What You Should Think About – Before You Get a Mouse

Mice are small, fragile animals that require careful handling. Children must learn this, and an adult must supervise the handling of the animal.

Cats and dogs are dangerous to mice and should not be kept in the same home as them. A mouse in captivity rarely lives more than 2-3 years.

The tame mouse is a social animal that depends on conspecifics to thrive. It is usually fine to keep two or more mice of the same sex together, and then you avoid unwanted breeding. Mice that are not littermates should be as young as possible when paired. Then they adapt to each other most easily.

Mice become sexually mature when they are between six and eight weeks old, and females come into heat approximately every five days. The gestation period is normally 20-21 days and a female mouse can have 5-6 litters of young annually, with 4-7 young in each litter. If you choose to have mice of different sexes together, it will almost invariably result in offspring. You are then responsible for ensuring that all the museum children get good homes.

Taking Mice on Holiday

You are responsible for ensuring that your mice are properly cared for, even when you are away.

Talk to family and friends about holiday passes before you get a mouse. You should inform the person who will look after the animals about the routines for feeding, cleaning and airing periods. You should also inform which vet should be contacted if necessary.

You can take the mouse cage with you in the car when you go on holiday, but most mice will prefer to avoid transport with cage lifting, drafts from windows and lack of rest. Mice that are weak, sick or have nursing young should not be exposed to transport or other stressful events.

Biology and behavior of mice

The domestic mouse is a domesticated variant of the house mouse. The house mouse is an adaptable rodent found in a high number of subspecies almost all over the globe.

In the wild, they live in family groups of varying sizes and they do not tolerate foreign individuals in their territory. They spend a lot of time getting food, mating and caring for young. Mice are a favorite prey for many predators, birds and reptiles, so they must be constantly on the lookout. House mice are almost omnivorous by nature.

Musa have been domesticated animals and pets for a long time and are therefore calmer than their wild relatives. They quickly become tame and contact-seeking, but have still retained many of their original instincts, such as the fear of loud noises and sudden, falling movements. As vulnerable “prey”, the mouse is always on the lookout for enemies, and it has a great need for security and hiding places. Sight is not particularly good, but hearing and the sense of smell are well developed. Through daily handling and care, the mouse learns the owner’s sounds and smells, and they quickly become trusting.

The white mouse, an albino form of the brown house mouse, is the progenitor of today’s domesticated mice. There are a large number of different color variants and fur types, and mice with extra shiny fur, long-haired or curly fur have gradually become common.

The size varies widely between the different varieties of domestic mice, from the very smallest Japanese dancing mice to the considerably larger English exhibition mice. The domestic mouse is 7-8 cm, with an equally long tail