What Do Mice Drink? A Look at What Wild and Pet Mice Drink

What to know, what do mice drink in the wild?

What to give your pet mice to drink?

How long do baby mice drink milk from their mothers?

In this article, I’m answering all the questions about mice and what they drink. As well as giving you some tips on how to ensure both wild and house mice have plenty to drink.

What Do Mice Drink?

Adult mice drink water. Baby mice will drink milk from their mothers for around 3 weeks, before moving on to water.

What Do Pet Mice Drink From?

There are two schools of thought when it comes to providing fresh water for pet mice to drink in their cage.

One is giving them a shallow dish, the other is a water bottle attached to the side of their cage.

In my experience, a water bottle is better in every way. Mice tend to contaminate water in dishes by flicking bedding and other debris into the dish, and anything other than a shallow, firm dish will get tipped over.

It’s just easier and a lot less work to attach a water bottle to their cage. Just refill the bottle with fresh water every day when you’re feeding them.

Keep an eye on how much they drink each day too. If you notice the water level is suddenly very different it’s a good indication something is wrong.

What Do Baby Mice Drink?

Baby mice will drink milk from their mothers for the first few weeks.

If you’re caring for orphaned mice there are a couple of options. Your local pet store should be able to help, see if they have some kitten milk that will have all the nutrition baby mice need.

Raw goats milk is also fine. Be prepared, however, you need a little syringe, some patience, and to feed baby mice often throughout the day. (Check this post to see how often you need to feed baby mice.)

What Do Wild Mice Drink?

There are no water bottles being filled up daily in the wild. Wild mice have to fend for themselves, and they are very good at surviving. Even in hot, dry weather.

Wild mice also primarily drink water, just as fancy mice and pet mice do. They will make do with any source of water they can find.

They can survive on very little water. Often making do with licking damp surfaces or finding little trickles or drips.

They also find moisture in plant leaves and stalks and get a lot of their hydration from the foods they find too.

If you’re having problems with wild mice coming into your home trying to cut off their water supply will not work. It’s easier to limit their food sources.

Where Do Wild Mice Find Water?

I touched on this above, there are loads of ways and places wild mice find water. Some of the common places they find water include:

• Inside plant leaves and stalks
• On the underside of gutters, sills, etc, where it’s dark and damp
• Anywhere rain water has collected
• Climbing into guttering and air conditioning pipes
• Dripping taps inside homes
• Underground running water sources
• Rummaging in bins
• Mice will almost always find enough water to survive in the wild. Even in dry, arid conditions.

If you have a family of wild mice in your garden and want to help, however, I’m sure they won’t say no to a saucer of water.

How Much Water Does a Mouse Drink per Day?

Adult mice will drink approximately 5-8 ml of water every 24 hours under normal conditions.

Lactating females will drink double this to keep up with producing milk for their young. As will some mice in extremely hot temperatures.