I went to a different pet store than my usual one today because it's on my way home and the other isn't, and I was going to buy Henry a tiki hut. They're chewable and a place to hide and climb. And I saw this little ceramic boot with "chewed" holes in the toes for him to go in and out of, and it was so cute, I had to buy it, too.

I came home and cleaned Henry's aquarium while he hid in his house, and put the new toys in, which he ignored, and after I cleaned bird cages I was getting out some millet for the budgies and thought I'd give Henry some, too. My gosh, he went berserk. He even came out of his sock for millet. He tried to drag the whole spray into his sock with him and munched like he was starving (he's NOT -- he has two kinds of mouse food to choose from already and in fact, was in the middle of his bowl chowing down when I showed up with the millet, when he went into his sock to hide from me). I'm going to remember this and use millet to coax him to come to me. He's had almost a week to adjust to his new home, so it's time to start working on getting him tame now. I read on the Internet that mice like millet, but I didn't know he was going to like it THAT much.

I can see our millet consumption is going to go up now.

LOL, he sounds pretty cute, I hope he'll get braver for you.

I got Toby some rather expensive toys via the net and he is terrified of them. But it's not a complete loss, there are certain places he is not supposed to visit but, like all children, thinks he HAS to. I just put one of the toys there and guess what, now he doesn't want to go there. So the toys work for that purpose atleast. Now he is back to chewing paper and old plastic pens.

I had no idea mice liked millet- great discovery! Food bribery can be a wonderful thing

He did try out his boot last night but he has so far ignored all the chew toys I gave him. I thought mice not only liked to chew up stuff, but had to to keep their teeth in shape. All he's chewed up is some newspaper to fix up his little house with. Maybe gnawing on his food is enough. He has pellets and corn and sunflower seeds in the mix.