When to begin free-roam time

by origamisnow Wed 21 Mar 2018, 7:22 pm

I have recently gotten a male mouse and was wondering when a good time would be to let him have free-roam time. He is already comfortable using my hands/arms to crawl around and figured he would love the extra space to explore, but I also don't want to stress him out by introducing him to a new area this early. Any suggestions?

by CucumberMouse Wed 21 Mar 2018, 9:04 pm

When I first started out-of cage time it was about a week after my mouse had gotten comfortable taming. At first I took a few accessories from in his cage into the new play area, to see how he reacted. When he seemed to be okay wondering around, I would start to stop putting items from in his cage in the playpen and replacing them with a few items that didn't have his scent on them. Giving him treats in the play area made him feel a little more comfortable. If your mouse seems very frightened in its free roam area, try sprinkling a little bedding from inside the cage with his scent in there. After putting him in the free roam area and letting him explore for a few minutes for a couple days, he should feel somewhat confident in the area. I know some mice never really get all that excited or comfortable in a play pen, so if he's one of those he might not need as much free roam time. You could try maybe having more often handling sessions, or maybe letting him climb around your lap and such, so he sill gets to explore but in a more safe way to him (because he's doing well with taming and seems okay being around you) if that were the case.

by CallaLily Thu 22 Mar 2018, 8:10 am

Honestly, when I first start taming it’s in the play bin. So I think you’d be just fine introducing him to a safe play area now. I agree that putting something that smells familiar there helps. Good luck. Smile

by origamisnow Thu 22 Mar 2018, 10:00 am

I'll try these and see how he reacts. Thanks you guys!

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When to begin free-roam time

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