note on the door that someone saw a loose mouse running around.

So what to do then. You look and look and look some more and find Nothing!

There is so much space to hide for a mouse.

But then a couple of days later on of the Dishwashers tells me that it needs new washing liquid. So i open the drawer and two eyes look at me from a nest constructed from the insulation material of the dishwasher.

The little guy was living here. Of course water available and nice and warm. I guess this will be the first place to look next time.

how do you mean lazy?

2006-01-17T07:14:00.000-08:00

The rats are getting bigger and bigger in our animal house. And they are not the most active animals I know.

But they are smart. Now they are just lying on their back under the food tray and eat like that. Now they only have to chew.

Happy to see mee

2006-01-15T09:21:00.000-08:00

This Sunday I went for a quick visit to the animal house. And the Rats where so happy to see me.

Normally they are to lazy to get up but this time they where all standing and looking and sniffing.

See at least someone is happy to see me at work on Sunday.

Scary isn't it

2006-01-06T07:57:00.000-08:00

Mice are not real hero's.

You put a little distraction in the cage (the inside of a toilet roll) so that they have something to hide. And guess what they do. they walk around it and don't even dare to come close.

Ok after a couple of hours they start to get tired and they start to smell it and then again nothing happens.

But the next day the pushed it to a corner and they go to opposite corner to sleep.

Poor mouse i only try to make your life a bit more fun.

Funny mouse story

2005-12-30T07:45:00.000-08:00

How true is this.

Mouse Story..a message. A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.

"What food might this contain?" The mouse wondered - he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning.

"There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house -- like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.

The snake bit the farmer's wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital, and she returned home with a fever. Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.

But his wife's sickness continued, so friends and neighbours came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer's wife did not get well; she died. So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you, remember -- when one of us is threatened, we are all at risk.

We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.

Racing Stripes

2005-12-16T08:29:00.000-08:00

What do you get when a black and a brown mouse mate?

Yes a brown mouse with black lines on it. Today with changing i noticed that the Young's of a black father and brown mother have real cool striping on their bodies and they have it all at the same spots around the back legs and back. It's funny to see. It looks like a very fashionable mouse.

Animal life

2005-12-15T11:42:00.000-08:00

Working in an animal house is kinda fun. For me it's just a temporary job (to help out) but i can see that this job could be very satisfied.

For me the animals are the most fun. It is nice when you enter an room full of cages with mice that they come look at you when you get in front of their cage. Put stand up against the plastic and try to smell you especially when you put your head close to the cage.

Or the bond you get with a rat. A rat that every day wants some attention and loves it when you open his cage for a while. He loved to be bet and likes to stand up and smell his surroundings. And never even try to get out of his cage.

You see what i mean these animals are not here on their own free will but i often wonder if they even know that their could be a better life for them.

Water proof

2005-12-14T04:52:00.000-08:00

It's funny but mice seem to be water resistant. It happens often that when you get the top of the cage of that a drop of water falls on a mouse. And that drop always just keeps there in one piece.

Maybe it's just the hair structure but it is pretty cool to be water repellent if you ask me.

Claw (3)

2005-12-09T03:32:00.000-08:00

Lets do another claw story. For now the last one because i change rooms so these mice will be new to me and don't know my hand.

Ok when changing this time i put my hand closer to the side and basically forced the mice to move through it (they of course had other ways but then they needed to turn around.

So this time most mice walked under my hand and some even stayed to hide. To me this means that they really start to get used to it. Maybe i will start some new experiment with my new mice.

I keep you all informed.

Swimming 3

2005-12-07T08:46:00.000-08:00

Ok the last post about the mouse that floods his cage.

They tried a new way to get this guy to stop emptying his bottle. They gave him a female. And guess what........

It's didn't help his is not interested at all in the female mouse his job is to keep us caretakers busy by emptying his water bottle.

He just wait for a new bottle and then start jumping up and down in the opposite corner and you just see the bottle slowly emptying out.

What a smart guy this mouse.

Shrinking mice

2005-12-05T08:41:00.000-08:00

Some women in this world will be so jealous with mice.

You see those pregnant mice walking around all big and round (and i mean real BIG) sometimes it almost looks like they are 3 times there size.

But then another wonder on nature happens they give birth and then they are just back to their normal size. Without closely looking at these females you can't see that they gave birth. It's funny how they just shrink back to their normal size

Swimming 2

2005-12-02T05:44:00.000-08:00

Guess what. The mouse from yesterday was wet again.

Why does this poor creature like to get wet so much?

A well he got a dry cage and a new water bottle and now only hope it will be dry for a while.

I put some food in his cage (instead of only in the feeder) and that seem to keep him
busy for a bit.

Swimming

2005-11-30T08:17:00.000-08:00

Sometimes a mouse (or a couple of them) get unlucky and the water bottle leaks so then the cage get wet and they get wet feet (they normally don't drown because there is enough straw to absorb the water)

But the last two days i have a handy mouse. This one is able to get his bottle to leak. In the last two days he got 5 bottle to leak so that meant for me changing this mouse 5 times.

