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Zebra mice rescued from home containing 100 rodents
Zebra mice are native to Africa and require large cages with lots of enrichment.

Anonymous tip-off alerts charity to rodents kept in unsuitable conditions

A trio of striped zebra mice are looking for new homes after being rescued from a house containing over 100 rodents in dirty cages.

Zebra mice are native to Africa and require large cages with lots of enrichment, including tunnels to play in, houses to hide in and lots of wood to chew.

The RSPCA received an anonymous tip-off about lots of rodents being kept in a home in Birmingham last year. Inspector Jonathan Ratcliffe went to the property in September and found 104 rodents.

“There were rows and rows, stacks and stacks of cages all with rodents inside, from mice to hamsters to rats,” he said. “The owner just wasn’t able to cope any more and signed all 104 rodents over to us to rehome. It took us days to get them out of the house and into rescue centres up and down the country.”

Most of the animals have now been rehomed, but Birmingham Animal Centre is still trying to rehome the three zebra mice - Bashful, Sleepy and Grumpy - as well as marmot mice Cagney, Jonesy and Lacey.

Emma Finnmore from the centre, said: “Sleepy is happy being handled and is quite confident once she knows you. She arrived here with six other mice who were all male so, unfortunately, she is currently being kept on her own.

“Bashful and Grumpy are looking for a home together. They’re both very fast and like to jump so can be quite tricky to handle!”

For information on rehoming, call 0300 123 8585, or visit: www.rspca.org.uk/local/birmingham-animal-centre/findapet

Image courtesy of the RSPCA

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Applications open for MMI research grants

News Story 1
 RCVS' Mind Matters Initiative (MMI) has launched round two of its veterinary mental health research grants.

Researchers have until 11.59pm on Wednesday, 28 May 2025 to apply for a grant for research which reflects MMI's 2025 focus areas.

Only one Impact Grant was awarded last year, and so this year there are two Discovery Grants and one Impact Grants available. Each Discovery Grant is worth £5,000 and the Impact Grant is worth £15,000.

For more information or to apply, email researchgrants@rcvs.org.uk to contact the MMI team.

 

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News Shorts
Germany livestock import ban lifted

The UK government has amended its ban on the import of livestock, meat and dairy products from Germany.

Defra said the decision follows 'rigorous technical assessment' of the measures applied and the current situation. "If the situation changes, we will not hesitate to take necessary action in response to the FMD outbreaks in the European Union to protect our domestic biosecurity," it said.

The ban was implemented in January following an outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) near Berlin. Personal imports of meat, milk and dairy products will remain in place at a country level.