Hi i am starting a small non profit pet mouse shelter (i'm 13 almost 14) so if i gave out my adress would i be at risk to pedophiles or people harming me in anyway? I'm going to also have donations if people want to donate money for food and care and does this also sound like a reasonable rehoming fee? 15 dollars for rehoming of the mice and i will have addoption forms this is just to check to see if they will not feed them to snakes or maybe 10 11 dollars? but anyway how will i handle this? like do i have to advertise my adress or just phone number or email? but anyway thank you sooo much for helping me=D
Firstly, good on you for thinking of doing this . Its horrible how many people seem to think that rodents, especially mice are worthless - I keep mice myself, and always go rescue or rehome, and they are lovely, intelligent little creatures. I would suggest if you haven't already taking a while to prepare yourself, to research and make the contacts you'll need to keep supported as although I don't want to put you off, it can be an extremely expensive and heartbreaking venture so you need to be fully prepared.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com To be honest, I'd suggest if you haven't already done so getting in touch with any local shelters, or rescue organisations, or even a reputable mouse breeders to see if you can volunteer and gain knowledge about rescuing before you start this. And it goes without saying, that you will need the support of your parents - otherwise, what happens if you go on holiday? or WHEN you need support, emotionally or financially?
I wouldn't recommend giving out your address given your age I'm afraid. Email and phone (ideally mobile, since its easier to screen calls/change your number) should do it.
I think the next thing you need to do, if you have already had experience of rescues, is make sure you have enough adult contacts to help you out, my friend runs a rescue
http://www.starlighttrust.org.uk/ and I know she relies heavily on other rescues to help out, both with equipment and advice and with transport for helping rodents get to their new homes. The trouble is of course that it takes one bad petshop, and one pair of mis-gendered mice owned by one callous idiot and there can literally be hundreds of mice needing homes in a very short time. I ' ve recently lost two girl mice that came from a huge mouse rescue in wales, over 500 mice running free in the house, all from one original breeding pair!
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com I will add as well that its not likely you'll cover costs even with a donation fee unfortuneately and you need to make sure you know how many animals you can cope with yourself, as you don't want to end up in debt just because you have a kind heart! For a start, please bear in mind that you will NEED a decent, reliable, vet and this can be extremely costly. As you should know, male mice are VERY difficult to keep together happily and the best option for them is to actually get them neutered so they can be in with a group of girls. Otherwise, they are very unlikely to be rehomed. And given you might end up being handed pregnant females, you have every chance of their entire litter being solely male , and all of the same colour, so you'd need a lot of cages to separate them yourself. You also need to be prepared to keep any mice that won't find homes with you for their entire lives.
Sadly, you also need to be prepared to handle sick and dying mice of all ages, and be prepared to be in contact with some truly horrendous excuses for human beings. People who neglect, or torment animals, can be completely unaware of it - so you need to be able to accept injured/sick/dying mice without offering judgement. Other people may feel a sense of shame, I've heard of rescues receiving an anonymous phone call along the lines of 'I've left 56 guinea pigs in a field on xxx road. I heard you could take them in 'so you need to be either able to deal with a situation like that, or to be able to contact someone who can.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com I paid about ￡ 5 for four mice I adopted from BARKS which works out just under 8 dollars, so 15 might be a bit high, but its all to do with what people are willing to pay. You'll need to check the going prices for mice in your area so you can be competitive.
The adoption forms are a great idea, the ones I had to fill in for Starlight are here
http://www.starlighttrust.org.uk/applica ... and for another example, here is the form my friend who breeds rats uses to screen potential homes
http://ramkinrats.apebox.org/form.php. You obviously need to be very knowledgeable about mice yourself, as hopefully you are on the way to being and know about the areas where a lot of people get mouse care wrong.
For example, making sure people will not be keeping them on sawdust, pine or cedar based bedding as this causes serious breathing difficulties, and ensuring that they are kept in barred cages (bar spacing less than 1cm) of a sensible size, not tiny tanks with ventilation problems. There are good mouse forums based at