It has to be said this mouse is very smart. Before he make the bottle leak he first moves a lot of the straw in a corner so that he sit high and dry.
You wonder what that mouse is thinking.

Lets hope he is still dry tomorrow.

The Claw (2)

2005-11-29T06:58:00.000-08:00

After some more changings or cages the mice seem to get use to it a bit. But some mice are changing their view on things. Mice that first didn't have a problem with my hand being there are now scared of it.

Let see what happens later on in the week when i change them again.

The Claw (1)

2005-11-24T07:03:00.000-08:00

Today I started a little experiment.

When changing the mice to their new clean cage I put my left hand as a claw in
the new cage that way it looks like a little home.

Then i start moving the mice. Today i noticed that most mice don't even bother or are afraid of it. But some mice (mainly the white once) don't mind it and even go look in it or move my fingers away.

I wonder what happens if i keep doing this will they remember?
I will keep you all posted about this little mouse adventure.

Will be continued next week!

Personality

2005-11-22T04:46:00.000-08:00

Strange but true mice seem to take the personality of their owner.

I noticed it a couple of times that the mice seem to copy the personality of their
owner. Same strains of mice act different if they are from a different person.

So is it very easy to change the mice of a calm person. Sometimes you can just take
all the mice out of the cage by picking the group up.

While in cages of more active people you can just only take one at a time and also only on their tale.

It's funny to see how mice seem to adjust to their owner.

Air-miles

2005-11-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

Some of the mice here in this animal house traveled more then most of the
people of the world.

They come by plane from place like Japan, Belgium or USA.
Hmmm. I would like to have some of those air miles.

You wonder how those little mice experience traveling. I don't think they
really care or maybe even notice it, at least when they arrive here they
seem to do the same things that the other mice here do.

Taking care of each other

2005-11-18T06:54:00.000-08:00

Today a mouse came back from an operation and it was still a sleep from the anaesthetics they gave it.

The nice things was that his room mate was worried about him and try to take care of him and came lying close to him. It was so sweet to see how this mouse was so concerned about his friend.

Tail in the air

2005-11-17T06:48:00.000-08:00

Funny those little scared mice.

If the mice are just a couple of weeks old then they are very scared for anything.
Of course they are also scared of changing. So what they do they start jumping and walking like crazy in the cage, but the most fun is that they point there tail in the air when they do this.

And the pointing of the tail makes it easier for me to grab them by their tale and put them in their new home.

Hold on we are flying

2005-11-16T03:00:00.000-08:00

Some mice are smart. And they notice when it's changing day and they know that they will got lifted on their tail.

So in some of the cages the mice get smarter and think hmmmm. what if i hold myself on the top.
and YES that works nobody needs to hold them on their tale they just fly from cage to cage (top move to the new cage).

This is easier for everybody. The mice don't need to get caught and lifted on their tale and the cleaner doesn't have to lift them.

Everybody seems to be happy with this sollution.

Swiming

2005-11-15T03:09:00.000-08:00

Today I found a cage of unhappy mice.

Sometimes it happens that a water bottle leaks and then you will find a wet cage the next morning. It's not that there is enough water to make the stand in water but still they don't like it.

So also this cage was not verry happy and where just hanging on the top so that they didn't get wet feet.
This means quickly chaning them in a nice and dry cage with a fresh bottle of water. Now i only hope that this one will not leak.

Don't listen

2005-11-14T03:05:00.000-08:00

There is one Rat in this animal house that i try to give a bit more attention (it's the only one allone in a cage)

Normally i get his top of for a bit and talk to her. So then she looks arround and sniffs.
This go's really well and normally she just keeps in her cage. But not today, today it was climbing day.

The Rat wanted to get out so i just was quick enough to get it by the tail and put it back. And of course said some words to it.

After that the Rat is mad at me it doesn't even look at me no more. A poor rat maybe next time i let it go (for a bit)

See no tail!

2005-11-09T11:06:00.000-08:00

Some of the mice we have here have either a real short tail or no tail at all.

So what do you do if you normally take the mice on their tail to clean them?
No problemo these mice don't bother to be changed some of them even just walk on to your hand when you put it down in their cage.

Hmmmm. live of an animal caretaker is so easy sometimes.

Looking

2005-11-08T02:57:00.000-08:00

Some mice are just like humans. They really want to know what is going on in the world.

There is one room with a cage with 3 brown male mice.
So as soon as they notice that there is something happening in the room the start hanging on the top and looking what is happening. Just 3 little mice hanging there and pocking their nose our ot the cage.

Mouse Fingers

2005-11-07T11:58:00.000-08:00

Baby mouse a so cute. Today I was changing some mice and i got a handful of 1 week old baby's. So when i put them in there new cage i found 3 of them holding on to my fingers and not letting go.

It's so sweet to see those small little mice hanging on your fingers.

I don't want to

2005-10-31T08:40:00.000-08:00

I do some work in an animal facility and a big part of my work is changing mouse and rats.

So today i was chaning a cage with nice white mouse and there where some young mouse (couple of weeks old) and they never like to get coucht. And also this time one of them was to fast for me. I thought ok let it be i first do the baby's and then the little guy didn't want me to do that so he jumped in my hand. Easier it can't get for me.